EVO/STI owners (and other 4cyl. tur(bros)) that have swapped to a Tacoma

It was kinda hard to part with the subi. I really did love that car. My main issues were 2017 forester turbo had no Manuel option and cvt trans. And wrx never came back out with the hatch. Now the new forester doesn’t even have the option for turbo. Might go to a wrx sedan, who knows. Living in jersey they were great in all weather

 

Had a 97 Tacoma 2WD and an 09 WRX.

Sold both to get a 17 DCSB 4x4 (much better suited for snowboarding, camping etc.

Needed a commuter car, got a 04 WRX and back into this hate hole of having two money pits.

 

I have the best of both worlds. Wife drives the 2016 taco and I get to drive the 2013 wrx hatch. If i had to pick only one, I would have the taco due to the versilitilty.

 

Those hatches are one of my favorites, I hope they bring a hatch back one day. (not a wagon like the current Impreza)

Cool thing is there is a rumor floating around that the next STI could be an AWD coupe like the old 22B, and it’s codeveloped with Toyota. But it’s just a rumor, and having a next gen BRZ coming out makes me doubt it.

 

yeah, Subaru was supposed to come out with a FA24DIT STI 3 years ago too... and the BRZ was supposed to come with a turbo from the factory... and there was an AWD variant of a the corolla floating around...

FWIW 10/10 not excited about a coupe Subaru. They already have one of those in the BRZ and 90% of the reason I would want a WRX is for the four doors

 

I am a selfish, old man who spoils the crap out of himself... I have the best of both worlds too.

Here is my previous SubieFest BEST OVERALL show winner. A 2001 GC coupe, with full Aerosim WRC widebody kit, 2005 STi swap, RaceComp T2's, fully deadened body and roof, every single suspension and cross member part powder coated, transmission painted, Brembos powder coated, the works. I spent over a year building this car and then won a few shows with it, then sold it.



Full build thread here:

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2185659

Prior to that, I built a 2006 Forester into a full STi and won a few shows with that, including best Forester and best swap at SubieFest 2012.
I still have that Forester, and it still looks this good:



In fact, I drove this car 60 miles to buy my 2018 TRD Off Road 4x4 this week, and then rented a uhaul car carrier and towed the Forester home with my new truck.... Made the guys at the dealership LOL a bit... They had never seen anyone do that before.

Full build thread on the Forester here:

https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/team-screams-06-fxt-sti-project.73362/

Prior to the Forester, I did a 2006 WRX (Hawkeye) sedan. I did a full 2007 STi swap into that, put a GT3076R with FMIC and meth, and went wingless and scoopless. It was a freeway monster. Sold that to build the (first) Forester. Still miss this car. It had T2's and every single GT-Spec brace made along with all Group-N bushings everywhere. It was the best handling car I have still, ever driven.









My current Subaru project is a 2006 WRX wagon that I have also done a full STi swap to, along with the all metal wide body conversion, which required the back half of a 2006 sedan, new front fenders and some creative plastic welding to get the bumper lines worked out. I did not invent this conversion, but I think my version of it is going to be among the cleanest ever done. I really feel like I nailed the bumper and this thing is going to be a beast.

I built a closed deck 2.5 with all the good stuff and am aiming for 600 AWHP. The engine is on the stand waiting for me to put the full built and ported heads, with stage 2 GSC cams on it and drop the motor in. The rest of the work is all done. 2007 STi trans and drive train. Fully raam-matted interior/roof, Spiider DCCD, all the good stuff... Should be a beast.







So, the moral of the story is ....no matter how bad you want a Tacoma...NEVER EVER sell your Suby....They are two completely different beasts. They will bring you different levels of joy. One is not capable of "replacing" the other. <---- Old man wisdom there....

And here is my newest "project"..... Anyone have any TRD Pro wheels they wanna sell ?



P.S. I've built a few show winning bikes too... No one had ever seen a completely powder coated 2003 WR-450F engine before I did this one.... This bike and it's clone that I built for my wife, were really fun projects. everything was either polished and then anodized, or powder coated. A lot of custom work went into this bike... I should have never EVER sold it, but in order to keep new projects going, you have to clear out the old ones while they are still worth selling.

Yes those are Marchesini Wheels..... And yes, this was street legal. Went through the process with CHP by doing an engine swap into a YZF frame, and since it was a "custom" build, they plated it. They actually issued me a new VIN #.



2003 Honda CR-450F



Backing it in at Grange..... After all, if you don't enjoy them when you are done building them, whats the point.?.

 

I went from a tuned 2018 BMW M3 (manual) to my 2020 Taco (auto). It's a huge change, the M3 was an all out blast to drive as well. I have rentals so the M3 wasn't helpful when I needed to transfer tools and supplies and another huge issue with the M3 was the cost of ownership; everything was so high, 1k lithium ion batter, 400 brake pads, tires that barely lasted 20k and you couldn't rotate, etc. Previously I had an accord and F250 but sold them to get the M3 (que up mid life crisis). Wife has a 2019 MDX so I used it and a utility trailer a lot but she hated being stuck with the M.

