STi for everyday use???

I respectfully disagree. He drives his car to and from work everyday. He has the 530WHP dyno slip to prove what he has done (admittedly w/ n2o...but

530 none the less). What has he done...lets see...60 trim turbo (I think), FMIC, C16 race gas for 530 WHP, clutch. He had some head work done, and a catless exhaust. Of course he has fuel management as well. His coworker (actually co-owner since they own tuner shop in town) did a 500+ WHP dyno run w/ a similar setup. They both race their cars on the weekend and then drive them during the week. Does stuff break sometimes? sure. But DSM stuff is cheap to fix.

By outperform I meant out accelarate, I know I used bad wording, my bad, flame away.

See, now I actually like the way the Evo rides, feels more aggresive to me, but that is just a preference I guess.

Oh yeah, no doubt, it deserved that title. *I* however felt let down when I drove it, maybe I felt it was overhyped, I dunno. Or maybe I expected it to decimate my WRXs only to find out it didn't.

I agree w/ that point. Though there are getting to be more and more that can.

Especially w/ stock tires, I agree 110% there, but give it some good winter tires and it does fine.

See my other responses for why I stated what I did.

Stock, you are right, the STi wins most times. For the difference in price however, it is a lot closer than you might think.

message

6K in mods - what did you have, something like a TurboXS Stage 4? VF22 + injectors, UTEC, exhaust, FMIC, etc?

A friend of mine just traded his WRX (txs stg 4+) for an STi because the WRX just couldn't get out of its own way below 4k RPM. The STi with an exhaust would mop the floor with his WRX in "street" driving and would get around a road course far faster. In the 1/4, the STi's turbo runs out of steam at high RPM, so his WRX was a bit faster through the traps than a stock STi, though.

You can always get a better deal on raw performance by going aftermarket. Hell you can get a cheap old starion turbo and through a total of 8 grand at it and probably run 11s. But there's something to be said for starting with a better base. I think the STi's tranny and 3 (good) limited slips are worth the $6k price difference from the WRX. The EJ257 is a bit of a copout though. Would have been nice to have thicker cylinder walls from the Japan-spec STi's EJ207.

APS FMIC (1400), Element Tuning ECU (1300), APS CAI (225), Tein Suspension (1200), FP 18G Turbo (900), Injector Mod (Free), Fuel Pump (~90), Hotchkis Sway Bars (225), Perrin/Wilwood Brakes (1400). Up/Down Pipe w/ 3" Exhaust (~750). Oh...and this one is an automatic so Higher Stall Torque Convertor (450)...LOL. Definately a more reliable tranny than the 5spd, but not than the 6. I will give you that. And for most racing applications (except 1/4 mile) I would say the 6spd in the STi is worth the price of the car by itself...for some dumb reason I wasn't even thinking of that when I posted. My bad.

Yeah, my thoughts too. Even though I am contemplating switching to a sleeved/stroked EJ257 as I primarily drag race and as the old saying goes, there is no replacement for displacement.

Yeah, the 6 speed gets on my nerves at the track. It sucks having to shift into 5th stock, and 6th after a turbo.

But it proved its worth on the autocross course today - it was perfect for

2nd gear, but the WRXs had to keep shifting between 1st and second. (or rather, instead of shifting, they suffered intolerable turbo lag and were never in boost).

Sounds like you have a pretty nice setup - I'm getting a green soon. The stock turbo is puny...

Thats putting it mildly that it is puny. And the TMIC is just about worthless IMHO. 2nd gear works pretty good for me at the autox as well, even 1st is good at times if the course is small and tight. I have some dyno time coming up this weekend, I'll have to post my slip to a website and drop a link here when I get it all said and done.