I don't know where you get your information that the STi has such horrid understeer, but I would honestly suggest finding a new source of information. More than half of the people ranting about how "poorly" the STi "apparently" handles hasn't even been behind the wheel of one. I've hit corners in my STi that I have never thought possible, and swung the tail out like nobody's business; not on purpose, mind you, but we all get a little over-excited on back roads from time to time. But the car was a champ. I don't see how a car that handles at 0.90g on the skidpad is a car that suffers from "horrid understeer." Please explain.

To touch base on Defi, Defi actually does the stock dashboard electronics for Subaru, and their gauges will actually match the same color of the factory gauges, which looks really nice.

Widebodies? Who needs'em? But, FWIW, there are a few different widebody kits being released early next year for the WRX/STi, but IMO they look stupid anyway, on ANY car. And what's wrong with the number of wheel options? There are plenty to choose from.

Subaru tuners don't have Subaru shop cars? How would you develop parts for a particular car if you didn't have one in your shop? Do you think they take pictures?

Where do you pick up an exhaust for an STi? There are plenty of places that make bolt-on parts for STis. It's the engine parts that are extremely expensive, and limited. The most popular Subaru tuner is probably TSX (Turbo XS). They make excellent products, and I believe they also do Evo stuff, and SRT-4 stuff as well. You can also thank them for UTEK.

Not to be taken as a smart comment, but you may want to study up on STis a little bit before just jumping to conclusions, because you're way off the mark.

 

I disagree. The Supra Is a GOD!!. What other car you know that you can just bolt on a turbo kit, some fuel and a good tune and get 600whp without breaking a sweat. People have to understand that the Supra is not a quarter mile car, but its a Highway Bruiser. I was going to buy one before the my evo, however I wanted a four door car. If I lived in Arizona I would have brought one. A 98 quicksilver supra with low miles in good condition can still fetch 25 to 35 thousand easily.

 

What other car? Try a 2006 Z06 on for size. 700+hp with a supercharger install.

 

i just don't understand why our parts cost more than other cars for basic things like exhausts, cams...etc.

 

Supply and demand. They charge those prices because they know people will pay those prices.

 

Now, I thought a 2.0 liter was suppossed to take about 2 quarts of oil, a 3.0 3 quarts round a bout, and so on............why does the EVO take like 4+ ? Just curious

 

WOW, are you a girl?

The displacement of the engine has NOTHING to do with the amount of oil it takes. . .unbelievable what these newbie's will think of. . .

 

who needs widebody... uhm... cars that need more rubber.

what's wrong with the wheel options... i already said... they're all wussy sizes i.e. you're not cramming lots of rubber under there.

but to clarify (i'm not bagging on anything here, just stating what i see) for a car that is a serious performer the first and last thing you ALWAYS wrory about is tires, tire choice, tire size, tire compound, tire temperature, tire pressure... it's ALL about tires. can you can you fit 255 under an sti's fenders rolled or whatnot? (i am not too clear but i haven't seen any and i used to love surfing nasioc for pics!) and i've seen NO ONE run 275, and for evos... that's ALL you see... everyone that is running their car at the track somehow manages to cram these large 275 hoosiers or 275 ra1s in those fatty evo wheel wells. then there's those hardasses that are cramming 305 in with the apr body kit. that's pretty much when you know a car is badass... tires.

now as for horrid understeer, i can make my car oversteer on accident, all i have to do is go through the slolam too fast at the autocross... my tail will gain too much angular momentum and i won't be about to save it.

also... i'm a big fan of racing videos... i've seen the subydude vids and various other sti vids of people at laguna seca and button willow etc and you don't need to be race car driver to tell that they're understeering at the limit, in fact you can KNOW they are just by the tire noise, particularly when the fronts make more noise than the rears. i'm not saying the evo doens't understeer stock, that's a damn lie and i wouldn't say that, but i'm saying our aftermarket has at LEAST one guy that has taken the his time and experience to make products that take out the bad stuff and put in more good stuff. i'll say this, the new sti is not as understeer prone and i think this is MARVELOUS, suby is waking up, that's good but it's gonna be a bit before the new stis sink into motorsports, as it takes time to build cars and make parts that meet new fitment reqs etc.

and i know suby tuners have shop cars... but are there as many as evos... that was the point. i know of like cobb... perrin (i don't consider them a tuner however, they're just a bolt on manufacturer as far as i'm concerned), hell hks has one, but like i already said... our evo tuners... most of them have two and their customers cars are practically spokescars too. how many people are running around with br stage 4, how many people are running rrc complete sus.

the question was where do you get a TI exhaust for a suby... the ti exhaust i saw weren't even 3" :[, and mind you i am not trying to bag on sti's i was trying to help my friend on his mod path.

and that's the final thing... i'm not wishing poorly for subaru, i'd NEVER... i WISH they had a more hardcore following, i wish they had the support that evos do. i wish cobb was a bit cheaper, i wish greddy made a ti exhaust for the suby cuz it'd be nice AND cheap. i wish some of the nicest subies weren't sporting all perrin stuff and i wish MOST MOST MOST of all that there was someone like john mueller for the subaru crowd. cuz then i could point my friends that have subys in the right direction. i'm thinking lots of the good stuff for subaru is still overseas in europe and australia. it's too bad...

and this is how my sentiments tied into the supra 300zx debate... it's a very similar situation.

