Lately I've been considering getting a WRX. I'm not so sure about the STi, it seems a little out of my range, and I'm certain I can get a much better deal on a leftover WRX anyway (0.0% finance too).

As my name suggests I used to have a Honda S2000, best car I ever owned, very fast, handled like a dream, built great...wow. I sold the car to save some money because I'm truly dreaming of the '05 Lotus Elise S3 that's slated to come to the US in mid-'04.

In the meantime I have a little '03 Civic EX 5-sp (no flames please) to kick around in, and a project car ('87 Mitsubishi Starion ESiR). I'm truly considering trading the Civic for the WRX until a year after the Lotus arrives (I never buy the first year of anything).

What I'm reading is that if I get the Turbo XS stage II + a Perrin catless up-pipe I'll be set (approx 300HP?). But I'm also reading that people are killing their cars with 17+psi of boost.

Here's my question:

If you had it to do all over again, what would you buy and why? Also, what would you stay away from?

Thanks for any replies.

 

with an up-pipe should give you between 300 & 310 hp at the crank give or take a few.

The beauty of it is, stage II doesn't put out anything that the engine isn't DESIGNED to do -- Rex's are significantly detuned for the US market, and those THREE CATS suck-up a lot of hp. All the engine management is still there with either the Unichip or the Ecutech, so as long as you don't mess with the mapping and stick to the standard Stage II settings, you should be very safe. Lot's of people have been running them for a long time without incident. It's when the inexperienced forgo enguine management and start messing with high boost settings and fuel-air mixtures that they know nothing about that the real problems set in. But TurboXS really is a tried-and-true product, and as long as you stick to their base set-up you shouldn't have any problems...

All that being said, I bought the stage II upgrade and still haven't got the stones to install it. The experiences of some people on this board have spooked me a little...

 

Thanks for the info dude, I was about to get my feelings hurt, not a lot of friendly peeps around these parts it seems.

Thanks again

Andrew