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Damage Dodger
2004 Subaru WRX

Meet Mike McGuiness from Las Vegas. Mike owns this bad ass black WRX wagon that ain¡¯t built for transporting little Billy and his soccer pals to and from Saturdays game if you know what I¡¯m saying. In this feature we decided to try something new. We thought it would be fun for Mike to tell his own story about his own car in his own words. Take it away Mike¡¦

I owned a Dodge Durango before the WRX and it was slightly modified with a system, rims and simple bolt on's. I have built and have helped build many other custom cars and race cars in the Las Vegas areas including; Mitsubishi EVO's, many Honda¡¯s and Toyota's. Currently I am helping my girlfriend build her Lexus IS300.

I bought this vehicle after getting into a bad car accident in my Durango, I always wanted a WRX and this was an opportunity that presented itself to me. The first WRX I got was a white wagon and after a few weeks having the car I was told my financing fell through and I had to give it back. Problem was, I had already lowered it and bought some new wheels for it. I converted the wagon back to stock and was stuck with some WRX parts, so I went to my local Subaru dealer to see what they had and in the back there was a black 2004 WRX wagon. I just had to have it.

After only a few days of owning the REX I lowered it and put new wheels on but it wasn't enough. I decided sway bars and other things from CUSCO would be the ticket. After getting all that bolted on, my friend James Burger and I decided to go on a little test drive out of the shop and within a few minutes we found ourselves almost killed by an out of control pickup truck! Thanks to the help of the Subaru AWD and little driving skill, we were saved from a massive car accident. After that day AWD was all I wanted and I knew I would have this car for a very long time.

So I began the long road of modifying and finding out that WRX wagons are a bit different than the sedan and many parts would have to be custom or swapped in order to make things work right. I switched the fenders to sedan fenders and modified suspension components to make things fit.

Over all, many good things have come to me as a result of owning this car. I have made friends that I would have probably never made through attending FLAT4LV Subaru meets. I have also made many contacts in the automotive industry and have been very lucky to work for local shops like Whole Sale Connection and JP Motorsports. I have been able to get sponsored by many top companies in the industry and have been able to help them with their projects. I have met so many good people through having this car and have been able to fulfill my dreams of creating something unique and bringing my ideas to life.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine & Performance
- Engine Displacement: 2.0
- Model/Year: WRX/2004
- Number of cylinders: 4
- Block composition: Aluminum
- Head Type: 2 heads dual cam
- Piston Size: 92.5
- Crower springs and Titanium retainers
- EVO 16G / Mitsubishi turbo
- Nitrous Express system
- AEM short ram intake
- Perin Performance fuel rails
- Greddy intercooler pipes with custom intercooler core
- Greddy Type-S blow off valve
- STI Pink Injectors
- ECUtek controlled ECU
- NGK spark plugs

Exterior
- Zerosports sedan front bumper
- JDM rear lip for wagon
- Zerosports grill for Zerosprts bumper
- Sedan front fenders fitted to wagon body
- Custom aluminum intercooler end tank covers ,
- Custom aluminum front air splitter and custom aluminum bracing for support in the front
- STI rear diffuser with Cusco diffuser mount and body brace
- UK mid-spoiler
- Pacific Custom Paint
- STI HID head light conversion, smoked headlights and taillights.
- Erebuni DTM mirrors.

Wheels/Brakes/Suspension
- Blitz BRW Profile/ 18x8 +30 F, 18x8 +35 R
- Nitto 555, F 225/40/18, R 225/40/18
- Zerosports 4 Piston
- TEIN Type Flex
- CUSCO sway & strut bars

Exhaust
- HKS Hi-Power fully V-banded
- GT-Spec header
- GT-Spec up pipe
- HKS Downpipe with V-banded connection

Interior
- Stock dash modified with Defi guages
- STI carbon fiber and Titanium shift knob
- Momo Mod 8 steering wheel
- DEFI gauges (boost, water temp, oil temp, oil pressure,) DEFI link system with DEFI OEL monitoring system
- Custom mounted boost guage
- BRIDE Low Max Custom seats painted candy red
- Bealtnick harness
- Clarion 5 band
- Alpine amp
- Infiniti sub
- Infiniti 6 ¨ö"component speakers

Shout Outs
EDO Performance / Zerosports
Nukabe / Cusco
BLITZ USA
Subaru of Las Vegas
Pacific Custom Paint
Uehara Motorwerks.
Nitrous Express

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