Well, at least you’ll look good in this Subaru while wearing a neckerchief…

Some things just shouldn’t be “customized” on a Subaru… especially on aWRX / STi. While this car should be filed under “I was watching Jimmy Kimmel Live while heavily influenced by a controlled substance” I can’t say that it’s not ‘unique’. As I tore my eyeballs out of my socket and started a diatribe / inner monologue about how this is just wrong, it resembles a horrible train wreck with scattered body parts laid upon its surroundings.

I never drove around my own Subaru thinking “You know what my Subie needs? A drop top on this fly-ass whip.” Mind you, this is a BRAND NEW STi. Meaning that this car is already $35,000 out the door.

But, do not fret! If you ever find yourself on some drugs or have been severely beaten with a blunt object and the part of your brain that gives you common sense has been damaged, you can have this gem of a Subaru for $90,000.00. What a bargain!

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Get yourself a “Get More G’s” Tennis Ball Topper! Limited time!

Our good friends at Subaru of America is giving away the “Get More G’s” Tennis Ball Antenna Topper! It’s for free and when we get ours, we’ll post up pics!

Click on the image or click HERE to get your free Tennis Ball Topper!

Wrecked interviews Jason Cancio. Father of a drift GRB! This is so full of win.

Our friends at Wrecked featured one of the most unique drift machines. We don’t often see a GRB in a RWD fashion. They did an interview with the driver and owner of this amazing machine and here’s what Jason Cancio did to get it become a slide machine:

I spent almost $4K just to get this car sideways. <—- That was difficult. Haha. First of all, I told Ray at Garage Autohero what I wanted to do to my car. He told me I would need a center differential sleeve, and clutch type rear diff center. So, I did my research. That was a pretty difficult part because Watanabe Service were the ones who made the sleeve, and they didn’t make a sleeve for the 08 STI, the latest model they made it for was the 07 STI. So I took my chances and bought it anyway because I just wanted this car to be done. And thank god it worked! Front axles were taken apart so the stubs were left in the transmission to keep from leaking oil. And stubs were left in the knuckles too.

Secondly, another difficulty that was ran into was installed the rear diff center. I bought a Cusco 2 way LSD for the rear, there were no bearing in it yet, so we had to get some.

ALTHOUGH, the bearings were discontinued. I was definitely almost heartbroken when I heard this. But Ray worked his magic and came through for me! He had to find new bearings through the measurements of the old bearings. I was glad to hear this because he found that the old bearings were torn to pieces already, the new ones he found were much stronger. So, no wonder the old bearings were discontinued….. sad for 08 GR owners. 
Suspension was also a must, stock was much too soft and much too high for my tastes.

This interview goes into details about how the car handles and the future of the Subaru. Check out the article HERE!

Autoblog tears apart and looks around the guts of the new FB20 motor

The good guys at Autoblog got a look into the FB20 motor from the Euro Spec Forester. Now, it’s nothing high performance but it is the 3rd incarnation of the Subaru Boxer motor which hasn’t changed in some time. This is quite rare in the automotive world.

Subaru’s new FB20 motor is a little leap from the past EJ20 flat four boxer motor. Better power, fuel economy, and torque. Now, remember this is the non turbo motor so power improvements will be minimal. A lot of the improvement is done without the aid of direct injection which to some, is a bit of disappointment. The mild improvements include an interesting “bent rod” design to allow removal without block removal.

The whole block and head has been redesigned for fuel efficiency and also provide better power from the compact 2.0 design. The pistons went from an oversquare design to a undersquare design.

Low end torque and mid range power has been improved with the new design.  Autoblog had the chance to drive a Forester with this new FB20 Motor:

The Forester we drove was still in need of some decent revs to get around briskly. Its full 148 horsepower hits at a fairly average 6,000 rpm, and torque (146 pound-feet) doesn’t peak until 4,200 rpm.

