Being the first game in town is key for any parts maker and/or tuner. There's maximum exposure with little to no competition in the rear-view mirror. Arizona's Vivid Racing zoomed into pole position with this 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX hatch and wasted little time developing parts and bumping up the boost in the fresh-for-2008 model. Built for the 2007 SEMA Show, Vivid Racing's WRX was the focus in the monumental task of designing and manufacturing aftermarket parts within a tight, unbreakable time frame.
The '08 WRX is built on a new chassis, has a longer wheelbase and an all-new rear unequal-length control arm suspension. While the muscular fenders are gone and the shape of the Subie is controversial (good or bad) on many fronts, popping the hood reveals a 2.5-liter boxer four rated at 224bhp. For the tuning crowd, the familiar turbocharged platform represents a good starting point.
Vivid also re-worked the body. At the time, nothing existed for the new WRX, so Vivid took the initiative. The car's silhouette has been enhanced with a custom modified Chargespeed front bumper, customized Chargespeed side skirts and a JDM rear spoiler. Vivid contrasted the car's vanilla-esque Satin White Pearl with a set of outrageously orange Enkei NT03+M wheels that look like symmetrical mango spider webs.
It doesn't take a Mensa member to realize something is afoot under the hood. The crazy Arizona Forced Induction (AFI) front-mount intercooler drops quite a hint with its gleaming end tanks. Raise the hood and the highly artistic (and supremely functional) AFI intake manifold dominates the scene. "We wanted to have something that was big and noticeable in the engine bay. Simple billet parts, battery tie-downs, etc., wouldn't do it," says Vivid's Dan Mermelstein. "So we decided to work with AFI to build the belt buckle of all intake manifolds-to draw attention."
The intake manifold is all-aluminum, featuring CNC-machined 6061 flanges, tubing, body, throttle body plate, velocity stacks, and a distribution block for all the necessary vacuum and breather hoses. Its purpose is definitely for both power and looks. This part is headed into production to compete against the current intake offerings.
The AFI intake has its hands-and runners-full, thanks to an Agency Power/AFI turbo kit featuring the effective and efficient Garrett GT35-R turbo. "The GT35-R turbo is nothing new to the Subaru crowd," says Mermelstein. "We used this on our full Agency Power 2007 STI demo car as well." When attached to the 2.5-liter engine, the spool is reported to be relatively quick because of the extra displacement over the older 2.0-liter WRXs. The turbo is capable of over 600bhp, but this WRX reportedly makes about 400 wheel-hp on Vivid Racing's Mustang dyno (on 91-octane gas). When running C16 race fuel, Mermelstein claims an almost 100-wheel-hp increase at 25psi and a dramatic increase in the powerband from 4200rpm up.
The turbo system features a TiAl Sports wastegate and custom AFI piping routed with the help of an Odyssey mini battery kit. An Agency Power titanium tip exhaust system and crank pulley also address power output.
This combination was tuned in-house by Vivid Racing via a TurboXS UTEC piggyback ECU. "At the release of the new '08 WRX, the UTEC was the only option," says Mermelstein. "An oldie but goodie, it's a direct plug-and-play unit and it interfaces in DOS format. Because of our experience with the UTEC, the tune was pretty quick, as the map for the GT35-R is similar to our '07 STI map." Since it runs a TiAl external wastegate, Vivid has to control the boost externally, so the in-house brand Agency Power manual boost controller was called into service.