When we spoke to Joe - the owner of this over-the-top WRX - we though that maybe he'd moved up from, say, a Galant VR4, a V8 Commodore or something similar. Not so. The last vehicle that he'd owned was a Toyota Tarago people mover - complete with 20-inch rims!
Straight away, it was obvious that Joe isn't the sort of person that follows convention....
When he picked up this MY00 WRX brand new in 2000, Joe soon realised what all the WRX hype was about. The little Subi's chuckability and foolproof handling shone though - but its straight-line performance? Nah, nothing special... Joe immediately set about lifting the Rex's Saturday night head-kicking potential by installing a 3-inch mandrel exhaust, cold air intake, a front-mount intercooler and an increase in boost. As always, the Rex responded pretty well, but - hanging around at the Tony Rigoli Performance Gold Coast workshop - Joe found the sight of big turbos, big cranks and the talk of small ETs was too much to resist.
A bad influence you could say.
The bonnet was popped, the 12,500km old standard turbo replaced with a T3/T4 hybrid and Turbonetics Racegate, a Hi-Tech rear muffler went on and fuelling was upgraded with monster injectors controlled by a MicroTech MT8 programmable ECU. MicroTech is the system that's run on the Rigoli WRX drag racer (while it was still together, anyhow). Somewhat of an everyday job for the Rigolis, Joe's 19 psi boosted car kicked out a substantial 270-280hp at all four wheels (on a Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno). Nobody was running around the workshop with their arms flying in excitement, but - hey - the guys there are now used to pulling some b-i-g fat power outputs.
About this time, Joe got stuck into aesthetically setting his WRX apart from the others on the Coast. His car scored the very first custom front bar, rear bumper lip and side skirts that are now commercially sold by Blitz Motorsport. A new rear spoiler was being made at the time of our photo shoot. Joe had accidentally remodelled one of the factory 16-inch alloys, so it was the perfect excuse to move up to 18-inch DMA chrome 6-spokes clad in Falken 215/30 (yep, 30!) rubber. Bringing both the body and the rims closer together are lowered King springs on Pro Sport coil-over struts, while there's also a Whiteline anti-lift kit, front tower bar and rear swaybar. The brakes were revamped at around the same time: DBA slotted discs with Endless pads all round.
Joe had a great time running around with the newfound grunt of the Rigoli-enhanced EJ20, but the motor - somewhat surprisingly - cracked a piston just before this year's Jamboree. That wasn't such a letdown, however, because Joe already had plans of moving up to a 2.2 litre TRP (Tony Rigoli Performance) stroker kit. That's why he'd already fitted that really big set of injectors, y' see...
Again under the roof of the Rigoli workshop, the deceased motor was hauled out and a 10 percent increase in capacity was found by installing a TRP stroker kit - crank, forged pistons, billet rods with stronger bolts, rings and bearings. Turbo-wise, the existing Racegate was carried over but the turbo was up-sized to a Turbonetics T60-1 (a "street" version of the T60). Given the size and flow capacity of this big windmill, the existing front-mount intercooler was upgraded to a 3½-inch thick Mick's Metalcraft core, which is said to flow a mile better. Some added flow was also built into the fuel system, with a Bosch Motorsport pump now sucking out of an in-boot surge tank. Other stuff thrown into the build are an oil breather, a K&N pod filter on a fat intake pipe, a MSD DIS2 ignition booster and a TRP blow-off valve.
In this configuration, power was now up to 390 horses at all four (on 29 psi and running C16 race fuel). That's over 40 percent more than the previous (and still quick!) set-up.
Joe had been playing it safe until now. He knew that the stock clutch and gearbox had pretty limited strength, so he had been ultra-gentle on it. With the grunty stoker going in, however, there was no point in trying to get by with the stock driveline. Accordingly, a brass/kevlar button clutch went in together with a 4300lb Jim Berry pressure plate. Backing this is one of the hot-selling TRP dog boxes, which gives the strength required to run quick times.
Speaking of times, Joe has only managed to complete a single 'feeling-the-way' quarter mile pass with the stroker engine. His 12.5 at 125 mph wasn't exactly on the pace, but you can tell that the launch was a little fumbled; a 2.7-second 60 foot time tells that story! Joe tells us that the Willowbank strip must have been really well groomed, because the 18inch Falkens didn't spin at all upon launch. This caused a big bog-down.
Indeed, this MY00 is no stripped-out drag racer. Joe likes his music crystal-clear and loud and - accordingly - he's gone a whole-hog sound installation with Gold Coast Car Sound. The boot was fully trimmed in high-contrast mustard yellow while Perspex panels allow viewing of twin Orion 10-inch subs, two Orion amps (in the floor) and two Stinger one farad capacitors. Oh, and the Perspex panelling also lets you peek at the polished surge tank and the Bosch fuel pump - connected by aesthetically-pleasing braided line, of course. Inside the essentially stock cabin there's Alpine 200W D-drive 6-inch rears, 5¼-inch Dyn Audio front splits (running off a V12 amp) and TV, VCD and mini disc source units. An Odyssey battery and gold plated fuse holder hide under the hood. In all, it's not a bad radio...
Just after our photo shoot, Joe has got rid of the Rigoli's regulator-type boost control system and equipped the interior with a more up-market A'PEXi AVC-R boost controller. Keen on pushing in up to 35 psi, Joe also had to replace his previous boost gauge with one that could measure higher - a 45 psi gauge did the trick. But note that the entire standard interior is now about to make way for a full custom job that'll let Joe tackle the show scene. As he says, everything else has been done - including chrome plating the radiator cover, power steering reservoir, braided lines, polishing the compressor, intake pipe and oil breather tank. Not surprisingly, things wont end there; there's already talk of going for a larger capacity 2.5 litre out of a RX Liberty...
Hmmm. Having moved up from a Tarago, I wonder what Joe's next car will be - a road-registered Top Fueller?!
Contacts/Thanks:
Tony Rigoli Performance
+61 7 5528 4666
Mick's Metalcraft
+61 2 9755 7137
Jim's Clutch
+61 7 3891 6114
(Australian Competition Clutch Supplies)
Blitz Motorsport
+61 7 5571 6122
Gold Coast Car Sound
+61 7 5592 1755
Mermaid Suspension
+61 7 5575 5155
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