You Need A 700-Horsepower Subaru WRX STI In Your Life

So you want a fast car, but you’re not looking to drop supercar cash on something so mechanically temperamental as the various apexes of Italian performance. You want 700 horsepower of fun, without 700 horsepower of parts prices. I get it. Conveniently, I even have a solution for you: This nine-year-old Subaru, which puts a dyno-verified 702 horsepower to all four of its wheels. It’s the perfect daily driver for you, just sitting and waiting for you to drop less than 12 grand (at time of writing) to be its high bidder.

This STI has a litany of mods to support nearly tripling the car’s wheel horsepower. Its engine has an aftermarket closed-deck block, an ETS 3584 turbo, a Haltech ECU, and no pesky AC compressor leeching its power — plus a set of solid aluminum engine and transmission mounts, which should make the boxer’s vibrations inescapable throughout the car in the best way. The driveline boasts a twin-disc clutch and carbon fiber driveshaft, but there’s no mention of the cryogenic transmission treatment that’s commonly used to protect the gears against that kind of torque. 

The massive intake piping displays a Tial blow-off valve front and center, though the seller doesn’t say whether it’s set to recirculate unused boost or vent it to the atmosphere. The latter is often preferred for its pshhhh sound, but venting metered air generally isn’t the healthiest for Subaru’s boxers without very specific engine tuning. Speaking of Subaru quirks, this STI still has a set of unequal length headers — the source of the distinctive Subaru burble, as well as the distinctive Subaru trait of eating ringlands from cylinder number four. Might not be the worst idea to swap those for equal length headers, even if it means sacrificing a bit of torque at lower to mid RPMs. 

Similarly, this STI could use some work in the interior. The rear seats have been deleted, and the fronts replaced with Sparco Evos and five-point harnesses. This would be fine for drivers intending to wear a HANS at all times behind the wheel, never checking their blind spots and never caring about their lack of an airbag in the aftermarket steering wheel, but here the harnesses themselves are a safety hazard. The STI doesn’t have a harness bar, let alone a rollcage, so the shoulder straps are anchored into the rear floor of the car. This is generally a fantastic way for your harnesses to shatter your seats and spine in a collision, so maybe think about remounting those a proper distance and height from the seats’ cutouts. Or, y’know, just putting the stock belts back in so you can drive without a helmet and neck brace. 

While there’s no accounting for visual taste — the ultra-dark tint and Subispeeds lighting may be to your liking, but they aren’t to mine — this Subaru’s drivetrain seems solidly and professionally built. There are much worse ways to get 700 horsepower beneath your right foot, and all of them are less interesting to drive — there are few things quite like a truly high-horsepower EJ25. It just needs a bit of interior love to be safe and usable on public roads. 

Buy this 700 horsepower STI, bury your foot in the loud pedal, and be reborn as someone who’s experienced a truly fast Subaru. Be warned, though, that there’s no going back — once you know how this feels, every other car will be a disappointment to you. Sure, those fancy Italians may keep up in the canyons, but you’ll be having a better time for the whole run up and down the hills.