I always loved it so it was a hard decision to sell it then had to distance myself a bit to make it happen though honestly I never really advertised it much, just here and three craigslist locations, two in CA where it would be hard for somebody to buy it so I guess I did not really want to let it go that badly
It has been frustrating spending all the time and money and having lag issues and now getting so much better, not C39 like but much better and soon it will be maximized and should be plenty fast, faster than really needed and able to handle most any driving condition except much snow unless I put on snow tires for winter but I plan to only use it on good days since retired I do not have to go anywhere if I do not want to. I might however raise it up, grippy tires, rally flaps, go have some fun in the cold next winter
I have built several FWD cars, a bunch of RWD and only one AWD and found it more satisfying to make a fast FWD do what most do not realize it can. Much easier to build a fast RWD, FWD is just to easy to go fast and not that rewarding but the Forester XT I built was really fun in some situations but just got to costly, $30k into mods it and not enough power to go with the handling, braking, etc, I would of ended up with $90k into the car with very expensive grenade engine, the nature of building Subaru, and Porsche engines, cost is HUGE and easy to break at least the Subbies.
Before I bought this I was building a 600HP, 2300lb, $100k 95 M3 race car and had an 05 Scion TC fully build street/track/audio comp car and a C5 Vette race car, parted and sold them off and started on a $40k 97 318ti to become a 332ti street/track car, on the lift, all apart for total rebuild, took a road trip with the RV, came home with the ST after a 5 minute test drive, went and got my wife, 5 more minutes, we fell for it right away! I bought it with intentions of just a few mods, hauled it home to UT in the trailer, on the lift at 293 miles, 9 months later first drive, first and only track weekend, back apart, more work, it had around 2k miles the first year, at the most. Since then the main miles on the car are tune runs and cruising so it has had a relatively easy life.
One thing I really like about the car is cheap used engines, happened on my last two FWD cars, one blown on the dyno by shop owner not knowing how to tune, got a 2k mile engine for $700, next up another bad tune, blew up on track, 5 holes in the block, another $700 very low mile engine but with factory oil squirters and a better head. I will find a good 2015 engine for cheap when one pops up, seal it up and put it in storage just in case as I will be hard on this engine now that I am keeping the car
I was about to put up the turbo system and swap to the C39 but have no stock parts at all so by the time I did it I would have quite a bit of time and money invested then sell the DHM setup of course at a loss so not really much money difference. If the GT2560R with billet wheel does not make me happy enough I will sell the turbo and put on the new GTX2860R, first of course make sure it really does spool they way it is claimed. (I expect far better spool and power out of the 2560r according to Vdyon plots I had seen or I would not of went through the hell to change turbos as it was a major job in time, money and headache to do so going from the EFR which with better tuning ended up spooling well enough I would of kept it.)
Anyway, I always loved the car but was moving my heart away from it and focusing on other aspects of life and in many ways it really does not fit in but I will just make it fit and use it a bit rougher like when we buy some property in the hills it will have to get me there and back even if a bit rough roads involved.
