Progress is slow on the Red Dragon since everybody is busy all the time. Lew is currently working on the suspension. In our search to create a perfect Impreza, I contacted the guys at
to see if they would be interested in working with us. Fortunately they were and Whiteline sent us the works. Every bushing, bar, ball joint, bracket, and piece they had for the 2008 STi showed up a week after our email and phone conversation. Thanks to Mike Kojima for setting this up for me; what a cool guy. Mike also set me up with some custom Whiteline sway bars for the
and they worked wonders. Ross at
sent me some Whiteline components back in 2003 for the
way back when and I was already sold on Whiteline components way back then.
Yellow candy tastes especially good.
For the dampers, we went with a set of the custom valved AST coilovers. Curtis at
works closely with Iain Litchfield who produces the
in the UK which use Cosworth long blocks. Curtis has a ton of data on the Impreza and built us a set based on the goal of our car. It should be plenty of fun when we go to the track for “testing”. Naturally I will be bringing along my helmet…
For the aero parts, we want to keep it simple and effective. This car is not directly meant to appeal to the 20-somethings so there will be no rediculous GT wings or anything. The car is designed for guys in their late 30s to 50-somethings so a clean appearance is critical. So for the aero parts, I contacted Donny at Versus Motorsports and hit him up for the Chargespeed Bottom Line aero parts and a carbon bonnet. Personally, I still think the 2008+ Impreza hatchbacks are ugly as fuck. People still tell me, “It grows on you.” The BNR34 GT-R grew on me. The FD3S RX-7 grew on me. The JZA80 Supra grew on me. The GRB Impreza will not grow on me. I could go buy a Ford Focus, flare out the front fender and stick on some Subaru badges, and BAM! I got myself a GRB Impreza. Anyhow, the Chargespeed bottom line kit is nice and should definitely help out by minimizing the fugliness of the focus.
Please imagine the car with better wheels, no stickers, no wack ass factory tail lights, and in red for your proper viewing entertainment.
19×8.5″ Forged Prodrive GC-14s for street duty and other forged 18×9″ Prodrive wheels (GC06?) will be for track duty.
The stock engine still resides in the Red Dragon, but the Cosworth 2.6L that will be put into the car is not built yet. Until then, we are plumbing the dry sump on the stock engine for some durability testing. The kit is nothing short of beautiful. Eddie, Tyler, Lew, and Marc did a bad ass job on it. The production oil pans will be machined from solid (billet).
In person, this pan is really nice. I mean REALLY nice. While the pan is not doweled, I believe there will still be some block stiffening because this pan is
buff
. You know you want one.We’re still working on some of the other details like Recaro or Sparco? Michelin or Bridgestone?
,
,
, or gauges? Time will tell. While it seems like we are piecing the car together, the difference is in the details. The collective experience that we have at Cosworth is what will make the difference. There is still plenty of work to be done and many hours of testing and development ahead of us, but it should be fun.