RE: PH made me do it: PH Blog
Discussion
I've been running a jet black 2006 XT for the past 3 months and it's a blast of a drive, something so chunky shouldn't urge forward so easily. Have had absolutely no problems, ok it's only a few months in and it helps that it's one previous owner was the local Duke's daughter (I live near Chester) so it's service history is impeccable and has had money thrown at at it whenever required.
Brian McDonnell said:
I bought my STI from RASP in June, what a superb car and service, would definitely recommend them if you want to buy something similar. OMA performance tuning in Northern Ireland say it's one of the best they've seen. 
Dan Trent said:
See, THAT is exactly the kind of car I had in mind when I set out along this path. I just got a little diverted...
Dan
I have just this second realised, that I have what I am 99% sure are pictures of both of your cars and at the very least, the auction grading sheets, from just before they got on the boat in Japan as they were in transit when I was looking, I can try and dig them out and send them on if you like? Dan
I love my XTe! It demolishes b-roads in a way that was scary in my Cerbera. Mine gets use as a lamping truck for shooting rabbits and is very happy to trek around muddy fields with a mate hanging out of the sunroof with a rifle and then get us back home in comfort at a decent speed afterwards. I've no intention of changing it for a while!
Scrooloose said:
I love my XTe! It demolishes b-roads in a way that was scary in my Cerbera. Mine gets use as a lamping truck for shooting rabbits and is very happy to trek around muddy fields with a mate hanging out of the sunroof with a rifle and then get us back home in comfort at a decent speed afterwards. I've no intention of changing it for a while!
We want to see pics of your lamping Forester with before pics, during the 'lamping' act with friend atop through sunroof and rifle...and then after pics with boot full of bunnies. Send these pics to some of our FXT cousins in the US and they'll award you a prize 
PS this site may just be for you... http://offroadsubarus.com/index.php
Only cost just over a grand though so can't complain too much... The photo of this car made me chuckle. Against all odds, the author has managed to procure a car that is both understated family conveyance (handsome in black, classical wheels) and some amount of performance machine (Never mind that scoop on the bonnet, Darling.).
An achievement of modern Man. A Rubik's Cube of family life, resolved.
unsprung said:
....(Never mind that scoop on the bonnet, Darling.).
An achievement of modern Man. A Rubik's Cube of family life, resolved.
Believe it or not I had a whole story about that all ready just in case. An achievement of modern Man. A Rubik's Cube of family life, resolved.
You see, my neighbour owns a Toyota RAV4 much like this one (Note: Bonnet scoop)
As we all know, Toyota and Subaru have teamed up with the BRZ and GT86, which of course, ahem, have their own styling quirks... See, bags of difference.
Now, an XT in nice agricultural two tone, in the right light, from the right distance, if you squint and there's a bit of fog, looks almost identical to a 2002-2004 RAV4...
Still with me?
OK good. So my neighbour's wife has a 2006 RAV4 (they really like them, they've had six between them) Like this...
Now. If you take a 2002, and a 2006 RAV4 and mash them together, and from a good long distance, in exactly the right light, say dawn or twilight, and you're a bit tired have some of that horrible crust in your eyes and have been chopping onions for a party of 50, while wearing sunglasses... then a Fuji Heavy industries joint effort in 2005/2006 would look a lot like a facelift SG Forester....
At least that's how it would have played out had Mrs Noname not seen leather buckets and big gold brakes and pink badges and said "WOOOOOW, that will look good on the drive with my Type R"
Feel free to mould to your needs and whatnot should spousal approval be needed... Man maths and a good imagination is all it takes chaps.
Good choice!
I've owned my FSTI for 6 years (only planned on keeping it for 2!)
Couple of things I would say is if you mod then either go big, forged engine, uprated turbo, suspension... or very subtle (Genome and a remap) as the standard Subaru parts work very well and the aftermarket stuff often disappoints so people get into a downward spiral of trying to fix the things they have introduced with new mods (some even had issues with the Snorkus delete as it evens out the airflow over the MAF. I bought it with a delete so cannot comment. ).
Also a remap is great fun but if you do it, then then budget for a HG replacement on the 2.5 motor as it will eventually go with the higher boost (we are talking years not months tho).
