Soccer05 Bugeye GTX 3071 Street Track Build Thread
 

So after a long long time planning and saving, saving and planning, I am ready to really jump head first into my bugeye build. The car starts as a 2003 Subaru WRX with the OEM 5 speed. I have always been a suspension junkie, and focus a ton of time and effort onto having a stable chassis. This is a budget build, and basically is the maximum you can take the stock block and heads. Unfortunately, it costs quite a bit more money to cure all the wrx's suspension geometry than my 240sx, so while the majority of the suspension arms are adjustable, I will not be doing adjustable hubs to truly cure the wrx's suspension geometry. Nonetheless, you can have a competitive, fast, fun car without making the 5 grand investment in hubs. This build will cover my complete suspension makeover on the car, as well as a very healthy power upgrade and light aerodynamic work. All work is being done by me, alone, in my garage. My goals are to create a stable, competent base for me to hone my driving skills at track days. This car is my dual purpose daily driver and weekend toy, so there is some balance to keep the car fun and fast on the canyon roads in California. This car will be an aggressive street tarmac car as well as a potent entry level track/hpde vehicle to hone my track skills with an awd platform.

The bugeye is very slightly modified in its current state, just enough to be a little fun on the streets. It currently has Whiteline front and rear 24mm adjustable swaybars, Whiteline HD Swaybar mount, Whiteline steering rack bushings, Hotchkis Front Adjustable Endlinks (Whiteline Spherical One seized and broke about a month ago), H&R Coilovers, Ground Control Front and Rear Camber Plates, Cusco Engine Mounts, Whiteline transmission X-member bushing, and Kartboy forward shifter bushing. The transformation these meager changes made gives me a lot of hope and excitement at the potential of this build.

Hopefully this thread will help others see what goes into a build as mild as a bolt on build, and give more respect for the custom fabrication that goes into full on track builds.

I would like to thank the following shops and people for taking time out of their busy schedules to help what is truly a budget street/track build- Noah and Adam at LIC motorsports, Raffi at Full Race motorsports, Robert Fuller at Robispec, Mark at MooreSport Inc, Mike Warfield at GST Motorsports, TH Motorsports, Topspeed Motorsports, Tony at Turn in Concepts, and boostjunkie of nasioc. All these people took extra time out of their busy schedules to help develop a proper parts and development plan to meet my performance goals, both immediately as well as allowing me to add on and not have to replace parts for my future goals. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my endless stream of questions, answering the effects of each part selection toasted my end goals, and putting other products/business projects on hold to take the time to help me reach my goals. The end result of this project and it's capabilities will be a result of the knowledge and firsthand experiences these people took the time to pass on to me. Thank you

First Comes the teardown. Due to the power goals and parts, much of the chassis and oem components must be removed. Here is a picture of the OEM engine Bay, this is the last time most of these components will be in here.

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Off come the OEM sideskirts, still deciding between some OEM STI sideskirts or a set of newer wrx sideskirts painted WRB to match the car. Still undecided, fortunately with a build of this magnitude I will have plenty of time to keep an eye out and decide. I know I want an oem subaru sideskirt, if anyone has pictures that look particularly functional go ahead and post a pic with year and model. Nothing aftermarket though, I would rather spend the budget somewhere other than sideskirts.

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And off comes the front bumper and grill.

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Test fitting the AMS Front Bumper Beam. This is a gorgeous part and bolts into the oem location, drops 20.5 pounds off the extreme nose of a front heavy car. Made of steel I love this part. A little bummed because while it fits perfectly, I now need to figure out a way to mount the bumper to the ams crash beam. The beastly OEM bumper beam has holes for the clips used to help postion the bumper and grill. Hope I can figure out a solution that will work for a daily driver, because I want to do everything I can to lighten the nose of this car up to aid in handling. We'll see what secrets LIC motorsports and Top Speed can figure out. I will probably take this as a chance to upgrade and make the bumper quick release with dzus fasteners. Worse case scenario it'll be time for a jdm bumper beam. Lets hope not.

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Out comes the rear interior for suspension removal. Still deciding on whether to remove all the oem sound deadening. Need to find a paint that will prevent rusting for the life of the car, since there is no paint under the rubberized sound deadening. Going to swing by the paint shop tomorrow and ask for recommendations. Maybe POR-15? Anyone with experiences let me know.

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picture of rear H&R coilover with Ground Control Spherical camber plate and Whiteline Rear Strut Tower Brace. Will be swapping the Whiteline piece out for a X-Brace from TIC. Thanks TIC for bringing the part back, and the endless customer support answering my insane amount of questions to get finalize the part list to achieve my power, chassis, and suspension goals both on the road and track. Anyone interested in a Whiteline Rear Strut Tower Brace in good condition shoot me a pm.

