- Subaru Wrx Project - "Crits plz"

welp, my car has been shipped and is on its way.
some of you may remember that mine came with a carbon fiber hood, and i was really iffy about it, because it was a stock 2002 WRX and the only thing changed on the car were some wheels, and a carbon fiber hood.
and i didnt really like the carbon fiber hood cause it was too ricey, so i figured, since i cant beat the hood, i might as well work with it, and the wise say, you can turn any dissadvantage into your advantage, and ive done just so.

i used photoshop (im kinda well experienced with this tool) :grinno:

to manipulate some pictures of the subaru wrx (yes i know the bottom one is an sti but same difference.)

so i gave the picture the wheels and carbon fiber hood that my car has allready, and added from there on.

now my goal was to add things that were an in-expense, and possible, nothing here was imaginary, they are all parts that ive seen, and can be purchased, and are compatible with the wrx "02.
so here is my final outcome.

i hope to do this to my wrx when it comes in, first thing will be the wing, that being the most expensive piece, after that its downhill.
im not too big on body kits, or anything too fancy, so i feel this is pretty unique, and laid back, not too in-your-face gimmie a ticket, key my car kinda look.

http://xraichelx.homestead.com/files/Dash_Project.jpg

http://xraichelx.homestead.com/files/Dash_Project_back.jpg

i just wanted a few crits to see what you thought, or if you have any ideas you like to add.

Dash is my name by the way, it doesnt stand for speed or anything slick like that, just a name incase some of you were wondering.

It looks ok but I thought you said the carbon fiber looks too ricey??? Now it looks ricey beyond rice... Too much carbon fiber... Atleast paint the side skirts and front lip and wing if nothing else... I mean i know what you are trying to do with the black and blue scheme but its just not working... If it was a MBP or a dark blue then it would look alright but with the RBP its just not working because the blue is too light... just my 2 cents

I actually kind of like it. I'd paint the carbon fiber though, like the scoop, the wing and side skirts. would look awesome then. Otherwise, good looking car.

Yeah, I'd paint the skirts and the scoop and leave the trunk stuff blue. The CF hood looks rice, but it looks functionally rice rather than just flashy for no reason, so it passes inspection.

I'm not to keen on the smoked taillights, nor the painted door handles. I'd like to see it with mudflaps on all four wheels, not just the front right. ;)


Everything else: :thumbsup:

My :2cents:.

lmao why does everyone insist that parts they dont like are rice? Its getting old. How about the door number on your car is rice? Wouldnt like that if people said that would you? i would think not.

Well, IMO "rice" = "flashy and over the top, with a particularly Japanese flair." So, since my numbers are just for race day (hooray for magnets) they don't count. If I had them on all the time, that would indeed be "rice" (especially since they're metallic grey/silver and vinyl). The CF look is rice because people put the stupid CF pattern on stuff without actually making things out of carbon fiber. If it's actually made of lightweight carbon fiber, then the flashiness is offset by the functionality (and the expensiveness), and thus the coolness factor is retained.
I don't like spinners, but they're not rice b/c they don't smack of Initial D or Fast and the Furious. I also don't like mudflaps, but again, not rice. BOVs, rice. Non-functional wings, rice. Most modern non-standard paint jobs, rice (though some of them are pretty cool looking). Big wheels with superlow-profile tires, rice or rice-inspired ghetto-fab. Exhausts that sound like a swarm of angry bumblebees and look like coffee cans mounted to the bumper, straight up Uncle Ben's.

whoa, lol, hold the phone.

im not into rice even in the slightest, i just figured id work with the CF hood instead of swapping it out.

my car came in finally, its an unbelieveable dream machine.
and the CF hood looks beautiful on it.!!!!

its been modded slightly, its loud......like really loud, but a nice deep kinda loud which is a little much but i aint complaining.

i personally really like the carbon fiber look. if its done right.
too much is wasteful, and just the right amount is sweet.

i used the CF trunk to counter balance the blue, instead of just paining it black or something.

i dont plan to buy a CF trunk until i really feel like putting money into the looks of the car.
for now im just leaving it as is, and will use my money to fix up the little things.

ill post pics of my car soon, man i love this car.

its a little tricky to get out of first gear without jittering the car, but ill get used to it.