 

I very much DISAGREE with your last statement. You're comparing RWD cars to AWD cars. You're comparing 6 cylinders to 4 cylinders. You're comparing twin turbo cars to single turbo cars. First of all, the Z was always my 'affordable' dream car, as I've owned 3. The Supra IMO is an overpriced car that is OVERRATED. Yes, it's fast, it can be made to handle, and it's rare, but so is the Z. The Z is also several thousand dollars cheaper (for a gorgeous one), and it's easier to maintain, has a nicer body style (IMO), handles better, and has great aftermarket support for USEABLE power. Now about the STI and EVO, they're both great cars, but you can't compare them to RWD sports cars of the '90s. They're 4 cylinder turbo rockets, that are capable of being driven in all kinds of weather conditions, and do it well. In my honest opinion, I think the STI and EVOs handling isn't much better than the 300s', and the 300 was produced in '90. Also, highway power, I'd definitely have to give it to the Supra and Z. I could blabber on forever about this, but these are two different categories of cars that SHOULD NOT be compared. My .02

P.S. The picture below is of my most recent 1990 Nissan 300ZX.

 

Most people don't need "Viper-sized" tires. They weigh more, and when wheels/tires weigh more, unsprung weight goes up, and in return hurts performance. How big do you wanna go?

Sorry, but the size of tires don't constitute whether a car is "badass." There are classes in the NHRA/IHRA and there are cars that are running in the 8s with stock-sized wheels/tires.

Subaru is "waking up?" Have you seen the WRC standings for this year? I think they're wide awake. As for "sinking into motorsports," maybe it will be a while for factory-sponsored cars to show up, but take a look at this month's issue of "Sports Car Magazine." If I'm not mistaken, it was a Subaru that owned.

There are numerous companies that offer nice exhausts for Subaru.

I totally agree with you that most of the nice parts are overseas, and a good reason for that is because we don't have the 2.0L in the STi here, and only the 2.5L. I'm sure that overseas the aftermarket for the 2.0L is probably the equivalent of the Ford 5.0L market here.

GReddy sucks. Cheap parts are exactly what they are. You couldn't pay me enough to put GReddy parts on my car. Regardless that they're one of the premier import tuners, their parts are nothing to write home about. I've seen more people with bad luck with their parts, than good luck. The domestic tuning companies are lightyears beyond these import tuning companies. Their quality far exceeds that of the import tuners. It's too bad that the domestic aftermarket companies aren't more involved in imports. I'd be more than happy to buy Edelbrock, Crane, Holley, etc. parts for my STi. But, at least there's Borla.

Subaru has always been "underground" here in the States, but they do have a decent following. Overseas is a different story. Subaru is highly regarded, as you mentioned, and their overseas following is HUGE.

 

heres my input on the debate...

evo has a much larger aftermarket support because the eninge has been around, and its proven. the sti on the otherhand is a fairly new engine as it is not used anywhere else in the world. so the evo has had many more years of tuning time and experiance which allows for a bigger and stronger aftermarket.
now given that the new wrx is a 2.5(not sure if its the same internals and block or not please correct me if i am wrong) maybe the aftermarket will be much strong because of the volume of cars.
as for 300xtt vs supra: they are both awesome cars with the supra having a stronger aftermarket. maybe there ar emore of them on the road? i have seen maybe 4 300s vs more supras than i can count meanwhile i cant take the supra seriously because it came with the same steeringwheel thats in my friends old camary

 

And you, sir, are EXACTLY right. I find it amusing at how many people on this site say, "THE STI HAS NO AFTERMARKET!" I wonder how much of a market was around for the 4g63 when it was 3 years old.

I totally agree. Now that the motors in the WRX and the STi are now BOTH 2.5Ls, I will be willing to bet the aftermarket will be booming with parts before long.

 

more rubber is better... i don't see how you're even arguing... if unsprug weight goes up then you get bigger brakes which you should already have and you get more power which is also another requisite for big wheels/tire. and if unsprung weight affects your handling in a way that the larger rubber and coilovers you already have can't cover, then you have a problem that wouldn't be fixed by going to a smaller wheel/tire. hence big *** tires is the ABSOLUTE indication that a car is bad ***.

i also don't tend to care about the national hot rod association, and i like viper sized wheels and vipers aren't for drag racing.

yes subaru is waking up... how much of what you see in the wrc car is trasfered over to the production car? they are difference especially in the suspension area which is what the understeer that i was discussing earlier is all about. plus... understeer is overcome on gravel a lot easier than on tarmac, driving style dictates many things in dirt and it does on tarmac too but to a lesser degree. in the end a good driver can do almost whatever he wants with the car but it's also about the ease and capacity of the car to do it.

greddy makes a great titanium exhaust for the evo that is less than 1000 dollars. find me one for the sti, cuz i need to tell my friend to get that one.

also... it may be true that the domestics are ahead of the jdm tuners on lots of stuff, but... they're not making parts that i want. no fairly priced ti exhaust. where companies like hks and greddy can make these items at a better price (in at least this one instance) because they sell more of them to their target audience. i never said that greddy was the best for everything or anything for that matter, tho i do like the rspec intercooler for its weight and i like the greddy ti exhaust for it's design and price. and that's the other problem... is that if the american companies decided to make these parts they'd be doing very well cuz they are producing for the largest car market in the world, the usa. so i don't see why they don't just get to it.

 

We have set up Suby's for a few select customers, and won Pike's Peak in 2004 with Stephan Verdier's WRX. Have your friends email me. Thanks.

 

I understand your reasoning. And I think your right, evo's come on top when STi's and Evo's are compared. But hey, they are right, the evo is better .