Novice with a WRX. (Rant)

to hell with it, put him in a 330hp mcoupe and see what happens.....

njansenv wrote: I read this thread and realized that I ought to just sell the cars I have (and be embarrassed about the ones I had) and should instead autox a Yaris until I've proved that I have the skills to run the 'ring in under 8 minutes.

Who said that? And can you honestly deny that it would be a good idea to get driver's training before building an animal of a car? No middle ground to you, I guess.

So, uh...how do you guys feel about high powered $2011 cars?

I love 'em. How does that have anything to do with anything here?

1) The Challenge is held in a closed course environment and therefore driving beyond your ability is likely to hurt only yourself and your car, not others.

2) It can reasonably be assumed that anyone with the gumption to enter the Challenge probably has significant seat time driving fast cars in a competitive environment.

3) There are 'professional' ringer drivers available for anyone who feels the driving skill required may exceed their ability.

wow has this gone off on a strange tangent

you really don't need that much power on track. A Miata is a great place to learn how to drive.

I agree on the power point. If you bolt r-comps to a stock miata you can floor it 100% of the time and concentrate on other things.

BUT, i would way rather crash out in a new wrx than an old miata, even if it was going faster. Miatas are not safe cars to wreck.

I'm no sally, trust me.

It's just that I've seen so many people buy these cars, do all the wrong mods first, and end up totalling or at least cracking them up in a week's time. 265hp isn't an whole lot of power in today's market, but it's enough to get a novice driver with an inherently understeering, under-braked car in trouble. Like I said before, my biggest complaint with mine is the brakes, and then the handling. I'd spend money there first if you have to spend it at all. Mine's nearly stock, but it's still fun to drive every day. It's definitely no racecar though.

If I had to do it all over, and all I cared about was performance, I would have probably saved a little more money up and picked an base model Mustang GT. These WRX's are getting pricey!!!

One question that might help clear up some of this guy's "abilities": IS HE doing the research and work on the car, or paying someone to do all the work. If he's got the deep pockets, let him have his fun modifying the car. He's got the bucks.

First thing I thought was, "dealer's gonna love him when he comes in for warranty work." Much will depend on the dealer, of course, but, all that $$$ and voiding the warranty

I say personal safety upgrades for HPDE times; with no history of performance cars, I see a tree/crumpled sheet metal in this guy's future.

mtn wrote: Guess what, I've spun it on almost half of the autocross runs I've been on with it.

"If you're not spinning, you're not winning."

-Confuzious

it's a little funny but after driving my mid/low 14 sec volvo wagon i miss my underpowered mr2 and kind of want another yugo for the uber underpowered street fun...

the volvo is fun and I can make it quicker easily... but by the end of 2nd gear i'm topping 80mph... but my mr2 I was able to push a good bit further without hitting speeds that would get me arrested... and I think a suspension moded yugo would be even more fun on the street (add to that even after a "big engine" and stuff it would be pretty close to mr2 power if I pushed it lol

I suppose its why 250cc motorcycle is so fun... you can push it a lot further and not be braking a million laws like you do on a 600cc

Beyond good driver training, I guess it is your take on modifying a car. While you always need to work on a driver, I still see little point in modifying a stock car for power. Without better brakes, tires, and suspension, all you are doing is hitting the brakes harder when a corner comes and you end up with a car that is even more out of balance. I have always believed in only adding enough power to take full advantage of the chassis and suspension. Sure you can drag race a car, but the WRX does not seem like the best car for such a thing

This goes for street cars as well. When I returned my last car to stock suspension and tires, I damn near put it into a tree because I could not carry as much speed into the corners as I was used to. The same thing will happen to this guy if the power he adds exceeds the stock car's abilities.

I have a 2010 WRX. I only drive my car on the street, and it will likely stay that way. It's way too much $$ for me to risk writing off at the track. That said I have found the stock suspension and brakes to be more than good enough for street driving. I've had the car for a year and would say that I've never come close to reaching the limits in a corner, since like I said it's way too much $$ to risk.

On the other hand I can put my foot down on an on ramp and accelerate at full throttle without being on the edge of destroying my car.

I'd like to add coil overs and bigger wheels and tires to my car, but only to make it look better. As well i'd like to add a chip and exhaust, because it's cheap and an extra 40 hp would make it that little bit more fun. I also want to put a better stereo in it someday, since this is a street car and all that really matters is that i enjoy driving it around town.

obviously this is a bit against the spirit here, but it's my daily driver, i love it for that purpose, and maybe the friend in question plans to use his car the same way.

It all depends on the owners plans of usage.

As the owner of a 300+ hp Subaru Legacy, it's a pig on the AutoX course. It's awesome on the highway. To make it good for both I would have to do some serious (SERIOUS) work to the suspension. It's compliant and comfortable for daily driving but I can overwhelm the tires with application of throttle just about anytime, and I have a mechanical LSD, which the 2011 WRX does not have (it just applies brakes to the spinning tires).

So I bought a Miata to race. Let the Subaru be a highway/snowy day monster.

Like all the rest of us he's gotta learn it the hard way. Hopefully he doesn't hurt himself or someone else in the process.

30 more hp? meh..

if he was talking about a 500hp build, then there would be something to say.