Patience, Dash-san. The transmission is a little slow; you'll get used to it (and then you'll be amazed at how fast everybody else's car shifts... and they'll be amazed at how smoothly you can shift their car). Post the pics in the "Post pics of your car" thread... we need more.

How exactly is a bov rice? CF is rice because? Your ideas of rice are skewed. I suppose next you'll say anyone that puts new rims on their car is now rice? If someone puts JDM lights on their car its rice also? How about larger hood scoops, or someone who adds nitrous, or someone does one of a million things to their car? I suppose its all rice then. i laugh at you.....

I wouldn't use a painted STi style wing on a CF hood...it wouldn't look right imo. the car looks ok, but I'd paint the sideskirts and lip. The hood and trunk I like though.

dont paint over the hood if the boot is carbon fibre then spray that and take off your wing

Y DOES EVERYONE THERE THINK CARBONFIBRE AND BOV's ARE RICE DOWN IN AUSTRALIA WE LIKE CF HOODS AND BOV's

Cause people are n00bs

No, no, no. Carbon-fiber *pattern* with no actual CF is rice. Carbon-fiber for real is badass.

this entire site is rice.

Another noob in action HAHAHA... Anyways I would say that if you do get carbon fiber buy a black car thats one way that it would look nice... Dark cars look hot with carbon fiber... the light blue as I said will not match as much because of the contrast. if it was a dark blue then it would look hot. Just my input again

people say CF is rice because every ricer puts it on their car and people say BOVs are rice because it makes a lot of noise and adds no performance on a WRX unless you have it making an ungodly amount of boost, that said I want both. Guess im a ricer in someone’s eyes

for me rice = a civic thats been upgraded, with the gay exhaust sound, gay engine sound. thats rice in my book.

and his car isnt rice, it looks hella sweet.

i have a wrx sti also, and the gears are not that hard, i drove my bros mustang GT and i think it was harder.

kichigaijap yes cfb is patern is rice but i do have to agree light cars with dark bonnets but i do like white cars wid carbon fibre (real carbon fibre)
if thats rice to you then im rice...the only white cars i would put the carbon fibre on is an rx-7 or a rexy cause they are my most favourite cars

oh yeah whats noob does that mean newbie??

i might be a newbie to forums but not to cars

yea, everyone thinks since your new, you don' know a damn thing about cars. WRONG

yeah, as long as the CF is the real deal, hell, i wouldnt say a word bad about it. I would say the car looks good. Im not a chrome fan the much, but im digging the CF wing and hood. looks tite

just dont add TOO much CF.

yeah, as long as the CF is the real deal, hell, i wouldnt say a word bad about it. I would say the car looks good. Im not a chrome fan the much, but im digging the CF wing and hood. looks tite

amen to that :icon16:

welp, i finally got my car, ive had it for about 3 weeks now.

http://xraichel.homestead.com/files/Happy_Dash.jpg

i totally love this car, its amazing!
ive decided to leaeve it as it is until im free to put money and work into it.
i have a question though, how long should i leaeve the car on after using it?
and what is the gadget called that leaeves the engine running after i turn the car off.
a friend of mine has an evo 8 and he turned it off and pulled the key out, and walked away and the engine was on for about 3 minutes and then turned itself off.

anyways, this car kicks ass.

on a side note, if anyone was wondering, i clean my car almost every day, completely by hand with a microfiber cloth, one dry and one wet with distilled water only.
yes its backbreaking work but the car is worth my attation to detail.

Looks really good, I’m not a fan of the wheels but that just my opinion, looks like it needs a drop but I think its just because of the low profile tires. The gadget you’re referring to is a turbo timer, after running it hard some people say leave it on for about a minute but normal driving I wouldn’t worry about it the turbo is both cooled by oil and water so its not really a problem.

WRX turbo is supposedly self-cooling after regular driving, so it's no big deal to turn the car off immediately. If you autocross or drag race or just generally drive hard, you should probably leave it on for a minute or so. Just listen to the next song on the CD and then turn it off, and you'll be gravy.

BTW Im not calling this thread rice Im just calling that guy Medicine rice since he thinks that this thread is rice... Sorry for the mixup. Anyways looks good I must say... I still would like to say that if it was a darker blue it would look sick as hell and white is sexy with Carbon fiber... All I have to say is if you are going to put carbon fiber dont overdo it. Carbon fiber trunk with carbon fiber wing and cabon fiber lip and sideskirts I mean too much... Just keep it simple like it is and everything will be ok. Just my 2 cents...

