Just wanted to get your guy's opinions about my upgrade path I'm taking. Feel free to give advice/opinion about brands/brand choice

1. Skunk2 CBE (already bought)
2. Cobb AP v2
3. Cusco Front/Rear sway bars (not sure on brand yet suggestions welcomed!)
4. Eibach Pro-kit Lowering Springs (or Tanabe Lowering Springs)
5. Helix Down pipe (don't know the difference or front and rear DP)
6. Rims?
7. Helix Up Pipe


In between, I'll be making various exterior/interior mods... headlight painting/LED lights/HID fog lights... window tinting... dashboarding lighting

I posted this in another forum, but got no responses... admins please delete the other one thanks!

 

hmm.. seems ok...

umm...

ya.. sure.. its ur car.. do what u want!

 

I would do things in stages, and do mods related to eachother in each stage.
Body mods don't matter, rims don't matter ( unless they interfere with your suspension )

For instance:

#1 Tires - a good set of tires I think is the most beneficial thing you can do for your car, you will notice the difference immediately and will improve handling greatly.
#2 AP ( you need this to get the most benefit from your mods )
#3/4 Full exhaust. Uppipe, downpipe, catback all at the same time
#3/4 Suspension. Sway bars, springs, strut braces w/e ( you can really do suspension whenever, but to get the most from it you will need to get re-aligned )
#5 K&N or similar air filter ( or cold air intake, but at this point it won't do anything really ) Power pulley
#6 Big stuff ( tuning is highly recommended at this point ) - Turbo, TMIC or FMIC, injectors, port/polish intake, ect...


Thats my idea anyway, but really just do whatever you want when you want. Ultimately it wont matter unless you do the big stuff before you do the small stuff. The nice thing about Subaru's is that they are tough ***** and can take just about anything you can throw at them and run with it.

 

For building most cars, I always felt that from the ground up, then from the back forward was the best approach.

#1 Tires, maybe rims due to #2
#2 Brakes (gotta stop if you're considering going fast)
#3 Suspension (get as configurable as your end goal/wallet will allow)
#4 Exhaust
#5 Motor work (tuning and supporting mods fall in here)

You might want to consider throwing some monitoring gear in there somewhere. Gauges tell you what your car is doing, and how well it's doing it.

 

Unfortunately my pockets aren't that deep, so I have to do everything one at a time. Unless I'm very patient and wait till I collect all the parts, which seems not to be working too well as I'm very anxious to see my new exhaust.

Have thought about new tires, but if I'm getting new tires, I want new rims... that's going into the 1000's. Have also thought about suspension, but sway bars and springs is only as far as my pockets will allow me to go.

I'll probably pay a visit to a professional tuner sometime in August with my AP. But as far as rims and tires go, it's a long shot. Suspension seems to be more budget friendly. Especially for a struggling college student :P

 

I'd go FSB/RSB/Endlinks, then wheels and tires, then all the other stuff. Like I said, it really depends on what you are doing with you car. If you are just driving it around town, and that's that.

1. Wheels
2. Lowering Springs
3. Exhaust

 

Depending on what your goals are with your car I would start
with this.
1.Wheels and tires
2.Exhaust
3.Lowering springs

 

In terms of brands, what do you guys think?

 

I would go with this set up.
1.17" Rota G-Force wheels and Yokahama tires.
2.Cobb catback exhaust.
3.STi pink springs.

 

Before any power mods, I would go with as many suspention upgrades as possible. Swaybars strut tower bars, then lateral links and sti control arms,garichi support.If you are confident in you car handling perfectly it doesn't matter-to a point- how much power your putting down.

 

I would suggest tires before sway bars.....are you planning on driving in the snow? If yes, I would recommend having 2 sets of wheels/tires - the stock rims and tires for winter/snow and then another set of rims with sticky rubber for summer....thats what I do.

 

If you want some cheap, light, high performing wheels - try to find some 98-99 RS wheels, they are 16x7 six spoke wheels that weigh only 17 pounds (your stock wheels are light too, 16.5lbs).

I had them with bridgestone RE050A tires on my old wrx and it was a great summer setup.

 

So, my rims are already pretty good as they are? Should I just get a set of tires?

 

technically, a wheel is a wheel is a wheel. any wheels will do good because they are just wheels, so your stocks with better tires will do fine, but lightweight wheels have less mass. they would be better if you trying to make that much difference but for dd it wont make that much of a difference.