Back in 2011, my friend was in the market for a car. Being a Subaru guy myself, naturally I pushed him to pick up a Subie for himself. We found this 97 Impreza on craigslist, and he drove it for a few years. Unfortunately for him, he failed to do a couple of things as a car owner... namely put the title in his name, pay his registration, and change the oil. Needless to say, I picked up the car from him for $250 last winter, complete with hundreds of dollars of overdue registration fees and a motor that was knocking badly. Another friend of mine is now working with me to turn this neglected car into a track toy, and hopefully give it a new lease on life.
Here's the car shortly after I brought it home, sitting on some Forester wheels. That's my Bugeye in the foreground.
![]()
Threw on some 15" alloys, and headed up to the mountains. Still had a knock in the motor at this point, and she was now on some Legacy struts/springs.
![]()
Performed a lot of work on it, including swapping the suspension to 5zigen lowering springs with KYB GR2 struts, and doing a rear disc brake conversion with H6 rotors and WRX rotors in the front. I also picked up a set of Legacy 16" snowflakes, and wrapped them with Yokohama S-drives. Took her out for a drive and I could really feel the difference the mods made. Parked her on the street for the night, and awoke to this:
![]()
My neighbor's wife had backed into me... nearly totaled the car, but through a little wheeling and dealing with their insurance, I managed to get a body shop to repair the quarter panel and paint the faded roof and trunk. They only did an OK job, but hey, it didn't cost me a dime.
My friend and I decided to use this opportunity to finally pull the knocking EJ22 out of the car, and we dropped in an EJ18 I had picked up for free. Yeah, it's got less power, but it's alive! We also installed a rebuilt 5-speed. Here's a picture from when we pulled the motor and transmission out:
![]()
Here's how she sits today!
![]()
So far:
WRX disc brake conversion front/rear including rear "H6" upgrade
5Zigen springs, KYB struts, WRX 20mm rsb
16" Legacy snowflakes with 205/50/16 Yokohama S-drives
EJ18 with ebay UEL headers and a Magnaflow muffler
Rebuilt 5 speed and Exedy Stage 1 RS clutch
Also have nearly all the parts gathered for an EJ205 swap in the next year! Hopefully going to do some track days this summer to get a feel for the car... I'll post pictures of those if/when they happen!
Here's the car shortly after I brought it home, sitting on some Forester wheels. That's my Bugeye in the foreground.
Threw on some 15" alloys, and headed up to the mountains. Still had a knock in the motor at this point, and she was now on some Legacy struts/springs.
Performed a lot of work on it, including swapping the suspension to 5zigen lowering springs with KYB GR2 struts, and doing a rear disc brake conversion with H6 rotors and WRX rotors in the front. I also picked up a set of Legacy 16" snowflakes, and wrapped them with Yokohama S-drives. Took her out for a drive and I could really feel the difference the mods made. Parked her on the street for the night, and awoke to this:
My neighbor's wife had backed into me... nearly totaled the car, but through a little wheeling and dealing with their insurance, I managed to get a body shop to repair the quarter panel and paint the faded roof and trunk. They only did an OK job, but hey, it didn't cost me a dime.
My friend and I decided to use this opportunity to finally pull the knocking EJ22 out of the car, and we dropped in an EJ18 I had picked up for free. Yeah, it's got less power, but it's alive! We also installed a rebuilt 5-speed. Here's a picture from when we pulled the motor and transmission out:
Here's how she sits today!
So far:
WRX disc brake conversion front/rear including rear "H6" upgrade
5Zigen springs, KYB struts, WRX 20mm rsb
16" Legacy snowflakes with 205/50/16 Yokohama S-drives
EJ18 with ebay UEL headers and a Magnaflow muffler
Rebuilt 5 speed and Exedy Stage 1 RS clutch
Also have nearly all the parts gathered for an EJ205 swap in the next year! Hopefully going to do some track days this summer to get a feel for the car... I'll post pictures of those if/when they happen!