Hi Folks

[Danté 2.5 WRX]

Hi,

I've previously been a Forrester driver for a good number of years because the vehicles are great for carting my fishing gear and musical instruments to where they need to be. I recently decided that I could fit my gear into an Impreza, well that's the theory, the wife believed me anyways lol.

I found an 06 hawk eye with 35k and a service history which suited my funds and looks as though it has been looked after. Having test driven the vehicle, it was game up, I had to have it.

I have had many hobbies in my lifetime and generally border on being obsessive with anything that is a challenge with reward. Iv'e had the car for three weeks now, and have become well acquainted with most of the very minor imperfections and have ironed most of them out and would now like to begin exploring what else I can do to the car, and learn a lot more about it.

The engine bay was reasonably clean when I took delivery of the car, but I've been on it for a few hours now and have begun making the car my own, with a little bit of what might be construed as an almost 50 year old man's insanity.

I have read many articles on this site, and found the place pretty friendly and frequented by people who have a lot of good information to share. My first question is about the short fat hose which exits the inter cooler, right next to the dump valve. I want to replace it with a more colourful version and can only seem to find the STI one when I search the web. Are they the same size? as the one on the WRX.

The car is fitted with a Hayward and Scott exhaust system and has the K&N filter upgrade in the original air box. I'm not sure of the power output, and what other subtle changes have been made to the set up. A friend of mine who is more experienced with the cars reckons it's a bit too quick just to have had nothing more than the air intake and exhaust mods.

I had the red mist at the weekend, by way of feeling the need to paint the dump valve and inter cooler(sad but true).

Anyways, I won't ramble on, but do want to say a warm Hi to anyone who is interested in the fact I have begun participating here.

All the best

Danté

[hunter20ga]

Welcome...and enjoy that WRX! I'm rather new here myself, and while my avatar is a draft horse, I'm driving a WRX, too. It's fun.

[josnroh]

Congrats on the WRX.

[TheJ]

Welcome to the club.


You may want to explore the links in my signature.

[poly_poly-man]

Dear TheJ... you no longer have links in your sig? EDIT: oops, it was over to the right a bit - could not see on my phone's screen this morning.

OP: Welcome to the club, and I think you'll find that the wrx is open to so many modifications that you're going to end up with a totally unique car - even if two of you both go all out for the perfect parts, that'll be different for both of you.

Check out unabomber's manifesto (the one on nasioc silly ); one of TheJ's links was likely to this. This will give you generic information on different mods. To get more information on specific products, go to a store or two and check out the products - I use rallysportdirect, although they are seriously lacking in certain brands.

The best advice I can give is to PLAN. First, figure out what your goal is... show car? track car? rally car? drag car? dd with a bit of extra power for auto-x? Just figure out what you want generally of the car - and go specific... what about noise vs. power? fuel economy vs. power? straightline performance vs. handling?

Then, draw up a list of specific products that you want,, and get them in some order. You don't need to plan everything, but go at least several steps ahead.

Finally,, STICK to your plans. Unless it really makes sense on a sale, avoid the temptation to do your later mods early.

I hope this gives you some ideas as to how to do car mods... good luck, and most importantly, have fun with the car!

[EJ257]

Welcome to the site

[Danté 2.5 WRX]

Thanks Hunter, I've not gotten as far as sorting an avatar yet, yours wasn't what I expected, but certainly stands out. Yes the WRX is fun to drive, my forester was a 2.5 XT turbo vehicle so not too sedate for a practical car. Nice to meet you.

josnroh, Thanks for the reply,I enjoyed looking at the pictures, all the best to you.

TheJ, thanks for the links, I'll have a good look through the info, thank you.

poly_poly-man, Thanks for your reply, lots of advice which makes sense, I appreciate it. I'm not fussed about speeds much over 100mph with my car, it's way fast enough at that end of the scale for where I'm gonna be driving it. What I do want is the quickest 0-80mph I can muster, and for the car to corner like it's attached to the tarmac. I am wondering if my desire for a very rapid take off has to be linked to the over 100mph capability or if I can actually concentrate on making the car go like a cat with its ass slapped from a standing start as a focused priority. I appreciate that tyres will make a difference for launches and keeping the whole thing nailed through bends. I really need to know which areas to look at which will give me the greatest gain in initial acceleration for the least amount of fuss/cash before I starting chasing the more elusive bhp which will require more cash and effort to attain. I'll get a few things done and then invest in some suitable tyres and live with the car's performance for a bit while I personalise some appearance aspects. I don't want more power than I need, but I do seriously need to see off most other manufacturer's vehicles from a standing start and through the bends so that's what I'm looking for. Thank you.


EJ257, thanks for your reply, and the links, I'll have a good look around the sites over the next day or so, I just been working a long stint, so my priority is thanking everyone here for the replies before I chill for a bit and eat as I'm whacked, so need to refresh for another tough day tomorrow.

Many thanks

Danté

[Sasquatch]

Greetings and welcome to the Club!

Another clean engine bay ...

[Danté 2.5 WRX]

Thanks Sasquatch, good to meet you. Yep, the engine bay is where I head once I have used my fuel quota and still have car time on my hands, and run out of stuff to do on the outside of the car. I'm toying with the idea of getting an active sub bass unit for the boot, which I can take out as and when it's not a priority so will have to look around this site to see if there is any info which will give some indication where I might best pick up an output from the standard CD/radio/tape unit that's in the car. Eventually I'll replace the door speakers with something better, but I figured a reflex bin placed somewhere in the car would be a real easy sound upgrade for the time being.

cheers

D