 Given that we are located in the Pacific Northwest (specifically, Seattle), it sort of makes sense for us to attend one of the largest Subaru events on the West Coast. Namely, the West Coast Subaru Show. We've been to a few of these shows now, and have always enjoyed hanging out with the highly enthusiastic Subaru owners that come from all corners of North America, some even as far away as Alberta, Canada. |
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 We were invited back for another weekend event at the Shinanome Super Autobacs in Tokyo, the best selling Super Autobacs in Japan. There was quite a few booths around, along with ours. The crowds were good, and the weather super hot and humid. The new Legacy and our new 2011 STI sedan were the popular cars to check out, with our STI sedan drawing a lot of attention. |
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 AVO Lower control arm bushings. Probably the most terrifying job of the suspension bits, simply because it involves the wholesale removal of the front control arms on both sides. Not a job you want to enter without preparation. A buddy along to help wouldn't hurt as well, but you can do the job yourself. This job does require some leaps of faith and a willingness to beat on your suspension bits with rubber mallet. Vigorously.
Before you start, you better make sure you have a full set of tools on hand.
In addition to a good jack, and a set of jackstands, you will need these: Rubber Mallet, Crow bar, breaker bar, 19mm sockets, 17mm sockets and wrench, sockets or the AVO tools for pressing out bushes, beer, sweat, bandages, and a vocabulary that will make your mum wash your mouth out. |
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 Next up on the plate - the AVO TMIC for the 08+ STI Hatch and Sedan. It's a sweet little (well, no, not little) TMIC that's good for a fairly solid 600hp worth of flow with less than 1.0 psi of pressure drop. Literally more intercooler than most people will ever need! It's excellent at cooling as well, with a great bar & fin density. We were careful with the design to have it bolt in with the minimal hassle for a nearly 21" wide TMIC that is 4" deep - precisely the max we could get in without hitting other parts and to fit under the hoodscoop properly.
So let's get started! |
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 One of our most popular products, and a must have if you have an upgraded rear stabilizer bar, is our Rear Stabilizer Bar Mount Reinforcement Bracket. This is constructed from thick high-quality steel, and for a good reason: the OEM rear mounts are of thin steel, and bend quite easily, even if you just grabbed one with some pliers!
This degrades the performance of the rear bar, even an OEM bar, by quite a bit as they simply twist the mounts themselves instead of doing their job. |
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 So… since we've had the car for roughly, oh, 6 days now. So time to rip out the suspension! First came out the stabilizer bars, bushings, and endlinks.
It's not that we felt that the stock swaybars are all that bad, actually. They are quite well balanced for the street, and for once you don't need to compensate for crap dampers. It's just that, given the driving we will be putting it through, we wanted to remove the initial bit of roll you get when you chuck it into the corner. |
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 Well, Japan certainly gets all the cool toys first... In this case, our Japanese office just took delivery on their latest vehicle, a 2011 STI Sedan. They opted for an automatic version as well - not just for novelty value, but because it's likely to be the best seller in Japan. Development of new parts for this new sedan is going to procede at a break neck pace, with a lot of items in the pipeline. But for now, enjoy the pictures! |
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 One issue that's going to come up when you start getting to some serious power levels is fuelling. Simply put, your stock fuel system can't keep up after even a mild turbocharger upgrade. So we're going to go over one of the items you'll need to install, an AVO high-flow 245l/hr fuel pump. You can buy the pump alone and install it in the assembly, but that does take a bit of work. Or you can buy one of the AVO fuel pump assemblies, which makes it a loooot easier…
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