Real soon here I will be in the market to buy an Evo or STi. My budget is probably about 25k - I can stretch, but am shooting to say below that mark.


What I am looking for is an Evo 8/9 that has 500+ awhp. I have this thing where I absolutely will not buy a car w/ over 100k miles. I don't care if it was rebuilt bolt by bolt from the ground up... I just have this thing where I HATE to read 100k every time I get in the car. Nothing against anyone who has a vehicle with it, just one of my things... My alternative would be to buy a cheaper Evo 8/9 and modify it myself. I am also considering an Evo X. I've seen a few on here go for less than $25k. The downside is that there aren't many out there w/ 500+ awhp, and if they are, they are well beyond my budget. The benefit is that you are into the latest body style, which I honestly think looks pretty sweet. My third option is to buy my friend's STi... We are talking somewhere between $16k and $17k as it sits.

My friends Silver 05 STi: It is tuned w/ 475 awhp on 92+meth. It has a APS TSR70 turbo, built motor, and long story short... supporting mods. The chassis has 94k on it, but the motor has about 8-10k. We've been trying to talk him into ditching the meth and going to E85. He would need a new fuel rail, injectors, and maybe another/bigger fuel pump. I will by the way mention it had hiccups on the dyno... turns out the cam gears were bad, and so they tuned it, because the check engine went away, but 30 mins after we left the shop the CEL came back on... and it would loose power when you shift... The car also has a number of scratches, a few nicks in the bumper, stains on the seat, and the previous owner modified the dash with a dremel? I guess his radio didn't fit?! Dumbass! It doesn't have any summer tires at this point, only studded snow tires. If I bought it, I would do the e85 conversion right away because now it runs like **** because he got the cam gears fixed.

So... what do I do?

My ideal car would be an Evo X White w/ Black rims. AMS 900x package!

I will note that I don't necessairly need a reliable car, though I would expect it to be somewhat reliable. I have an F250 that I will be keeping.

Thanks for any input!

 

This has been covered NUMEROUS times. But i voted.

 

If I were you I'd buy a used white Evo X. Put a set of black wheels on it, you can get them cheap for around $500 from XXR. Then give AMS a call and schedule an appointment to have them install their 900X package for $20,000. If you can't afford it see if you can talk them into setting up a payment plan.

 

Evo 8/9 ftw!!!

 

get an stock evo 9 and do it up yourself. thats the fun part about having an evo.

 

I think an IX 5spd with turboback exhaust, boost controller, and a tune would keep you happy.

Then install a new clutch, get the HTA green, some larger injectors, fuel pump, and tune it again.

This can be much cheaper and easier if you do it yourself instead of inheriting someone elses problems.

 

What do you guys think it realistically takes, money wise, to achieve my goals? It seems like some guys get awesome numbers with a limited number of mods. To an extent, I want to overbuild... but then again, for 25k, can I really afford to? I'm a spend a big chunk of money at once type person... So if I buy a stock-ish 05 Evo and throw a turbo on it myself, should I just plan to build the motor at that point too? Plan to send the tranny and t-case to shep?

By the way, looking at Shep's website, I guess I was somewhat confused as to exactly what I would want to support say a 700 awhp car (overbuild a bit?)

 

If you want a car to go fast, buy a stock or bolt on evo 8/9. Subys take way too much $$$ to go fast. Take it from someone who has owned 2 11sec subarus. My evo now has basic bolt ons, and I went 11's in it. It doesn't take much to make an evo fast.

 

Ive owned both an 04 sti and an 04 evo 8. If your budget is set that high I would personally go with a 9. The sti is fun to drive but is no where near as much as a car as the evo.

 

Well, what about the tranny situation? My friends STi still has stock tranny, and to both our knowledge, has never been torn apart. However you would think nearly 500 awhp would eventually get to it... where as I see a lot of Evos with Shep trannys already... I don't remember the last time I saw an STi w/ a tranny upgrade.

 

I drove a 2006 AW STi before my WW 2008 EVO X GSR... I love the EVO X. The EVO 8s and 9s look way too cheap on the inside for my liking coming from a subaru that looks a bit better than the evos. When the EVO X came out the interior wasn't as bad anymore so i switched to the EVO X. My .02 cents! good luck with your purchase!

 

Thanks for the input. It's always nice to hear from people who have been on both sides of the fence.

 

From what i've seen the suby's seem to blow up easier than the evo when pushing horsepower. Plus getting horsepower out of the evo is very straight forward and easy with the right bolt on parts even without engine work other than a set of cams you can hit those numbers on e85 no problem.

The only real downside to the evo is the weaker tcase in the older models would shatter when the wheels start hopping.

 

No problem sir

 

Yeah, my friend's sti has a wicked list of parts into it. However, w/ 94k on it, and having upwards of 420 awhp most of those miles, it really did pretty well. The only reason the motor is built is because the previous owner ran it out of oil. Story is that the crush ring on the drain plug was bad and the place who changed the oil reused it anyway, then the car sat for like 3 months and leaked most/all the oil out and the owner didn't realize it. So... maybe it was relatively reliable... then again, 420, and now 475/492 awhp isn't tooo crazy. Respectable, by all means, but not insane.