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North America's Fastest STi
PDX Tuning STi

This STi was a 3 year project starting in early 2006. The owner of the car, Ron Pippin, was a novice but a very serious auto crosser. Ron’s plan was to compete in SCCA Solo STU class the first year. The plan for 2007, was to move to a much more aggressive Street Modified category. Finally in 2008, Ron wanted to move into SCCA club racing running in the ITE class. The main goal for this project was to start from a brand new Subaru STi and build Ron a competitive car along the way.

In early 2006 the STi was modified to compete in SCCA Solo STU class. Ron campaigned the car locally at the Sacramento chapter of SCCA Solo and won the season championship in his first full year of auto crossing.

At the end of 2006 and early 2007 the car was modified to compete in the SCCA Solo Street Modified class. The car was competitive in SM from the very first race. It won the first SCCA National tour at San Diego and the first SCCA Pro-Solo at El Toro, CA. By the end of the season, the car was dialed in and running strong. It won the last SCCA National tour in Packwood, WA by more than 6 seconds of a margin. Unfortunately, at the SCCA Solo Nationals in Topeka, KS the car could not show its true potential because of a head gasket problem. Despite not being able to finish all the runs, the STi came in second place at the Pro-Solo finale.

Also in 2007, the STi competed in the Subiefest, Sport Compact Car's Ultimate Street Car Challenge and Subaru of America's Subaru Tsukuba Challenge. The Subiefest was very early in the year and it was right after the car had gone through a major overhaul to get into the SM trim. The STi came in 3rd overall in weather-affected finals after qualifying first earlier in the day.

The Ultimate Street Car Challenge was another success for the car. The STi came in 4th overall amongst a field full of formidable challengers. The car won the most important performance categories, Track and skid pad. It also won the show car category.

In November, the car competed at the Subaru's Tsukuba Challenge. This was a Time Attack conducted at Laguna Seca raceway to determine the fastest Subaru in the nation. The STi won this challenge over strong opposition from Crawford and Easy Street. As a result, the car and crew of 4 were taken to Japan in December by Subaru of America to compete against the Japanese tuners at the famed Tsukuba Circuit.

The plan for this year is to run as many SCCA club races on the west coast as possible. We will also try to attend as many Time Attacks as the schedule permits. And of course, the trip to Japan in December is the highest priority on the schedule. We are taking the car to Japan with the hope of representing US tuners well.

We'll be up against the fastest cars in the world, including the HKS Evo, but you just never know what could happen.

Given the capable platform provide by Subaru and the competent engineering team at PDXTuning, there haven’t been that many obstacles to overcome along the way in building this car. The biggest problems have been with custom modifications to the car to be able to fit the beefy 315 tires all the way around and keeping the ride height low. The front strut towers would have to be heavily modified and new sheet metal welded in place. The rear wheel wells would also have to be modified along with the control arms to make room for the gigantic tires.

Another obstacle was the engine management system. We had our heart set on using Autronic for our engine management but Autronic did not support throttle-by-wire. We took some time to convert the throttle to use cable instead of wire and overcame that obstacle.

Over 500lbs of weight was removed from the car including removal of the interior, door cards as well as the removal of any excess material on the body.

Unlike most AWD cars, this car has a very neutral feel to it. The under steer tendencies of the stock car are long gone. This car actually builds up as much heat in the rear tires as it does in the front when pushed to the limit. The beefy tires provide tremendous amount of grip mid-corner and the AWD system rockets the car out of the corner. PDXTuning custom alignment achieves excellent turn-in to start it all. The data acquisition system often shows more than 1.5 lateral G's in certain corners on track.

The big tires combined with the massive Alcon brakes provide eye-popping stopping power. The brake-bias controller helps achieve maximum stopping power in various conditions. The custom front brake ducting keeps this performance consistent throughout the race.

The power comes on smooth and strong. The engine pulls happily to redline and without any loss of boost. You can keep that boost going down the straight by flat-foot shifting the car. As you go into higher gears, the boost stays on. It not only helps the lap time's drop but it sounds as cool as it feels. Neutral throttle situations feel as smooth as a NA car.

Throughout its evolution, the car has had different configurations.

SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE/PERFORMANCE
- Cosworth complete long block that includes:
- Cosworth forged alum pistons
- Cosworth connecting rods
- ARP head studs
- Cosworth port and polished heads
- Cosworth intake+exhaust camshafts
- Cosworth +1mm intake and exhaust valves
- Cosworth valve springs
- Cosworth titanium retainers
- Cosworth high pressure oil pump
- Cosworth timing belt guide
- Cosworth crank position sensor bracket
- PDXTuning custom intake manifold flipped around to reduce turbo pipes
- PDXTuning drive-by-cable conversion throttle body
- Deatschwerks 850cc injectors
- PDXTuning custom fuel cell
- TurboXS fuel anti-surge tank
- Bosch dual 044 intake fuel pumps
- Walbro 255lph feed fuel pump (cell->surge tank)
- Garret GT3582R turbo
- TurboXS DTEC Pro BC boost controller
- PDXTuning custom front-mount intercooler and pipes
- Autronic SM4 engine management
- PDXTuning custom engine wiring harness
- PDXTuning engine oil cooler
- PDXTuning multi-compartment self-draining custom oil catch can
- PDXTuning 3Q Accusump
- PDXTuning transmission cooler 517whp, 505lb/ft as tested on K&N dyno during the USCC

SUSPENSION
- Ohlins double adjustable coilovers including the front camber plates
- Cusco adjustable rear control arms custom modified to fit bigger tires
- Cusco rear camber plates
- Hotchkis adjustable racing sway bars front and back Whiteline bump-steer and anti-dive kit
- PDXTuning custom front strut tower brace triangulated to the chassis

DRIVELINE
- Exedy Hyper twin-plate clutch and fly wheel Driveshaft Shop level 5 axles Driveshaft Shop 1-piece aluminum driveshaft

BRAKES
- Stassis Engineering Alcon front brake kit Tilton floor-mounted pedal assembly with brake-bias controller
- PDXTuning custom brake lines (ABS and booster delete) PDXTuning custom brake and clutch fluid reservoirs (dashmounted) Ferodo DS3000 brake pads
- PDXTuning custom front brake ducts

WHEELS/TIRES
- Complete Custom Wheels 17X11 or 18X11 wheels Hoosier (A6 autocross, R6 roadracing) 315/35/17 or 315/30/18

BODYWORK
- APR STi widebody kit
- APR carbon fiber front splitter and rear wing Audio Integrations front bumper canards Audio Integrations front headlight deletes PDXTuning custom modifications to the wheel wells to lower the car and fit 315 tires all around

INTERIOR
- PDXTuning custom weld-in 13-point cage
- Audio Integrations fiberglass dash replacement
- Defi 60mm gauges and heads-up display
- Recaro SPG HANS driver seat
- Willans 6-point seat harness
- ESS fire suppression system
- MSD G2X data acquisition and digital display and sequential shift light
- Chase cam in-car video recorder

Recorded Lap Times
- During the USCC the car’s winning laptime was 1:23.17 at Streets of Willows. That was with the car on Kumho Victoracers and 300lbs heavier than its current state.
- In the Subaru Tsukuba Challenge at Laguna Seca, the car’s winning time was 1:34.3.
- In recent testing at Thunderhill, the car was capable of doing 1:53.7xx without the bypass.