Perth-WRX.com - The Retsurrection

Now that I had a chassis sorted, time to look at the drivetrain. At this stage I was still going through the many considerable engine options, over and over in my head. 2L, 2.2L, 2.5L, 3.3L twin turbo H6 etc. LS7 swap? 4 haybusa engines? The list goes on. Whilst I was wildly known for incredible mechanical sympathy, somehow I still had a few shaft snappings to my name. Granted I did manage to shear both front outer CVs within a week of each other (1 at Rexpo on the display run, GG), but surely that was someone elses fault. Regardless, I decided that I would like more reliability, and as much as it hurt me, reliability costs weight. So much weight :(

To start with, the rear R160 and shafts would have to go, as they are the weakest link. R180 rear diff & shafts is the upgrade. I would also like better fronts. By the time you start adding all kinds of custom solutions, this gets kind of expensive. I had considered the GDBe+ 5x114.3 upgrade, but that's also a lot of money. The PCD changes so you need new wheels, new brakes, the upright has different sized mount points for the suspension so you have to get new struts / modify your current ones (Like Tino did to his Ohlins), these all add up. Then it struck me.. duh retard, you have already sold your 2 sets of wheels and coilovers, now is the perfect time! I sold off the existing 2 pot rears and R160 LSD. Then my wallet cried, and I imported the motherload: what was essentially an entire 05 STI SPEC C running gear, minus engine, brakes and chassis. After selling off a 6 speed I didn't need, I was left with 5x114.3 hubs, front and rear ally control arms (mmm spares), front and rear Spec C cross members, sway bars, pedals and tastiest of all, Spec C steering rack. So tasty.

Fits in the boot nicely!

[img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7894/dscn0394mc.jpg[/img]

mmm rack

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img254/1209/dscn0395s.jpg[/img]

For rear brakes, there really was only one solution. STI Brembos and oem discs were sourced. For the fronts, I am going to keep my Prodrive By Alcon brakes, and redrill the existing two piece disc to the new pcd. In the mean time, for rims I grabbed a set of stocko 17" 05 STi gold wheels, but ended up swapping them with Craig (Spektre) for his grey ones. I plan to respray these bright pink as I think pink wheels on a white sedan is a great idea.

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img90/8554/dscn0400n.jpg[/img]

Next up - suspension. I was never entirely happy with my DMS40's, I always wanted to up the spring rate. Now I needed something that fit the later model hubs, and could handle some motorsport work. I consider options like cheap coilovers, but I didn't want some cheap chinese/taiwanese whatever crap in my car. I've done my best so far to avoid china copies and I'm still not convinced they are a solution for motorsport. Everything I was looking at was $4-10k and I couldn't justify that much when the car was still many months away from even rolling. In a swoop deal, I picked up a set of 05 STI struts that came with pink springs. As these are made for a much heavier car, the spring rates are impresivly higher, they work out for be 14% front and 20% rear [i]more[/i] than the factory DMS springs (something like 70% stiffer than GC8 oem). The fronts fit right up to the GC chassis, the rear's will need some modifications. The pinks are lower than the factory springs, but I think the car will still be sitting very high for the time being

Stiffy.

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img51/7965/dscn0391m.jpg[/img]

This leaves me with a few things still left to do/source:
-3.54 R180 LSD - waiting to find the right one
-Clutch (my previous one was already on its last legs) - likely a twin plate of some description
-Get my front rotors re-drilled
-Various bushings that I will find along the way that I have sold / gone missing etc.
-Sway bars, I am likely to sell off the Spec C ones (Cat?) and the whiteline ones I already have.
-An engine, lol

And that should be the car mostly sorted for mechanicals.

Then comes getting the body, interior and my least favourite, wiring sorted