Performance or looks?

ScoobyDoo69

ScoobyDoo69

ScoobyDoo69

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Joined
27 Aug 2003
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West Midlands
Hey all,

Looking for a bit of advise. As you may or may not know, I drive an 04 WRX. It has a turbo back decat, with a cat in the up pipe remaining.
My up and coming plans involve replacing the cat in the up pipe, and having a ported manifold fitted, followed by a remap and lowering on some decent springs, most likely eibach. This would leave me with a decent 280ish bhp, and alright handling.
I was then going to do some styling bits, like new alloys, and a few body parts. Then only once it looks how I want it to, will I then further uprate the handling, and brakes, then eventually on to even more power by means of a bigger turbo, injectors etc.
However, many people seem to think, once I'm at 280bhp, just fully uprate the handling and braking, then I'll appreciate the car's abilities better and forget the looks. And the others who I think are silly just say get the bigger turbo asap and worry about the rest later... which is not the option which I want to persue heh.

What do you think is the best way?
 
Were it 4 years ago I would say looks but now I would definitely say performance! As long as it looks pretty decent to start with then all is well.
 
For a road car
Looks > Power > handling

but you can't turn an ugly duck into something good looking ;)

The fun for me is pushing the car to the limits. If you uprate the handling, how often would you be able to take a corner to the edge on a normal road?

But the power will make leaving corners and straights much more interesting.

If you simply like comparing your times to a stop watch, then get the handling. If you like real fun and a sense of being on the edge get power.
 
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comfort > power > handling > looks imho

But in your case i would defintly do the performance mods, a suburu is an ugly motor and its only (but large) redeeming feature is its power and driving experiance.

Unless you "cruise" then by all means cover it in tat
 
Sone said:
comfort > power > handling > looks imho

But in your case i would defintly do the performance mods, a suburu is an ugly motor and its only (but large) redeeming feature is its power and driving experiance.

Unless you "cruise" then by all means cover it in tat
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Comfort... what's that ? :D
It may be an ugly car, but it can look pretty good. There's no way it would be covered in tat, trust me on that one.
I think a bit of each would work Trifid, but it's just choosing what :p
 
power.

once you have the power then you can find out which way to go with the handling.

nothing worse than spending £500 on shockers and then finding out once you tune the motor right up theyre just not adjustable enough and you should have gone coilovers.
 
helpimcrap said:
power.

once you have the power then you can find out which way to go with the handling.

nothing worse than spending £500 on shockers and then finding out once you tune the motor right up theyre just not adjustable enough and you should have gone coilovers.
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I'd have thought 360+ bhp on standard suspension would be worse ! My car will look like it's trying to take off if I do power first and then suspension.
 
Sort the brakes and handling and you'll have a much faster (And probably safer) car from A to B with a much bigger grin factor than you will with adding extra power - Which you wouldn't get the most out of anyway without sorting handling/braking out first. Power is nothing without control.
 
Hmm, its a subaru impreza, the handling isnt lacking so i would go for power, handling and probly wouldnt even consider looks. Maybe some nice alloys but no silly body modifications.
 
I think some are under the impression that I want to chav it up. However here are some pics for how I wish for it to look!
picture170xx8.jpg

picture095lw2.jpg


All I have to do to make it look that that:

Lower
Spec C alloys
Front spats
Front underspoiler
Side Skirts
STi Rear wing
I'm undecided if I'll put fog covers on though

I think it looks great and not tatty at all... but that is how I want it to look when I do the styling.
 
[huzeeee];10465041 said:
Hmm, its a subaru impreza, the handling isnt lacking so i would go for power, handling and probly wouldnt even consider looks. Maybe some nice alloys but no silly body modifications.
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I'd disagree with that. Mechanical grip isn't lacking, but handling once that grip has run out frequently is with impreza's. Boosting power first will only make that more noticable.
 
Dolph said:
I'd disagree with that. Mechanical grip isn't lacking, but handling once that grip has run out frequently is with impreza's. Boosting power first will only make that more noticable.
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But the car still handles nicley, just because you have more power doesnt mean you have to hoon into corners loads faster. You just slow down to the speed you would have origeonally taken it at. Agreed handling mods will make a massive differnce but the grin factor of taking a couple of seconds off your 0-60 is far more fun.
 
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