covertrussian

A buddy of mine has a 2015 WRX, I'll need to drive it and compare to the VB... but I don't remember it being this good. Best way I can describe the VB is, it's nimble like a go-cart but has room for the whole family. And boy do I love that clutch, my LGT's clutch (at similar ~250whp power levels) was STIFF (I blame Exedy Stg1).

50 yards down the street, neighbor bought it for his son last year I see it everyday . He's been enjoying the car until the son gets his license.

Well folks it finally happened, I bought a replacement toy for the Legacy! As per tradition it won't stay stock, so here's the build thread for ya'll:

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I think my biggest issues with looks is just this generation of Subaru's styling, it's just too Mazda for me. I prefer the boxier styling and previous generation WRX and even 22 and older Ascent In my opinion the VB WRX (and BRZ) has the best looking tailights The side profile of this car is also very nice, the muscle rear quarter panels make this car stand out from regular sedans. This was my biggest annoyance with VA WRX's, they just look like regular sedans/Sentra from the side and back. The front end, specifically the grill is my least favorite part of the car, fortunately an aftermarket Sport Grille or V1 grill is not expensive If I do half/quarter car pictures it doesn't look so bad! These should be vertical but forum rotated them.

After a couple year long hiatus, it's finally time for me to get back into the car world! I've been looking for a VA WRX/STI for some time now, but their prices are simply insane (guess it shows how little people like the VB's)? I love the 2018+ WRX front ends, that's peak JDM design for me (reminds me of Skylines and Evo's), but I really didn't want the half-baked FA20, which requires a retune and rods just to be drivable, or another EJ and world's supply of engine oil to keep running. Thus that left me with the VB's, which I've heard so many positive things about performance wise. I was waiting for the VB refresh, hoping it would get less ugly, but seeing that 24+ now have Eyesight standard left me with only one choice, the 23. I still wanted to wait a bit and get one used since VB's are depreciating much faster then any other WRX, but with massive discounts off MSRP and introduction of 1.9% APR, figured now is the best time to get one new for the price of a used one. I also wanted a Limited, which are impossible to find, for creature comforts and power seats (driver only, though). Funny how my 2012 Outback Premium had a power seat and 05 LGT had dual power seats... Driving Impressions I was out of state for the Eclipse and finally found a dealer with a Limited on the lot, wasn't planning on getting one 400 miles away from home but I got close to $4k off MSRP, while ones at home were $2k off tops. This also meant I had 8 hours of getting to know the car, on semi-freeways. I wont lie the ride is way harsher then the 05 LGT or the Ascent, it got a bit old on the concrete highways plus constant Pulse and Gliding, to avoid stationary RPMs, made me a bit remorseful, though the highway entry and exit ramps were a lot of fun though. Towards the end of the night we finally hit the last leg of the trip, the super windy mountain rounds... Let me tell you this is by far the best Subaru/vehicle I've ever driven!!! After years of modding and tuning cars, none of them come even close to this car's power delivery and handling, simply blows my mind. Subaru made a very special car that's simply unbeatable at this price range, and that's before all of the deals! I got home with a giant smile on my face, something that I haven't experienced from a car in a LONG time! Even with the STI being gone, this car feels like a top level sports car that I feel would compete with the Godzilla (I won't lie I will always want an R33/R34, and I was shopping for one, but since they are legal to import the prices are now insane). It's a shame the styling is so polarizing, which is leading to poor sales (almost 50% down from last year) and will ultimately lead to the demise of this wonderful car. I hope the refresh will be amazing, like the 2018 refresh was for VA's, because I plan on pillaging those parts onto mine . Of course right as I was leaving the dealer I saw to VA WRX's that look amazing: As you can imagine this car won't stay stock forever, cosmetic only until warranty is out .

It's been some time since I last posted related to this car. It's been a great and reliable daily driver so no reason to do much. With that said I did try to change out the ugly stock grill with the Legacy one since some people mentioned it worked. Stock Grill: The goal is to go for the Crosstrek Sport style look: Here's an example of another outback owner using the legacy grill Ordered the Legacy recessed grill similar to the Sports one: Drum roll.... Yeah no go on this sadly, would basically have to get the Legacy bumper to make this look right. Maybe could do some kind of a dark surround to hid the bumper guts, but not sure it's worth the effort.

Glad to help, this was one of my favorite cars to build AND DRIVE, so had to share the love :). Now I will also say that having the fuel filter so close to the fuel rail might have doubled as a damper. Also tune has a lot to do with it too, this car's tune is some of the worst factory tunes I've ever dealt with.

Updated the first post and clarified that the Dorman connectors are optional. Also fixed the image embedding

My recommendation would be to go with on of the loop mufflers, they are the closest to OEM design without having the sharp 180's that OEM mufflers have. Just weld it into your existing Y pipe and no need to hunt for new catback :).

Big part of it is the muffler it self, straight through designs are just too inefficient at reducing sound. I had a 3" setup, 5" Borla resonator, to an modified 04-07 STI muffler (bored out to 3", modified baffles for straighter path). The car was TOO quiet, would barely register on DB meter auto-crossing, it has a really deep idle though and sounded good free revving. I think removing the resonator would have helped make it a tee webit louder but at that point it was already in place and I didn't want to fight with it :).

Thanks for the kind words, it was fun digging in and then sharing the experience with the community. In some ways I wish I did Youtube videos too, would have perhaps provided an income . Well that's partly why I've been so absent, all my spare time has been going digging and building the house addition along with other house related projects. I haven't even been auto-crossing in 3 years because my weekends are so busy. With that said, I wont lie I've been really eyeballing a 2018-2021 WRX. To the point that I might even ditch my G20 project/race car and just have the WRX for that duty too (they do really well auto-crossing stock!)

Yeah I peaked at about 30-31mpg, though last couple years I was getting 28mpg on the LGT, dunno if it was tune or gas related, or just age of the car, still better then EPA's 24mpg. I doubt I'll mess with the Ascent tune, especially when CVT is so prone to failure. Cobb tune 93 tune sounds great, but car has enough power for it's purpose.