Lastly the cabin filter must do a REALLY good job as it gets filthy whenever you change it!
Couple of pictures of my Forester on the track, sun and rain:
I've owned my FSTI for 6 years (only planned on keeping it for 2!)
Couple of things I would say is if you mod then either go big, forged engine, uprated turbo, suspension... or very subtle (Genome and a remap) as the standard Subaru parts work very well and the aftermarket stuff often disappoints so people get into a downward spiral of trying to fix the things they have introduced with new mods (some even had issues with the Snorkus delete as it evens out the airflow over the MAF. I bought it with a delete so cannot comment. ).
Also a remap is great fun but if you do it, then then budget for a HG replacement on the 2.5 motor as it will eventually go with the higher boost (we are talking years not months tho).
Lastly the cabin filter must do a REALLY good job as it gets filthy whenever you change it!
Couple of pictures of my Forester on the track, sun and rain:
themanwithnoname said:
Believe it or not I had a whole story about that all ready just in case.
You see, my neighbour owns a Toyota RAV4 much like this one (Note: Bonnet scoop)
As we all know, Toyota and Subaru have teamed up with the BRZ and GT86, which of course, ahem, have their own styling quirks... See, bags of difference.
Now, an XT in nice agricultural two tone, in the right light, from the right distance, if you squint and there's a bit of fog, looks almost identical to a 2002-2004 RAV4...
Still with me?
OK good. So my neighbour's wife has a 2006 RAV4 (they really like them, they've had six between them) Like this...
Now. If you take a 2002, and a 2006 RAV4 and mash them together, and from a good long distance, in exactly the right light, say dawn or twilight, and you're a bit tired have some of that horrible crust in your eyes and have been chopping onions for a party of 50, while wearing sunglasses... then a Fuji Heavy industries joint effort in 2005/2006 would look a lot like a facelift SG Forester....
At least that's how it would have played out had Mrs Noname not seen leather buckets and big gold brakes and pink badges and said "WOOOOOW, that will look good on the drive with my Type R"
Feel free to mould to your needs and whatnot should spousal approval be needed... Man maths and a good imagination is all it takes chaps.
You see, my neighbour owns a Toyota RAV4 much like this one (Note: Bonnet scoop)
As we all know, Toyota and Subaru have teamed up with the BRZ and GT86, which of course, ahem, have their own styling quirks... See, bags of difference.
Now, an XT in nice agricultural two tone, in the right light, from the right distance, if you squint and there's a bit of fog, looks almost identical to a 2002-2004 RAV4...
Still with me?
OK good. So my neighbour's wife has a 2006 RAV4 (they really like them, they've had six between them) Like this...
Now. If you take a 2002, and a 2006 RAV4 and mash them together, and from a good long distance, in exactly the right light, say dawn or twilight, and you're a bit tired have some of that horrible crust in your eyes and have been chopping onions for a party of 50, while wearing sunglasses... then a Fuji Heavy industries joint effort in 2005/2006 would look a lot like a facelift SG Forester....
At least that's how it would have played out had Mrs Noname not seen leather buckets and big gold brakes and pink badges and said "WOOOOOW, that will look good on the drive with my Type R"
Feel free to mould to your needs and whatnot should spousal approval be needed... Man maths and a good imagination is all it takes chaps.
A masterpiece of fiction. Or... is it?
The men at Vauxhall Cross will want to have a word with you about best practice.
Ryvita said:
Just FYI, this is the snorkus I mentioned above. First mod that every subaru should have done really. It's the resonator of the air intake and is extracted from the wing much like a recalcitrant wisdom tooth. All it does is make things quieter and be heavy... so why the hell would we want one? 
Interesting that this seems to be a thing in the Forester community. It's certainly not in the Impreza world where the received wisdom is that the standard intake is good for up to about 400 bhp and removing it makes no difference at all to performance until you get to big power levels.In fact when I bought my most recent Impreza one of the first things I did was bin the wing-mounted "cold air" intake it came with and fitted an OEM snorkel and snorkus as I hated the cheap-sounding dump-valve -esque induction noise. With the OEM setup I can focus instead on the glorious exhaust sound.
