good evening, I was curious if there was any significant difference between the 07 wrx and the 08 and higher wrx's. I know the body styles and different, inside the engine is what i'm looking for.
thanks

 

08 has EJ255 with td04 turbo. Great bottom end but crappy top end due to a small turbo. A tune does help the 08's very well!

09+ has EJ255 with VF52 turbo which kick out more power. The 09+ also has red piping interior and better suspension than the 2008's.

I don't know much about the 07's as I own a 2008, hopefully someone will chime in

 

07 is the previous intake manifold setup.
Power should not be much different from the 08.
Suspension is compatible with 02-07 with some minor differences of rear top hats in 02-03
08+ is basically a 05-09 legacy gt motor but i know the internals changed at one point because the 05 lgt was considered the same as an 04 STi with different heads and same goes along with the 04 fozzy xt and baja.

 

One major change was the brakes. The 06/07s had the red monobloc 4/2 pots. They were gone by 08.

 

I love the look of the 4/2 pots compared to my 08 calipers

 

Transmission is huge. 09 plus has the lgt gears which can hold up to a lot more power. 07 wrx still ha the glass box that shatters. Don't know if 08 had the lgt...

 

I was told the 08's have the LGT gears also

 

They were rid of because of no performance gain. proper set up with the LGT brakes is the best way to go, you see plenty of 02-05 people always wanting an LGT caliper set. 08+ should have a similar brake system. 06-07 4pot 2 pot set up was a huge downgrade for us legacy owners.

It's not that it's huge its just thicker gears. 08+ used LGT gears and made them slightly better in 2009 hence why Paul at FW uses 09+ gears for his tranny upgrades in the 5 speeds. I'm pretty sure on this 08 may have NOT had the better gears. But I know the 05-09 LGT 5 speed uses the same flywheel (once converted to single mass) and clutch as the 06-07. So the 06-07 tranny is NOT the same as an 02-05.

Glass box that shatters? My car put down over 251 on vishnu's dyno which is a lower reading dyno than GST's from what I can see. No issues here whatsoever.

 

Huh? I've never heard of either of these theories.

First, they were rid of because Subaru softened the "boy racer" feel of the WRX in 08. The looks, suspension, and brakes specifically. Once the automotive press, owners, and fans made a stink, Subaru beefed up the suspension in 09 and the body in 2011.

Secondly, the 4 pots are sold by several vendors as an upgrade along with the STi Brembo setup. Personally I feel the Brembos are overkill but I've never once seen LGT brakes for sale in any of the forum classifieds or aftermarket sites. My point is, if the 4pots are a "downgrade" and the LGTs an upgrade, why is there a market for one but not the other?

Now that being said, the WRX has never had weak brakes and I wasn't implying that the 08 and later models' were inferior. I was just pointing out the differences to the OP.

 

Looks. Think of it this way, would you rather have something like a 4pot 2pot showing in between your wheels or a slider caliper?

06-07 set up is I think 24mm thick while the LGT is 30mm thick, which is identical to the Brembos. (Hence why brembos are more bling and equal pedal feeling than a real upgrade) The rotors on the 06-07 is pretty much the same size diameter as the other WRX ones which doesn't have a bigger surface area for more hard braking on them.

I'll chime in with more later. Gonna go surf.

 

so brembos are more for "bling" than an upgrade? why do so many people upgrade to brembo's? so in otherwords you are recommending ppl to get LGT brakes because brembos are a waste of money and no performance gains.

 

Depends on what car you have. I'm comparing between the LGT calipers and Brembos. There's not much of a HUGE performance difference more bling for the money. If you go to Brembos from any of the GC-GD models its a great upgrade. But LGT calipers are up there with them.

 

Paul built my trans with 09... I also thought the 09 was when they got the thicker gears... But idk.
My cars glass box blew around 280 hp...
But I only had the car for a few weeks, so no idea how bad the previous owners treated it, clearly in the cars life it was pushed.

 

Yeah I think they got the better gears in 09 because of that reason. I was trying to figure out why when Brian got his built by Paul.

Clearly the previous owner bashed it for sure. Maybe can't shift I dunno. Flukewrx is at 200+k stock EVERYTHING. Except maintenance suspension exhaust tune.

 

My car is at 86k tbe vf39 turbo inlet tune and I just know that there is no way I blew that transmission in a week haha.