2003 Subaru WRX- The Farm Use Challenge Car

I cleaned up the sub-frames and engine compartment in the Newbaru. It's still not minty clean, but I no longer have to degrease myself if I even brush up against something.

I also just got a line on another WRX with a blown engine and a salvage title locally, owned by another local rallycrosser. I'm going to look at that later today. I think the asking price of $2000 is a bit steep for what's pretty much scrap metal to most people, so maybe I can make the two WRXs work out, budget wise.

(Edit) Ignore everything in this thread about the Newbaru. It's once again 100% a flipper car, and I have to get rid of it quickly, because I'm buying the blown up WRX. Full details on purchase once it's completed. Spoiler: It wasn't $2000. 

It has:

• Manley Forged Pistons
• cylinders bored over and honed
• STI connecting rods
• Performance rod bearings
• Performance crank bearings
• Dual valve springs
• Head and block resurface
• ARP head studs
• full gasket set
• cheap ebay stage 2 clutch
• ebay equal lenght exhaust
• VF34 turbo
• Blue STI injectors
• Walbro 255 fuel pump
• AEM wideband
• Mushimoto turbo inlet
• Koyo radiator
• BOV - Catted downpipe
• Magnaflow muffler
• ECM tuned by Turbo Time
• Stock wheels with all season tires (lots of life left)
• Spare wheels with snow tires used for rallycross (excellent condition)
• Tire/Utility trailer
• Eibach suspension (lowering springs with lift spacers installed for rallycross)
• Roof Basket
• Tow hitch
• Spare stock ECM

This acquisition is really going to complicate which car comes to the challenge. The easy button will be to drop the working engine into the silver, manual car and just send it, but I *really* want to take the yellow car to the Challenge. 

I've picked up the silver WRX above, and plan to use parts of it on the Farm Use Challenger.

I managed to put a wicked dent into the hatch using my ass to push it onto the trailer, though.



That'll buff out.

Looks like a banging built motor!

docwyte said:

Looks like a banging built motor!

Well, it was...

I think I have a shot at getting this thing to the Challenge in budget. The goal is to just get there and finish all of the events.

Receipt for the silver WRX.

NOTE: All references to the Newbaru have been removed from this thread and placed in a thread dedicated to the car. 

Oh, crap. I registered for the Challenge, so now I have to step my game way up, here.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

If all goes accordingly, ill be there without a car as free floating help if you want.

Cause there's no way in hell I'll get the miata done in time, and im not missing the challenge. 

Thanks, Dusterbd13!

I think the big question is how big a bite I want to take at trying to be competitive (without having a chance to win) versus just getting a car there. 

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

".... how big a bite I want to take....."

Invite Dusterbd13 to your house - supply Miller Lite, ribs, and mac&cheese - and throw that Z28 back together.   You really should have everything there to be fast'ish and w/great handling - it just needs assembled.   

OK - I'll be quiet now.

In reply to legendscar95 :

Wong car! The Z is next year.

Let's recap.
Registration is in. Hotel is booked. Challenge cars are on the property.

I'm now in the "finish up other projects to get them off of the property so I have room to work on the Challenge Project without my wife wanting to choke me for making our house look like a junkyard" phase of things.

 

I had a chance to work on this a bit today. First up was an oil change, as I have no idea when it was last done.

Then, I took the inspection cover off and took a look at the timing belt. It seems like it was changed at some point in time, and it looks fine. 

The rust is... bad. It'll hold together for the Challenge, but this isn't a long term keeper.

I miss my bugeye, too bad I didn't have the finances to keep more than one daily at the time. 

The goal for my first Challenge is just to get there an run it. With that in mind, here are my thoughts, and please check my math. 

Original Idea: 
If I swap the parts from the silver car into the Yellow car, the budget looks like this:

Yellow WRX: $750
Stock WRX Wheels: $50
Eibach Suspension: $50
Exhaust: $50
For a total of $900.

If I swap the transmission and ECM, I'm looking at $1050. 

Plus, maybe tires. I kind of want to go this way, but it's a lot of work on a rusty car and time is tight. The Yellow car is the original idea, and we have a livery picked out an everything. Plus, it wears the Farm Use plate. If I go with option 1, below, I won't swap the plate over, since the silver car wasn't used on the Farm.
__________________________________________________________

Option 1: Swapping the engine from the Yellow car into the silver car.

Silver WRX: $500
Stock ECM: $50
Wheels: $50
Trans: $100
Suspension: $50
Exhaust: $50
Radiator: $50
Tires: ?

So, $850, plus whatever the value of the engine from the yellow car would wind up being.  The plus side is I wouldn't have to exchange nearly as many things to have a running and ready Challenge Car that's less crusty overall. I'd be done in a weekend or so, and could possibly plate the thing and work out any bugs it has in it. 

 

Silver car sounds like the way better solution 

I'd definitely go with the less rusty option

I agree that the silver car is the smart option. Now I just have to get my emotional attachment to the idea of bringing the yellow one sorted out.
 

I worked on the silver car for a few hours today, mainly prepping to remove the engine. I discovered some minor things that disappoint me- like a broken plug on the wiring harness, held tight with a zip tie, a few stripped heads on bolts, that kind of thing. 

I'm still up in the air about what car I'm going to use. Either way, the engine needs to come out of the silver car- either to tear it down and find out what went wrong or to put the engine from the yellow car in there. 

The only other team mate I have, helping out. We were swapping the suspension from the silver WRX into the yellow WRX.  Also in the picture: Freebaru and Gotharu. Gotharu is an entirely different project, which doesn't have a build thread, yet. 

​​​​​​

The Challenge is exactly 2 months away. Be real, are you going to pull an engine and reinstall in that time? I've not seen much progress in this thread yet. Might be better off just running the Farm Use car and sorting out the suspension best you can. You don't really need a manual for the Challenge if the auto has a manual mode that lets you hold 2nd gear for autocross.

In reply to maschinenbau :

I can pull and reinstall an engine in a weekend, but it doesn't matter. We'd discussed running the Yellow car a bit last week and yesterday we confirmed that was the plan. We just want to show up and finish, because if we finish everything, it's like we won't be DFL.
 

DFL > DNF > DNS

Dunno if this has a name yet, but how 'bout FUBARU or F.U. Baru?

(derp, I just noticed what Farm Use Challenge Car acronymizes to... carry on!)

DancesWithCurves said:

DFL > DNF > DNS

Dunno if this has a name yet, but how 'bout FUBARU or F.U. Baru?

(derp, I just noticed what Farm Use Challenge Car acronymizes to... carry on!)

I didn't want to call it the Farm Use Challenge Kar, it was too obvious that way. It's also affectionately known as "Bananaru" among the group.