There’s something about Subaru’s. They get under your skin and bore a way into your heart. Maybe it’s the tunability, maybe it’s the visceral sensation that ensues when piloting one. Perhaps it’s the supportive Subaru community. Whatever it is, it’s rare to find an owner who’s only ever owned just one. This Crystal grey Subaru Forester STi won the ‘owner lottery’ when it was purchased by one of our good customers, Craig (aka Fez).

Winding back the years, Craigs first Subaru was an Impreza WRX wagon that Craig bought as a family car. He immediately fell in love with the flat four rumble. Keeping the car very modest, Craig invested in some handling parts for that car which dramatically improved the already great handling and feedback as found on the platform that Subaru have been perfecting for decades.

Following on from that, Craig had another two Impreza before moving onto a crystal grey Hawkeye STi. He enjoyed B road blasting the STi on a regular basis alongside taking his family on outings. As with Subaru life, the inevitable happened and the original factory engine bearings decided they wanted to play no more.

Craig parked the car while he carefully considered his options. Was this a car that warranted spending out on? After some time deliberating, Craig knew that this Sti was more than just a method of getting from A to B. It’s therapy in motion. After having a discussion with our Alan, Craig knew that Enginetuner was the place to take his pride and joy. The Subaru made the 4-hour journey down, and to cut a long story short, we delivered a forged EJ25 with some other tasty performance upgrades.

Fast forward many years and the STi found a new home as they often do. 

This left a hole in Craigs heart that couldn’t be filled. He wasn’t sure at first what it was, but as time went on Craig realized how his ears perked up when there was a rumble in the distance. The realisation had hit. Craig was missing having a Subaru. 

Having looked around at a few (including a tidy Legacy) nothing quite ticked the box, until this Crystal Grey Forester STi came on the market having been owned and cherished by its then current keeper. Something was telling Craig that this must be fate, surely it can’t be a coincidence that there is a larger Sti in the same colour as the one he was missing. What’s even better is the added room that the Forester brings, ensuring that more family days out and camping trips would be on the cards. All the STi parts you love but with much more room to accommodate.

Craig and his family love using the Forester for everything. Knowing Subaru life well, Criag has always had that feeling in the back of his mind, waiting for the inevitable to happen. This time however, Craig took the bull by the horns and decided to not wait for that to happen and be stranded somewhere with the family, but instead to opt for preventative maintenance and commission us to build him a forged engine capable of 500 BHP (just incase he feels like more power later). Alongside this Craig already had a new upgraded top mount intercooler and a billet TD05 18g turbo, sat waiting to go. We installed the new heart in the Forester along with Craig’s parts and added in a top feed fuel rail conversion, with some ID1050x injectors (more future proofing) and a Link G4X Plug ‘N’ Play ECU. While we were at it, we also installed some sensors onto the engine and fed them into the ECU, so the engine’s vitals can be constantly monitored, and the ECU can shut everything down if anything should ever go wrong.

We adapted a JDM cat back Impreza exhaust system to mate to a sport cat, so the car is stealthily quiet whilst still performing, and still being 100% road legal.

After we covered 1000 miles on the engine, we strapped the car down onto the dyno and commenced tuning the STi to 375 BHP with 370lbft of torque! More than enough to take the family, the dog, and the tent around the country! 

The performance and drivability of this setup means it’s an absolute pleasure to be in, so much so that I keep finding myself reaching for the keys when I need to run an errand. It’s safe to say it’s going to be sorely missed around here. 

With other plans for the Forester lingering in the background, what would you do next if anything?

If you’ve got a Forester and are looking to enhance your driving experience, why not reach out to one of the team today and see how we can help.

Enginetuner, performance engineering at its finest!