well... what do you plan on doing with your car? and how is your financial situation? By the sound of it and I think you have a cap.

Do you know Subaru pretty well? Or do you know cars in general pretty well? Do you know how to shop for a use car? If no, I wouldn't get a used car. Just in case you get one with mechanical defects.

For me, it was pretty easy. My limit was pretty low (below 10k) so used WRX, STi or new RS were out of my reach. So I was limited to older RS, which I have no problem with. I ended up with 00RS GM6 BRP and decent suspension mods.

But if you can afford a new RS, you should be able to afford an used WRX. I just looked up KBB, I didn't know they don't hold values that well. Find one with HIGH mileage and you should be ale to get one around the same price as the new RS. This is the route I would go, but consider your gas and insurance.

Good luck!

 

then you are looking at between a new RS or use WRX. You'll have to spend a lot of money to mod the RS to make it 12s and it'll be VERY illegal. It would be a lot cheaper with WRX.

RS is SOHC, no rear LSD, high compression ratio, (and bunch more). To go 12s I would think you want force induction. And it would be pretty expensive to make the RS running with force induction and reliable. Not to mention your warranty is gone.

Used WRX is your new best friend... Good luck!

 

About the only way to get an RS into the 12's is take it to the top of a cliff and push it off.

In all honesty, short of a 200 shot of nitrous, the total amount of $$ you'd have to spend to get that car to perform like that would be at LEAST $40,000 parts and labor (counting the car @15K). That's not to mention that at that point, it would be for the most part un-streetable, and would likely go through engines about as often as I change my oil.

Even a WRX would require significant modification to get into the 12's and still be reliable (at the very least, a bigger turbo and intercooler.)

If you've really got that kind of $$, and you want a 12 second car, your best bet is to pick up a 1st generation turbo DSM (FWD is actually faster on a track than the AWD DSM's, believe it or not) for a couple of grand. Drop a few thousand on that car, and make it a dedicated track car. For less than $10,000 total, you'll be in the mid 12's.

Use the rest to buy a daily driver.