I think your car looks good, but the first pictures you posted look pretty rice to me.

Fake CF is absolutely rice, but I also consider indiscriminate use of REAL CF also rice. Who the hell needs CF door handles and little trims that serve no purpose? I guess what I'm saying is that non-performance related bling bling CF is rice.
I don't think it makes you or the car look very good. CF is an excellent material, but I believe that it needs to be used discriminately where you really need it to enhance performance.

id care to dissagree with you somewhat.
enough with the rice talk, this isnt the honda forums. :nono:

my hood is real carbon fiber of course, but cosmetically, i think the carbon fiber dash kit looks better than the silver dash that comes with it.
now, that doesnt do anything performance wise, but in my opinion it looks better, so call it rice if you wish. (i dont have it yet but once i find it ill considder getting it if the price is right.)

by the way, i hope my cars ok, i doubt it will hurt it as ive seen soo many videos of much worse things.

but to make a long story short, i was driving my back roads testing my cars abilities (10mph speed limite, due to 90 degree turns)
and this car pulls turns at an unbelieveable rate, but on the last turn i pulled it a little fast and revved the gas in 2nd gear when i pulled out and my car felt different.
i knew i had lost control, or lost traction as i felt like i was gliding, but oddly enough, i was still able to steer the car left and right, but i was slightly sideways, lol, i guess i was drifting or something, i wasnt sure so i countersteerd to get me back on track, and it did so in a jiffy.
i admit it was very strange losing traction in an AWD car, but its kinda funny how you can still control the car reguardless.
i believe it was a drift but i didnt want to hurt my car or ruin my tired so i didnt stay in it too long.
so im guessing my cars ok, heh, its not like im doing doughnuts or anything. :icon16:

this isnt the honda forums.
THANK YOU! SOME ONE FINALLY SAID IT!

Dash its not that easy to control an all out loss of control... yes the random controled drifts are always fun... Anyone who knows how subarus handle know that we have some of the best traction in the world... But when you lose it, you REALLY lose it... Lots of people try and push the AWD to the edge and they think that they can control it when they lose it but its different trying to regain control with a FWD, RWD, and AWD... Just for your information so that you dont LOSE it and have your car in the bushes...

lol, of course, i didnt do it on purpose, heck i wasnt even pushing it that hard, it was just a very sharp turn.

but im sure not to take sharp turns that hard in the future.

the car is excellent, i dont want to sound like im showing off or anything, im very careful and protective of my car.
these roads are safe even if you went off the road, so i wasnt worried about hitting a tree or anything.

the good news is im much more confortable in driving my car now, i took it to subaru and they took it for a spin to test the oil chnage and stuff.
anyways i asked alot of questions and they showed me how to best drive the car, and how much it can take.

i was allways very careful never to redline it or go past 5k, and i was driving it like i would drive my delorean.
and it seems the car is best drivin in the higher rpm's and its ok to push those rpms.
and it seems the car drives and shifts alot smoother, so now im more confident in my car.

the guy was redline-ing it and i was like, is that safe?
he said its fine, because its mostly stock, he said modding the car and doing that is what causes problems.

heh, in any case, car runs smooth as a pentium 4 5.0 gighz processor.

The engine can handle high rpm's no problem, modded or not. Just dont want to leave it there. I smashed up my first wrx by lossing control on a not so safe road. The road broke away and my car lost all traction as it was half in soft dirt and half on the road. I almost had control but i was heading towards a cliff so i aimed the car for a wall, fortunately it was also soft dirt and didnt do too much damage. AWD is an awesome thing but sometimes its not.

Yeah, just don't push that redline too far because the rev-limiter doesn't bounce. It just shuts off the gas for a few seconds, which sucks a lot at an autocross or track event (possibly resulting in a spin-out... thankfully, not yet for me).

is there a way dis engage that gas shut off?

There is a way, but don't do it. People who are a lot smarter than you put it there for a good reason.

