Ah, that Ken Block dude. Here is more recent video of him and that car autocrossing in LA. Nothing special in the driving skills department in the video below though - average stuff:

 

Hes on the new issue of Sport compact car. They try to race him in his daily STi.

 

Nice! I turboed the stock 2.2 for now, looking to do a similar swap eventually.

 

My dad and I put an AVO turbo kit on a 2003 Impreza 2.5TS a few years ago. It was pretty sleeper, and a blast in the snow with blizzaks.





He eventually put it all back to stock after months of frustration with tuning the Link ECU it came with, and my car now uses the turbo, intercooler, and miscellaneous pipes from that kit.

 

uhh... the wrx DOES have a tranny made of glass.... but if you do a Sti transmission swap it's damn near impossible to break at 3000rpm launches

 

The WRX seems to be a really misunderstood car.. in some ways, not unlike the Miata.

It's not (meant to be) a 1/4 mile car... blowing up the trans on a hard launch? I'm pretty sure I didn't see an "SS" badge on the car. Now granted, people have made their WRX/STi/Miata/etc. go like a bat out of hell in a straight line, but it's not the ideal platform for it... take another car and spend a comparable amount of money, and you'll beat it in the 1/4 mile every day.

Evo vs. STi? The Evo is a more tuner-friendly car. That's the business decision Mitsu made, and they've been careful to make sure the Evo will consistently win, off the showroom floor.

That said, I love the WRX, for what it is, just as I love the Miata, for what it is. The Miata is a great go-kart, and the WRX is a blast in the snow... though take many jumps like that, and you'll quickly learn why they use the RS in rally driving.

Best example of the WRX in snow? Went to Lake Tahoe in the winter, over the pass, with T1-R's on 18" rims. Had absolutely no business doing that on any car, without chains, but had no chains in the trunk (yet) and wasn't inclined to turn around before the pass was closed. They saw a Subaru and waved it on thru. Had absolutely no problems going over the pass, and made it 95% of the way up the hill to the hotel. Mind you, this was a relatively steep hill, snow had been cleared earlier in the day but not recently, so what was on the ground was slush covered with fresh snow... lost traction a few times, but kept on going, until finally got stuck.

The point? You show me how many cars can make it up the hill, in the snow, wearing low-profile T1-R's. In that price range, it's probably going to be a Subaru.