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Pic of the rear suspension setup. Looking forward to replacing all the gushy rubber with spherical bearings, and nice strong lightweight aluminum suspension links. I absolutely loved the change links and sphericals did to my 240sx, I love the crisp and direct feeling of non compliant bushings.

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Coilover dropped out of the way

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Front Coilovers dropped, brakes removed and awaiting gorgeous Stoptech 4 pot calipers and lightweight 2 piece rotors. Can't wait for the improved brake performance, as the oem brakes truly leave a lot to be desired.

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Another view of the old oem rear suspension. Glad to bring some performance to the rear suspension

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Here are some pics of the disassembled dampener assembly, eagerly awaiting a cleaning and regreasing from the dirt of daily driving duties. Even after countless tweaks on my suspension, I still get amazed at the lack of front suspension travel in comparison to the rears.

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Close up pictures of my Ground Control Camber Plates. I absolutely love these, great build quality, great design and adjustability, plus the guys at Ground Control went above and beyond with their customer service and knowledge. Custom made to mount properly on my H&R struts. Only thing to be aware of, is Ground Control uses thinner wall Snap on sockets, and my Craftsman socket would not fit to attach the strut assembly. No worries, they're within driving distance and they did a little bit of machine work and now I can fit my socket perfect, just ask if you're on the phone so you don't waste time on your build. Thanks for the amazing product ground control and great customer service.

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And top view of the rear camber plates by Ground Control. Love them, Can't speak highly enough about this product and the company.

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Front Body disassembly, making some progress and will give me more room to work. Removing the front fenders in anticipation of install of TIC Front Fender Braces. Removed the fenders so they brace can be welded in to maximize their effect, rather than rely solely on the bolt in method. Thanks for the great product TIC.

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Look at those flimsy OEM pieces of noodle. TIC pieces just look and feel stiffer. Excited at the feel this will produce in the car.

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Pulling out the trunk in preparation for the X brace.

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Loosening the E Brake cables in the cabin, in preparation for pulling the rear hubs. Have to pull the rear hubs to have a spherical trailing arm mount bearing pressed into the hub. This bushing is disgustingly soft in the OEM form. Anyone that has replaced this bushing knows how important it is and how it improves handling and response. If you doubt me, take a jack under the car and jack up onder the point where the trailing arm attaches to the rear hub. You will notice just how high the jack compresses the bushing before the wheel starts moving up. This is undamped suspension travel that is the enemy of response and does not allow your suspension to be utilized to its dull potential.

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Driver Side Rear Hub removed without drama. Love it when things go like they're supposed to.

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Passenger Side Hub was an absolute bear to take out. Axle had practically seized to the hub. The universal BFH did nothing to dislodge, had to go purchase a hub puller. Slowly, very slowly, the hub puller was able to seperate these two parts. First hiccup so far in the build, its funny how the simplest things can take a chunk of time. But at least its out and we are making progress.


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Finally ..... Success and Seperation!!!!

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Look at how the axle came out. Hasn't Subaru heard of lubing these parts to prevent corrosion and seizing. Oh well, can't really complain, this is my first real seizure so far, so its going quite well.


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View of the engine bay prior to removing the downpipe from the turbo

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Dropping the exhaust from the car. Just washed off the APS 3 inch turbo back exhaust that will be going on the car. Can't wait to hear that thing scream campared to the restrictive, quiet, boring oem exhaust. Wish I could have gotten a titanium exhaust for the weight savings, but I'm not entirely sold on the longevity of titanium in a daily driven situation due to fatigue from the drastic heat cycles.

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View of the turbo without the downpipe attached to the back

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View of the Hotchkis Adjustable front endlinks. These served me well as a daily driven endlink after my Whiteline Endlink failure and seizure. I was not overwhelmed with the longevity of the front endlink, who knows maybe it was a bad set. I know sphericals wear faster, but the set I have on my 240sx continues to go strong with quadruple the mileage. I have talked with Mark at MSI and will be using a set of his adjustable front spherical endlinks for the build. Can not wait for these, they look and sound amazing.

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Dropping the OEM Cast Iron exhaust Manifolds, will be replaced with a Swaintech coated and wrapped Perrin Equal Length Header. To use this header on the ej205 you must upgrade to an STI oil pan. I used this as an opportunity to splurge and purchased a Killer Bee aluminum pan, windage tray, and pickup. Killer Bee is another amazing vendor, took tons of time to answer my questions and we both agreed for my goals his setup was far superior to others on the market. When the parts arrived, the look and finish of them is amazing. I will post pics shortly, just don't have them with me.

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Picture of Front suspension disassembled. Front Ball joint and tie rod seperated and pulled.

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View of the ball joint seat. Will be replacing with a Whiteline Roll Center Correction Kit Extended ball joint and tie rod ends. This car has lived solely in California, and still needds a little clean up work to make it perfect. I don't know how you east coasters work on cars with the salt and snow back there. I am so glad I moved back to California weather.

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