WHAT?!? People who are a lot smarter than me, my @$$. Those same people also put crappy tires on the WRX, 3 catalytic converters, front-biased differentials, and LOADS of other stuff that is better suited to an old-woman driver than to the target market for a WRX. Disengage the shutoff if you so desire, my friend, but remember where it used to be in the revs and don't leave the motor up there very long. I bounced off the rev limiter in my Mustang all the time, and it kept running just fine. It had no such gas shutoff; it just didn't let you rev past a certain point. You just shift to get more speed. However, at an autocross or track event, sometimes it's preferable just to bounce off the rev-limiter for a second or so because you would lose more time shifting than you would gain via acceleration. In the WRX, though, you can't do that. You either have to lay off the throttle or shift, neither of which are good for your times.

PS- I'm sure the engineers and other post-graduated people on the forum would take offense at the idea that some other engineer is smarter than them just for placing an electronic gas shutoff on the ej20.

PPS- A better question: is there a way to convert the rev-limiter to the bouncy kind instead of the shutoff kind?

Actually its called a fuel cut... Just go out and find a fuel cut defender and it should be all good in the neighborhood... then you would have a "bouncy" style rev limiter than a fuel cut style

makes things really easy and buy a piggy back, more power, higher red line, no speed cut, no feul cut, safe, just make sure you dont go crazy with the programming, every engine does have it limits, and for good reason. Upgrade the fuel system, up the boost a bit, program it to run like a top, you wont need to peg the limiter...

But actually a piggyback doesnt do that unless its specified from the company that you are getting it from... I think what you are thinking is a stand alone EMS... And if you are talking about that then dont spend $900 on and EMS when the car is stock and all you want to do is stop it from cutting fuel when you hit rev limiter... Just my 2 cents

Does it actually remove the rev limiter and replace it, or does it set the rev limiter lower so you just never reach the fuel cut? B/c if it sets the revs lower, that's also no good. Revs = acceleration = speed = lower times.

actually just because your car revs higher doesnt mean it goes faster. Its called your power band and it does curve off at a certain point no matter what. And those engineers that designed these cars are a lot smarter than most people. The reason they put cheaper tires on the WRX is so people can afford it a little better. 3 cats so the car passes smog no problem. i woudlnt just blindly buy a fuel cut defender. just get a UTEC or some other stand alone unit, get it dyno tunned and set so that way you dont end up like other people with blown motors.

I know there's a *reason* for everything, I'm just not sure it's a good reason all the time. Like a fuel cutoff: yes, you need to have some sort of thing to stop you from blowing your motor, but a standard rev limiter works fine. If you stand on the rev limiter for an extended period of time, you deserve to rebuild your engine because you're stupid. Also, if you take the rev limiter out completely and over-rev your engine, you also deserve to rebuild it.

Yes, the powerband does curve downward at a certain point. However, when you have the clutch disengaged and the car is between gears (eg, when you're shifting), the powerband is nonexistent. There is precisely zero horsepower and zero torque being applied to the wheel from the motor (OK, there's the fluid movement between the clutch plates, but that's negligible and in many instances is a vacuum anyway). In certain instances the heartbeat it takes to shift (no power to the wheels) is longer than the heartbeat one would be bouncing off the rev limiter before having to brake or feather. Also, it is not a good idea to shift in the middle of a corner. Loss of power to the wheels when driving at the limit of a car's potential causes spinouts (been there, done that, sucks). Although I've never gotten the WRX all the way around, I've had some pretty spectacular sideways moments shifting in corners. I've learned not to shift in corners.

Example 1: At an autocross, the car is turning 90% of the time or more. Only very occasionally do you have a good place to shift. A big, sweeping increasing radius turn is not one of those places, but it is a place where you pick up a lot of speed. At the beginning of the turn, you may be way down in second gear, but at the very end of the turn your car may want to be in third. You can't shift in the middle, so it's better just to bounce off the rev limiter until you either make the straightaway at the end of the turn or slow down for the next turn after the sweeper.

Example 2: At a solo event, there is a definite finish line. You want all the power you can put to the wheels all the way through the finish line. If your car reaches a shift point on the last straightaway into the finish, ten meters before the line, what do you do? If you shift, you basically resign yourself to coasting across the line because by the time you've re-engaged the clutch you're across the line. Thus, you bounce off the rev limiter three or four times and retain as much power as possible for as long as possible. Once you're across the line, then you brake and revs drop back down.