Fmic will give you more lag on the bottom(out of the gate) :!:
Dean did the math if you look close he said further the IC is the more lag you will have :twisted:

I do the waste gate larger fuel pump and pressure reg. new mapping for the ecu, turbo back with a single hi flow cat and SUSPESION (coilovers ect.)
But not in that order :!: First drive the car stock and find out what you need :) Suspension would be first in my book! HP doesnt = WINS

What he said. If you want a road course car, there are many things to do before power. Also are you thinking actual door to door racing, or just HPDE type events? I don't know your driving experience...

The STI is so quick and handles fairly well from the the showroom floor, unless you are a very experienced performance driver, i would suggest driving it stock for a while. Learn to drive it at autocrosses, or on the track, and then you will know what upgrades you want, you won't need us. :(

That said, the upgade order looks something like this.

1. Seat Time
2. Harnesses. With an 04 STI, Seats may be almost as important unless you have a large butt.
3. Seat Time
4. Wheels/Tires. you will learn more on crappy tires, so this may be questionable. They will make you faster, but not necessarily a better driver.
3. Seat Time
5. suspension (Order depends on budget)
a. Sway Bars
b. Coil overs
c. Front Camber/caster plates
d. Rear camber/caster adjustment of some form. Bolts/arms...
6. Did I mention Seat time?
7. Did I mention Seat time?
8. Did I mention Seat time?
9. Did I mention Seat time?
10. Any power mods.

Come out this weekend and ride with some of us. You will be amazed what stock boost, mostly suspension street tired WRXs can do in terms of crushing some very expensive sports cars, and what a basically stock STI can do as well.

Like Dean said... seat time is #1!!

Also, like Dean said... the STi is *very* capable out of the box... You've seen my car and all the crazy work I've doe to it... and to be honest, it's just about the equivalent to a stock STi: I have a little bit better handling due to the coilovers, but a stock STi will kill me on power.

In fact, right now MattR (who's racing a Street Tire A-Stock STi) and I are *tied* for 10th in the Open PAX standings. :lol:

Instructional Seat Time.

Passenger Seat Time with someone who is an expierenced driver(Dean is a great outlet) in car close to yours.

Seat Time means driving in events, in case that is unclear.

after changing the turbo on my wrx, i have concluded several things. if you do this, even with good tuning there will be lag. i put a garrett t-28 in my car(a very efficient and low lag turbo which isnt that big) and even with good low end tuning with my UTEC there is still a bit of lag. not a whole lot , but definitly not good for autocross as any one who saw it get beat up by stock wrxs would tell you when my bro drove it out at stead. straight speed and freeway with the full exhaust and turbo is great. when i get a decent tank of gas its more power than i really need on the street.(240whp @ SS) another thing is that if you plan on driving it around town they new turbo will get s**t for gas milage. and with gas prices the way they are currently this will set you back a pretty penny after filling up twice a week for a while.

my suggestion would be to get the power out of the ihi turbo thats in the sti. the sti makes great low end power and has a lot of low end torque. if you upgrade the turbo, you will be sacrificing torque for power since most of the tubos you can buy make power on the top end(just like mine). even with good spool up you will not gain torque numbers as fast at hp. not enough low torque means no good for auto x! my car might put down more on the dyno than an sti but there is no way even with my suspension could i beat an sti on a road course. on the street going straight, yes, but not racing auto x.

deans suggestions are also good. suspension is SUPER important right along with braking and yes sitting in your seat comfortably. i honestly think after everything that 500hp at the wheels on a stock sti block is nearly impossible without turning it into a strictly drag racing car, or running NX. the block just wont handle the boost, nor will the transmission, driveline, etc. get the power out of the stock turbo, im certain that you can attain 300+ at the wheels on the stock turbo by modifying around it(exhaust, intake, fuel etc....).

ryan

Wise words, based on great 1st hand experience! The stock STi turbo is actually a very good match to the STi motor for across the board power and low lag. With a wastegate port, turbo-back exhaust, and a remap, I'll bet you can see close to 275hp at the wheels all w/o adding lag to the system.

I would actually bet you can reduce Lag with those upgrades.

I did forget Brakes on my list. But, you have an STI, so not much to do there. For a Street/Autocross car, a good set of pads should e fine. On a track car, they are critical good pads, and possibly better rotors would be on the list. Pads probably belong right after tires/whhels, and anything else in with suspension somewhere.

Sorry guys, haven't been loggin on so much these days..
anyway, DAMN 450-500 WHP! that's a bejezus amount of power.. At that point, the car probably wouldn't be an every day driver anymore. Big turbo = $$$ in gas. :lol:

Like Dean and scott said, learning to drive the car well is VERY important.. as i know from experience :( .. however, if you want to have an STi that is puts huge numbers on the dyno and has great straight away speed.. There aint no one here that's gonna tell you how to spend your 15,000 dollars.. :D

500 whp is a ridiculous amount of power in any car, especially considering the huge drivetrain losses your AWD cars have. With a 20% drivetrain power loss (that number was just pulled out of my ass), that's 625hp at the crank... you've got to be kidding me. That's well into dedicated race motor territory - assuming you could even get a small motor like that to put out that much, the car will not work well for normal street driving, break things all the time, and be a general pain in the ass.

500 at the wheels is more than EasyStreet's 9.6s drag car puts down at the wheels. And they had to build a custom semi-auto tranny to hold the power. EasyStreet's car is said to have over 700hp at the crank. Drivetrain loss is *very* significant in a WRX/STi.

My car puts "only" about 200hp to the wheels, and it's certainly not a slow car. More than twice that power would certainly not be very streetable, and would cost well more than the price of the car itself... you'd probably need:

- EJ22TT closed-deck short block bored/stroked to 1.6L+, all forged internals
- Custom intake w/ dry-ice box
- GIANT turbo
- custom FMIC
- headers back custom exhaust (no cats)
- 800cc injectors, fuel rails, and a beefy fuel pump
- stand alone engine management
- custom clutch, tranny, differentials, and probably axels to handle the power
- And you'd need to run 110 leaded minimum... all the time
- And nitrous... all the time :shock:

And after all that, Dean would still kill you at AutoX... ;) :lol:

However, if you really want to go big... I'm sure ESX will adapt their 740hp WRX kit to an STi:

Just remember where a car like that is at home:
http://www.esxmotorsports.com/structure/740a.jpg

Personally I think it would be easier just to go with the dual EJ257 mod. ;)

How's that? An extra motor in the trunk? Where would your monkey live!?

I dont think he is even reading these threads anymore :!: :shock:

well lets think real quick! you mods intell a different engine hhhmmm. HE HAS A STi right? sorry cap lock :P

eh? To get an STi up to 500whp, it's going to need a different engine! 500whp is probably around 800hp at the crank!

To put that in perspective, Indycars & Formula 1 cars vary from 650-900+hp at the crank.

Hey, great, thanks... for blowing all our our hard work at convincing n00bs that stupid-fast cars can't turn worth a damn. :rolleyes: :evil:








:wink:

Well, you can be consoled that an F1 car weights about 1/3 our car's weight and costs about a million bucks. So you can have high horsepower and handling, but it'll cost ya, and it's not exactly a "grocery getter". (Although, if you used an F1 car to go to Scolari's, you'd be the biggest PIMP alive!)

Fast, Cheap, Reliable... choose any 2.

Werd y0. And the reason I don't have fast yet is that I want reliable and my wallet wants cheap. :P