Kyle has owned his Impreza STi for ten years, originally purchased completely standard apart from a PPP kit (Prodrive Performance Pack).  Watching WRC and playing Sega Rally, Kyle was determined to one day lay his hands on one of the best road-going rally cars out there.

Kyle tells us his son Kayden (4 at the time) had also been hit with the Subie bug and was a keen helper in trying to locate the right car.  Kyle and Kayden must have seen a dozen Imprezas – blue, white and silver were all on the approved colour palette list.  However things took a turn when a chap from Scoobynet got in touch with Kyle and asked if he was still in the market for one.

The car had two owners from new and only 48k miles but there was a problem.  A big one.  The car was black, a shade not on Kyle’s radar.  But when he saw the car in the flesh, Kyle was completely sold.  With a strong gold flake that really pops in the sun, this really is a great colour that suits the car down to the ground.  And pretty rare too.

Kyle reminisces of the day he picked up the car and drove it home.  With his son in the passenger seat, sporting a beaming smile and his dad following on behind, ”it was a day I will never forget, the car was completely immaculate, standard in all its forms but was fast enough for now”.  Steadily over time, the car become more modified and more tailored to Kyle’s pastime of attending his local track – Santa Pod!  And very often as a three – son, dad and grandad – all united around a shared passion for Subaru and making lots of great memories along the way.

More recently, Kyle caught the bug for serious power.  He tells us that after a tussle with an R35 GTR, he “realised that to keep up with the big boys I needed even more power”.  So Kyle did the only sensible thing – he called Enginetuner to talk through his options and ambitions for the car.

At Enginetuner, we don’t often care how much power a customer thinks they need.  We care about how the car will get used and how it should feel.  Power and torque will always be a side effect of creating a car that the customer adores and wants to drive as often as possible.

In this case, Kyle opted to have a new forged engine built around an EJ22 block stroked to 2.35L of high revving, closed decked, ultra-strong loveliness.  Still the pinnacle EJ motor, this would give Kyle the greatest range of tuning options and provide a strong basis for the car of Kyle’s dreams.  Having described to Kyle the reason we chose the Garrett G35-900 turbo for our own ET2 demo car for maximum response, minimal lag but with strong top end power, Kyle opted for the same.  Complete with Thermomet heat shielding and a rotated position to squeeze the new turbo into the engine bay. 

Other cool parts of this build include ported and polished Spec C cylinder heads with Enginetuner spec camshafts and larger valves on the exhaust side, an 8 fuel injector set up controlled by the Link ECU G4x, flex fuel and a Toucan display screen from JT Innovations.  As you can imagine, there is lots more besides!

One final request from Kyle was to add some custom gold Enginetuner stickers and a sunstrip.  Safe to say we are delighted to have this car representing the Enginetuner brand!

And the result?  696.2 BHP and 575 LB FT.  More than enough for the family to create lots of new memories together and keep R35 GTRs honest.  The sunstrip alone added at least 30HP…

Kyle’s future plans include a respray and underside restoration to ensure the Impreza can be enjoyed for many years to come.  He also wants to pass the car onto his son, but not before they have enjoyed many more shows together and hopefully manage a 10 second run at the Pod.

If Kyle’s story has you inspired to have your own show / track car or memory maker, please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

And also keep an eye on our YouTube channel for a video we have filmed of Kyle and family collecting his car.  A real flavour of that special moment of being handed the keys to the car you always dreamt of.