I know a guy who with no actual experience purchased a 2004 mustang cobra with 800hp. I am still waiting to hear the bad news on him. (that said, been waiting a few years so far with different cars)

that said, I love the guy because I buy used parts off him CHEAP. (wheels and stuff)

Reading the Original Post: 320-350hp. So: not an animal of a car. But lots of posters are making assumptions and busting his balls over it. I must've missed the post where he said he would not use it in a closed course environment. EDIT: Reread thread. No mention of it, but some assumptions made by other posters about the character of the driver. Driver training: good idea.

2010 Challenge cars - opportunity for massive power in...challenged chassis. Not hating: can't wait to build one myself. (from the former owner of a 300whp Neon that stayed out of trouble on the street)

I'm just tired of hearing so many self-righteous people brag about how "they drive a 80hp XXX and beat a 300hp XXX at the . He's such a loser for having a nice car." Some people drive what they want to drive. Is that such a problem? There's LOT's of responsible people with over-powered cars that aren't capable of extracting everything from them. So what? As long as they're reasonable drivers on the street.

Duke wrote: Who said that? And can you honestly deny that it would be a *good* idea to get driver's training before building an animal of a car? No middle ground to you, I guess.

So, uh...how do you guys feel about high powered $2011 cars?

I love 'em. How does that have anything to do with anything here? 1) The Challenge is held in a closed course environment and therefore driving beyond your ability is likely to hurt only yourself and your car, not others. 2) It can reasonably be assumed that anyone with the gumption to *enter* the Challenge probably has significant seat time driving fast cars in a competitive environment. 3) There are 'professional' ringer drivers available for anyone who feels the driving skill required may exceed their ability.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I have a buddy who just bought a 2011 WRX. He has had the car two weeks and is already talking about engine mods, acceleration, and top speeds. He has never owned anything with 300 hp, turbo, and AWD. When he told me he wanted to bump it up to 320 to 350 hp, I jokingly made the comment: "What, so you can end up in the ditch?".

It's a long road to a reliable 350 wheel hp in a WRX.

^Doesn't say whp. Based on the OP wording, I believe he is talking about crank hp, which is achievable pretty easily.

Ok, by reading the comments to my original post, I think that some things have been thrown out of proportion of what I said.

1) He made the comment to me about wanting to get 320-350 hp.

2) I made a joke

3) I don't care what he does with his car (he could drop a helicopter engine in there for all I care), it's his car and he can do what he wants to it. He wears big boy pants.

4) I gave him my two cents, whether he takes it or not is not my problem.

5) I give him my opinion, I didn't chastise him, I merely told him that maybe he should consider not doing the engine mods now and looking at brakes and suspension first.

6) I also gave him a concern about the newness of his vehicle and the fact that he should get to know his car better before he adds horsepower.

Basically I was concerned that he was getting ahead of himself and he needs to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Advice was all I gave him.

DaveEstey wrote: It's compliant and comfortable for daily driving but I can overwhelm the tires with application of throttle just about anytime, and I have a mechanical LSD, which the 2011 WRX does not have (it just applies brakes to the spinning tires). So I bought a Miata to race. Let the Subaru be a highway/snowy day monster.

i assume you mean spinning tires during auto-x? i dont even spin in 1st gear in the dry driving straight unless i launch hard. traction control only comes on during hard 1-2 shifts. in the corners yes, but if you're putting that much power in while trying to turn you'll just understeer anyway.

anyway i'm looking for an e30 for the same reasons you got the miata, why spend a ton of money ruining a comfortable fun daily driver so it can be faster on the track?

yamaha wrote: to hell with it, put him in a 330hp mcoupe and see what happens.....

I want this challenge. I've driven a Focus SVT for five years so I have plenty of experience driving a hatchback.

donalson wrote: it's a little funny but after driving my mid/low 14 sec volvo wagon i miss my underpowered mr2 and kind of want another yugo for the uber underpowered street fun...

The whole time I drove that car I wanted way more power. Odd...

MitchellC wrote:

yamaha wrote: to hell with it, put him in a 330hp mcoupe and see what happens.....

I want this challenge. I've driven a Focus SVT for five years so I have plenty of experience driving a hatchback.

I chuckled.

I want this challenge. I've driven a Focus SVT for five years so I have plenty of experience driving a hatchback.

How does the diddy go... one of these things is not like the other..

Vigo wrote:

I want this challenge. I've driven a Focus SVT for five years so I have plenty of experience driving a hatchback.

How does the diddy go... one of these things is not like the other..

B430 wrote:

DaveEstey wrote: It's compliant and comfortable for daily driving but I can overwhelm the tires with application of throttle just about anytime, and I have a mechanical LSD, which the 2011 WRX does not have (it just applies brakes to the spinning tires). So I bought a Miata to race. Let the Subaru be a highway/snowy day monster.

i assume you mean spinning tires during auto-x? i dont even spin in 1st gear in the dry driving straight unless i launch hard. traction control only comes on during hard 1-2 shifts. in the corners yes, but if you're putting that much power in while trying to turn you'll just understeer anyway. anyway i'm looking for an e30 for the same reasons you got the miata, why spend a ton of money ruining a comfortable fun daily driver so it can be faster on the track?

It's sprung so soft that when I get on it the front gets VERY light. Last time I had it dynoed I was running 14psi and ran 285hp and 310ft-lbs at the crank, now I have a new 3" exhaust system and a custom 17psi tune.

I also have a failing bypass valve thanks to the increased pressures.

I have to agree with ngtd, Subaru transmissions arent the most stout, my stock power legacy ss turbo had 330k km on it and the 2nd gear would pop out under decel.. That car had 200hp and was more than enough for fun in the corner.. Terrible stock suspension too.