1. Wheels and tires
Right away you'll notice that you have transformed your car into something
that feels like it can stick to the road...the stock set up is designed to gieve
you some off road ability...who drives off road in a car???lol.

2. Suspension
Since we have now decided that this is an on-road car, invest in some new
springs, shocks, and sway bars. The stock setup SUCKS. Again, you'll notice
that you have once again feel like you're driving a totally different car. The
stock suspension is why the STI couldn't hang with the EVO8. Granted it was
almost as fast. Too much understeer.

3. Power
Decide how far you want to take it. Do you want daily driver commuter
reliability or flat out ***** to the walls death machine power? I personally
went daily driver reliability power. My current set up is a Cobb Tuning
Stage 2. Cobb down-pipe w/hi-flow cat, Cobb Access Port, Blitz cat back.
I may or may not step up to the stage 3 when it becomes available.
That's where you'll have to come out of pocket for the extra hardware.
I personally wouldn't mess with any bling bling no power mods unless I was
going for all out death machine power 400+HP. Intercooler hoses, blow
off valve, silencer hack job, grounding mod,...ect. I mean...why? There really
is no real power to be gained and you're just replacing parts that work
perfectly fine for a car that could potentially have up to 350crank HP.

4. Brakes
Some people like to do this first. But unless you race your car on a track
regularly,...you won't drive it hard enough to experience brake fade. So why
throw away a perfectly good brake set up. I've been in a couple of panic
situations where the anti-lock brakes and some creative driving saved my ***.
Yeah, those big brakes and slotted disks look really cool, but unless you plan
on racing your new ride on a track....why? Another bling bling "I have money
to burn" mod. (unless you're turning it into a track car).

It's my guess though that you just want to do some mild modding, if you were to do everything I've listed above, you're probably kicking yourself for not just getting an STI.

 

Ummm...I have taken my car offroad more than most guys do with their trucks. It is toooo much fun.

You don't need a "track car" to take your car to the track. There are guys with completely stock WRX setups that would blow past me and wave. The track is the best place to figure out what you and your car can really do. Racing from red light to red light with 20k in mods is a good way to accomplish nothing. besides, there is no better feeling when you come in faster than someone's modded car based on skill alone.

For a street car all you need is a good sounding muffler and you'll have that sporty car thing going.

After you upgrade your wheels and tires and still feel inadequate in handling, go for sway bars, links, and mounts. Spring will mostly just lower your ride and make it look better. They won't lower it enough or increase the rate enough to actually make more sense than swaybars. If they do then they will probably blow your shocks and struts away.

For brakes, the firs thing you should do is replace the fluid with some DOT 4 and the stock rubber hoses with some SS lines. Then once you get really annoyed with ABS, replace the pads with something better. (I got bobcats, they are awesome.)

For power...well its too hard to really say where to start, tuning is nice, but exhaust seems important, as does fuel delivery. Keep in mind that added power will strain an already well-loaded tranny and clutch. I like to rely more on handling for impressive performance than on power for that reason. i think a good idea would be to just shed pounds off of the car.

try to mod one thing at a time so you can really tell what is happening and how the individual things are working out for you. Otherwise you might install a bunch of stuff and when something goes wrong, you won't know where to start diagnosing.

just my two cents, don't mean to contradict anyone.

 

lol...if I drove my subaru off road like I do my truck, i'd have to completely replace the entire suspension when I ummm, had it towed home....lol. The cars they sell us arn't the race cars you see storming up pikes peak or launching themselves 4 feet into the air while blazing down a dirt trail and mud trail at full throttle...