I am a long time PH lurker and finally registered just to post a reply to this thread... because I love my FSTi! One of the all time great cars I've owned and just can't think of anything to replace it as a daily driver at a similar price point.
I'm running 300bhp at the wheels, so around 400 at the crank if you consider 15% loss. The car has been utterly reliable and takes track days in its stride (though you'll need to focus on cooling to keep temperatures at bay).
On mine I run stock internals / turbo with aquamist methanol injection, larger top mount and scoop splitter, additional oil coolers, larger Koyorad, larger walbro fuel pump, HKS cone filter and cat back with an excellent ECUtek tune. It's had pretty much the Whiteline catalogue thrown at it - from front/rear strut bars through to all rear subframe bushings replaced, runs Tein coilovers and a kartboy short shift. For Dan - I've had the speakers replaced with Focals, a Pioneer head unit (modified to fit in the centre of the double din dash) and amps mounted under the two front seats.
It's everything you could ever want in a daily car - as long as you don't mind the economy - and easily keeps up with Type Rs / S2Ks around Sepang.
Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to help!
I'm running 300bhp at the wheels, so around 400 at the crank if you consider 15% loss. The car has been utterly reliable and takes track days in its stride (though you'll need to focus on cooling to keep temperatures at bay).
On mine I run stock internals / turbo with aquamist methanol injection, larger top mount and scoop splitter, additional oil coolers, larger Koyorad, larger walbro fuel pump, HKS cone filter and cat back with an excellent ECUtek tune. It's had pretty much the Whiteline catalogue thrown at it - from front/rear strut bars through to all rear subframe bushings replaced, runs Tein coilovers and a kartboy short shift. For Dan - I've had the speakers replaced with Focals, a Pioneer head unit (modified to fit in the centre of the double din dash) and amps mounted under the two front seats.
It's everything you could ever want in a daily car - as long as you don't mind the economy - and easily keeps up with Type Rs / S2Ks around Sepang.
Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to help!
Oliie said:
I am a long time PH lurker and finally registered just to post a reply to this thread... because I love my FSTi! One of the all time great cars I've owned and just can't think of anything to replace it as a daily driver at a similar price point.
I'm running 300bhp at the wheels, so around 400 at the crank if you consider 15% loss. The car has been utterly reliable and takes track days in its stride (though you'll need to focus on cooling to keep temperatures at bay).
On mine I run stock internals / turbo with aquamist methanol injection, larger top mount and scoop splitter, additional oil coolers, larger Koyorad, larger walbro fuel pump, HKS cone filter and cat back with an excellent ECUtek tune. It's had pretty much the Whiteline catalogue thrown at it - from front/rear strut bars through to all rear subframe bushings replaced, runs Tein coilovers and a kartboy short shift. For Dan - I've had the speakers replaced with Focals, a Pioneer head unit (modified to fit in the centre of the double din dash) and amps mounted under the two front seats.
It's everything you could ever want in a daily car - as long as you don't mind the economy - and easily keeps up with Type Rs / S2Ks around Sepang.
Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to help!
Great car and an especially "in" colour at the moment. And during last few years. Saw the methanol injection in the photo, before I read your post. And I thought, "Oh, this is gonna be good!" I'm running 300bhp at the wheels, so around 400 at the crank if you consider 15% loss. The car has been utterly reliable and takes track days in its stride (though you'll need to focus on cooling to keep temperatures at bay).
On mine I run stock internals / turbo with aquamist methanol injection, larger top mount and scoop splitter, additional oil coolers, larger Koyorad, larger walbro fuel pump, HKS cone filter and cat back with an excellent ECUtek tune. It's had pretty much the Whiteline catalogue thrown at it - from front/rear strut bars through to all rear subframe bushings replaced, runs Tein coilovers and a kartboy short shift. For Dan - I've had the speakers replaced with Focals, a Pioneer head unit (modified to fit in the centre of the double din dash) and amps mounted under the two front seats.
It's everything you could ever want in a daily car - as long as you don't mind the economy - and easily keeps up with Type Rs / S2Ks around Sepang.
Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to help!
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