Now what we want to know is what will come of the current turbo motors? Will they implement the new engineering technologies onto them? What about the STi model? Only time will tell…

Ohhhh whuuuuuut? 2012 Impreza may make its debut at New York Autoshow (?)

So our good friends over at Autoblog had this great report stating that the 2012 Impreza with its new design team behind it may make it’s official debut at the New York Autoshow in August. Here’s what Autoblog reported:

In speaking with IL, Subaru of America’s executive vice president, Tom Doll, confirmed that the 2012 Impreza will go on sale in the United States in August, meaning that an official reveal at April’s New York Auto Show is very likely.

Autoblog, you made our day. We can’t wait to see what the production version will look like and how the STi version will complete our dreams!

Video: Rally Sno*Drift review!

Got some time to watch some good o’l USA Rally’n? Well check out the latest video from Sno*Drift brought to you from our friends at Live Sockets!

Speedhunters gives us a behind the scenes look at Prodrive UK

Ahhh Prodrive. I don’t think I know any Subaru owner that doesn’t have at least one Prodrive item on their Subie. Being one of the premier manufacturers and vehicle race car builders, we all want to see who it’s all done. Luckily, the good people at SpeedHunters had an inside look at the Prodrive facility in UK.

There were parts of Prodrive that most people will never see but they got a special VIP access into their facility.

At the time of this shoot, Prodrive was in full swing in building customer Rally vehicles that will be competing in the WRC.

Here’s a Group-N Rally prepped STi being built for a customer.

I’ve gone through some wiring in my life with harnesses but it NEVER EVER looked like this! This is amazing how Prodrive is so well organized!

A World rally customer vehicle on the rotisserie getting some welding done. Obviously very meticulous.

A lot of customers bring their Rally cars here for total builds and refreshments.

Customer Subarus for Group-N being prepped. Beautiful.

During one of the auto shows, Prodrive demonstrated how well and fast they can build one of these GroupN rally cars by doing it under six hours!

Amazing beautiful work of art. Visit Speedhunters for their full article!

 

Oh you crazy Euros! Drift Subaru with a Toyota Motor… Not sure how we feel about this one

Drifting… usually brings out the most ingenious combos of engines and cars together. We’ve seen Nissan Silvia motors in Corollas and GM motors in Nissan Silvias but this has to take the cake in the most interesting combos. Our good friends at Speedhunters just did a feature on the Japspeed Drift Subaru.

Now, this Subaru has been doing quite well in the British Drift Championship.

In true drift fashion, this Subaru drips of style and performance.

According to Speedhunters, this Subaru wasn’t always a Hawk Eye instead it started its life as a Bug Eye. However with the lift of the “bonnet” (yeah, I called it that since this is a Euro Car) there is a sight that we are not used to seeing. A straight 6 motor.

Now from my understanding it used to run a fully built EJ25 motor but now was converted to use a Toyota 1JZ 2.5 Straight Six motor. To some Subaru purists, this is no longer a Subaru…

Regardless of what heart it runs in it, it’s still a great looking car and I’m sure it’s going to slide its way onto the podium shortly.

Source: Speedhunters

Forester XTI is released in Australia… North America says “What about us?”

So the Forester XTI made its official debut in Australia with the stout WRX powerplant. That means it has the 260hp and 256ft/lbs of torque. That’s pretty good and it goes through a paddle shifter automatic.

The interior has been upgraded with the signature STi blue highlights that are alcantara and leather. It’s a great interior.

This great Forester features not only the heart of a WRX but also performance upgrades including light weight STi wheels, little aero bits, and sportier STi suspension. I think this is an option for me when my future wife forces me to chose between a crossover SUV and a Mini Van… if Subaru ever brings this bad boy to the States.

Video: Motortrend takes the Outback on a road trip in Australia

Got 30 minutes to kill and want to watch a really entertaining video on the Subaru Outback in the… outback? Well, Motortrend takes a close look at the Outback.

So, check out this video here: