ahnoff

My Foz "Blue Bear" has finally reached a point where i think it has enough mods to merit a journal.

When I graduated from college and moved to Baltimore last year, I originally purchased an OBP 07 Impreza 2.5i 4EAT (went for the auto living in a city with awful traffic). I thought the NA engine was going to be enough for me because the car i grew up on in Spokane, WA was a '91 Ford Explorer. Once in high school i timed the 0-60 speed on that sucker and it came out to around 14 seconds. The 2.5i made Car and Driver's Top 10 Fastest Cars under $20k, so i figured it would be speedy enough while not breaking the bank.

At some point in December i was beaten off the light by a Jeep Liberty and decided i needed to re-evaluate my purchase.

I wrestled with the idea of trading in for a WRX. I loved the Impreza in all of its normally aspiratedness and I didn't really want to shell out a lot of money just four months after buying a new car. Plus the 08 WRXs were just plain ugly. I thought about getting a used car until January when i stumbled upon a new 07 FXTS 4EAT at Annapolis Subaru for a very reasonable price. I took one test drive and fell in love.

The day i bought it (courtesy of my junky work phone's camera):



The following mods have followed in the time I've owned the car (bought in January 2008)...
-->in blue are things i will do in the near future... once my budget allows, of course

Engine:
Protuned by Jorge of P&L Motorsports at IAG Performance's Tuning Day 9/13/08
VF39
Cobb Short Ram Intake
Cobb Accessport
TurboXS 4" Downpipe, midpipe w/high-flow cat, 2.5" Magnaflow WRX/STi muffler
TurboXS TMIC (w/splitter back wall bend mod)
Go Fast Bits Hybrid BOV (adjusted to 50/50 recirc/atmospheric)
Walbro 255 fuel pump

Suspension:
Swift Sport Springs
Whiteline 24mm adjustable FSB
Whiteline 24mm adjustable RSB
Whiteline front and rear endlinks, spherical bearing type

Audio:
Alpine CDA9885 head unit
Alpine Type-R 12" Subwoofer in a ported box
Custom sub enclosure to fit behind left wheel well
Alpine 400w Class D Monoblock Amplifier
RAAMat & Ensolite (a member on Nasioc is gonna help me do this)
Thinking of upgrading to the Pioneer AVIC-F900BT

Wheels and Tires:
Rota Subzero 17x7.5 wheels in WHITE!
Dunlop SP Sport Signature all-season tires
Muteki locking lugnuts in BLACK!

Random bling:
Prosport Mechanical Boost Gauge
35% Tints done from GW Motorsports in Linthicum, MD
Rally Armor basic flaps
IAG Performance decals (adds at least 7 whp )
Tail light mods
Headlight mods

Most work I've had done by the wonderful folks at IAG Performance! Rick is their resident Forester expert and gave me great suggestions for my swaybar setup. I highly recommend them if you're in the Mid-Atlantic.

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Bear

kimmykoookoo

sweet, I love the color!

Forester 2.5 XTi

That looks so sexy! Nice job and congrats!

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USMC - One Shot, One Kill. You can run, but you'll die tired.

ahnoff

For any of you wondering of the drop on swifts and what the difference is, here's a good comparison with the stock suspension.

STOCK:

SWIFTS:

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Bear

ahnoff

A sweet picture taken by Jorge while my car was on the Dyno this weekend. Gonna be my desktop background i think:



IAG's pic of my car being tuned on the dyno, followed by my dyno plot:

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Bear

ahnoff

Some pics from IAG's awesome Open House this weekend. The Foresters were in good representation with Todd, Marc, Vince, lilsix, and singincanary (in a Tribeca) out in full force. Lilsix had some great pics of his posted up on nasioc. Here's a couple involving mine:

Todd, Marc, Vince and i all arrived around the same time so we had a mini Forester section off in the corner of the upper lot.

EDIT: I really REALLY need to do something about those headlights. Gotta get some rockblocker film or something because it looks hideously bright in the pics.

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Bear

ahnoff

Thanks! I was a little nervous after half-lurking here for the last 6 months getting all the info about what people had done to their Fozzies. So many great ideas and great input!

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Bear

smooth906

Nice looking vehicle you got there!

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'07 FSXT WRB

2point5awd

Looks great! Any photos of the back?

ahnoff

What kinds of pics of the back were you thinking? To show the drop? The exhaust is just stock right now, but i can prob get some pics to show the back of the RA basic flaps and whatnot.

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Bear

IAG Performance

Looking good Brian!

Thanks for the kind words. It was a pleasure to work on (even though I personally did none of the work... )

We'll see you again soon!

Rick
IAG Performance

ScoobyDoobie

Looks GREAT!

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99' Forester L & 05' Legacy GT

Silentspeed

Looks great!! how is the ride with the springs??? Also did the suspension mods help at all with the body roll??

orellius

That's pimp. If there is one thing I really want for my Forester, it is white rims.

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2008 Forester XT - World Rally Blue

ahnoff

Thank you! I live in an area with really terrible streets (Baltimore city gov't has no tax money and its streets are in horrible condition) so i notice a significant difference in the ride quality. It's tolerably jarring, but a downgrade nonetheless. It's not enough to make me switch back, but i definitely wince more now. If you live in an area with quality streets, i wouldn't worry about it.

Body roll is virtually a non-issue now. I have my front sway set to stiff and the back one to the medium setting. Compared to my '07 Impreza there is less body roll and i have yet to make my Dunlop all-seasons squeal. I'm still getting used to the new handling and haven't yet felt the limits of my suspension despite throwing it around a lot. I have started considering putting in a rear strut tower brace because I have noticed the chassis flexing after the sway and spring installation. A friend of mine from Nasioc told me that he had the same feeling in his WRX wagon because of all the empty room between our rear struts.

One complaint: as warned, the Whiteline spherical bearing type endlinks are a little noisy. They creak a lot on uneven pavement but it's not super annoying. Rick at IAG said a little lubricant next time i'm in will help a lot.

Thanks! Heck yeah... IMO white is the most underrated color for wheels on the WRB foresters. There's ton of WRB-colored space since it's a wagon as compared to the WRXs. IAG was nice enough to make me some larger rear-window decals in white so the wheels would pop more. The only problem is keeping them clean... definitely a PITA.

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Bear