The Taco has been a welcomed change, being able to stick with one vehicle that is fun (in different ways) and useful has been nice. The aftermarket support is huge and the cost of ownership is a lot lower. I just miss the throttle response...lol One of the first things I did was trade the TRD Pro exhaust for a regular exhaust, after the roar of the M3 the crappy sound of the Taco exhaust had to go. It's much better now that it is quiet.

 

I went from an 08 wrx stage 2 to a 2019 tacoma sr5 dcsb

 

Love the wagon, my best friend had a 2006 he purchased new and traded just last year with over 200k on it. Might I ask why you didn't do the STi overfenders when you did the rear arches?

The gauge photo you had above made me seriously miss my old STi briefly. I had Defi Amber BFs in the center pod and a Red Racer / AEM UEGO on the column.

 

Not bad....I eventually put a fart can on my STi and called it a day ;-)

Seriously, that is some very impressive engineering and fabrication...Beautiful!

 

Thanks McFly....The STi "overfender" required that you use the STi rear bumper, which I purchased (used $50.00), cut and welded during the process and something about it just didn't look right to me. I spent days getting it all lined up and mocked up and then scrapped the idea in favor of using the wagon bumper.

If you look at the flat arch line on the rear fenders, the wagon bumper naturally follows those lines and then terminates cleanly. The sedan bumper, including the STi bumper with or without overfender arches all looked like mistakes to me once I got them lined up and laid out.

Seriously, I toiled over the rear bumper more than I did anything else on this build. Everything else I had done before so it was like snapping legos together. This wagon is the 3rd STi swap I have done.

With regards to the Defi Amber BF's, I still have them all, in near brand new condition. They are all going in the wagon.

Thanks man! I appreciate it. The work is the fun part. Driving the finished product is icing on the cake.

 

It's funny seeing so many subie guys in Tacomas.

I had a 2011 WRX hatch that was "lightly" modded, pushing closer to 300HP but probably not quite all the way there.
After having to borrow my dad's minivan to stuff dirtbikes into a few too many times I started looking at my options. Looked at getting a tow hitch installed on the 'rex, but it was gonna require a lot of hacking.
I also went to a Toyota dealership and looked at a Tacoma... and the rest is history.

Someone in the sales dept fell in love with my hatch, I fell in love with the practicality of a bog standard 4 banger fleet truck, and we made an almost straight across trade for a brand new 2016 Utility Package SR.
So suddenly I was 1000 pounds heavier with about 150 fewer HP.

More recently I started a commute that is about 22 miles each direction and the Taco, while very fuel efficient with the 4 banger, wasn't quite cutting it. It didn't help that my lust for stick shift and turbo whistling was growing after a 3 year hiatus.

So, I sold my Mazda Miata as part of a down payment on a 2019 Honda Civic Si. Nowhere near as fast as the WRX but it still gives you that turbo spool punch, and I get 37 MPG to and from work.

 

I loved that Defi is the aftermarket arm of Nippon-Seiki who does OEM clusters for Honda. Pricey, sure, but the quality is second to none. The rear bumper thing makes sense. Have you considered the mid-wing for the hatch? I forget if it's a JDM or an EDM option (it looks just like the one you could get on the GC wagon in the US) but my friend had one on his WRB wagon and I always loved how it looked. He managed to purchase it used, but factory painted probably 12 years ago.

 

Yeah they call it a "waist spoiler" . I have a GC wagon as well that is just sitting on non-op waiting for a WRX swap. The plan for that was to take all of the 5 speed stuff from the GD Wagon (the blue wide body) and transfer it into this white one. As it is, I will probably sell the this thing off for a few grand hopefully to fund some upgrades to the Taco... I already put the 06 WRX red 4/2 pot brakes and 06 WRX wheels on it, got a GC hood and scoops paint matched and so it is swap ready. I just don't have enough hours or days to do it all.... I literally own 4 Subarus right now. 3 of them are turbo, 2 of them are STi swaps.

 

Exactly. Between those and the clear fog lamp protective covers he picked up when he was in Australia, he had a few of the rarer wagon mods.

GC wagons are practically extinct in the Northeast due to strut tower rust, but I always thought they were great looking cars.

All this talk is making me reminisce. I never went too crazy with building the car, but I had a few neat parts here and there that I loved. I miss the stereo I had more than anything.

The best part about that car was the Chase Subaru card. It was 3% cash back in $100 increments. My dealer would take it and let me purchase aftermarket parts. My AccessPort was $270, my Cobb downpipe was $10.00. My UEGO was free, as was a set of Eibach Pro-Kit springs I never used and a free install of my KillerB oil pick-up.

Bah, memories lol.