By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Check out this awesome shot of Troy’s 2007 Ford Mustang GT with downtown Vancouver in the background.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Bryan has put a lot of work into his 2007 Acura TL. Check out this video of his car on the dyno. Shoots flames at the 53 second mark!

Chris’s burly 2007 Tundra made the show today. Watch for it at the four minute mark!

How low can you take a Charger? Pretty low… A ton more pics on Chris’s ’07 Charger ride page.

This supercharged FJ is Todd’s daily driver. He built it with help from the guys at Demello Offroad, and the engine work was handled by URD. Click through to his ride page for full documentation on the build, a ton of great pics and even a video on the amazing off-road lighting system.

Subaru makes some fast factory cars. Specifically, its rally-bred STI is known for a 300hp fire-breathing mill and excellent road-handling capabilities.  However, as much as I like speed, I prefer to have something a little less "racer boy" for my daily driver. I like the feel of Subaru’s boxer motors and the driver ergonomics, I also happen to run a Subaru magazine, so it only made sense that I looked elsewhere in the ‘roo family when selecting a car for my own. In the end I chose a model with styling and an interior I could live with every day: a 2007 Subaru Legacy GT.

Stock, the Legacy GT has a 248-hp turbocharged motor that shares many components with the STI. Though, unlike the STI, you can get leather, a moonroof and body styling that doesn’t look like it was an afterthought. In fact, I’d say the 2007-08 Legacy is one of the better-looking cars on the road today.
Of course, given my occupation, this car didn’t stay stock long. Shortly after break-in we started the first phase of changes in the “need for speed” category. This included a larger turbo, fatter top-mount intercooler and a Perrin turbo-back exhaust system.  All the parts were tuned using an ECUTek reflash and netted a tidy 280 wheel horse-power.

I ran that config for a good year and was pretty happy with the overall performance: the 18G Blouch/TDC Turbo spooled fast and had enough scoot for the occasional track day or Time Attack race. The Achilles heel was the top end. Power came fast, but didn’t stick around, making long straight-aways on the track my nemesis. Also, in hot conditions, such as I faced at the 2007 Tuner Shootout in Nevada, the top-mount intercooler just couldn’t keep temperatures at bay.

Before we started on “Phase 2“ of this Legacy GT build, my technical editor Tim Bailey and I changed the engine management to a Cobb Accessport 2.0 (it wasn’t available for the car’s CANBUS system when we did Phase 1) and played around to see if we could break 300whp mark with the existing configuration. All indications were good, but then made a mistake, by pushing the tune with stock injectors and “trying some stuff” in an uncontrolled situation, followed by me flogging the car around our test course. That mix spelled disaster for piston #2: we broke a ring and smoking immediately followed. This is otherwise known as the “change engine indicator” coming on. Yes kids, don’t try this at home, we’re professionals.

In the tuning world the death of one engine often leads to the development of a newer, stronger mill to replace it. This project is no different. Out with the stock (busted) shortblock, and in with a brand-spankin’-new STI block with a special ingredient: Cosworth forged pistons.  This was assembled for us by the guys at PDXTuning in Portland, Oregon.

While the motor was out, we finally installed some larger injectors (from our friends at Deatschwerks), slapped on a larger AVO 420 turbo (installed by Rallitek performance), and fitted a Perrin front-mount intercooler to help keep temperatures more consistent. The clutch was also fried, so in went an ACT heavy-duty clutch kit along with the ACT streetlite flywheel. If you’re keeping score, yes, not much of the original confirmation remained when all was said and done.

For the tune, we took the car to Steve’s Pacific Import Auto in Tacoma, Wash., where Tim Bailey (our technical editor and owner of Surgeline tuning) was finally able to put together a proper tune on their dyno. End result? 320 wheel-horsepower and 320 ft-lbs of torque, measured at the wheels on the Mystang dyno, running 92 octane fuel.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you all the facts about this new build, since it is an ongoing project car for Subiesport Magazine, and is scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue — we have to keep some morsels for the magazine. But I can say this: It’s fast, but not fast enough.  Certainly faster than any stock STI, but that’s not what I want. I don’t think I’ll be happy with this setup until we hit or surpass a safe 350whp, which will require some more changes.

The fact that we’re not done yet is okay by me. In many ways, testing all these different setups is more fun than the destination itself. Stay tuned, as the adventure continues.

I’m not sure what’s more impressive: Ben’s bio (founder of Bulletproof Automotive and Bespoke Ventures and the exclusive North American distributor for many high end Japanese tuning brands) or his S2000 (Max Power cover car and all-around show stopper). Ben is an expert on all things JDM, and you will be seeing quite a few of his blogs on CarDomain in the coming weeks and months. Welcome Ben!

In this case VIP stands for Vehicle Identification Passport. It’s the book that Ferrari gives to new owners, and includes photos of their particular car as it works its way through the assembly line. Jalem included scans from his VIP book on his F430 ride page. You can see the rest of the pages of the book after the jump. Wouldn’t it be cool if all manufacturers did this?

Continue reading "Ferrari VIP" »

The production version of the new Challenger looks reasonably close to the concept, so you might not have expected Hot Wheels to make a new version for 2008. But they did a completely new tool. I couldn’t tell the difference between the two from these pics taken by my Moparts buddy Paul Balze, so here’s the breakdown Paul provided:

The ’07s are body-color all the way to the bottom of the rockers/bumpers, while the 08s have the blackout paint on the lower body.
The ’07s have seams cast in where the front and rear fascia meet the body on the concept car, the ’08s don’t.
The ’07s have the Challenger nameplate tampo’d on the quarters, the ’08s don’t.
The ’07s have the full-width red taillight bar, while the ’08s have the backup light in the center.
The ’08s have seams on the roof and a sunroof, the ’07s don’t.
The ’08s have the decklid spoiler cast in.
The ’08s have the chin spoiler.
The side marker lights are in different locations, as on the actual cars.
The roofline and window openings look different on the ’08 than on the ’07.
The ’08s have quarter windows, the ’07s don’t.
The stripe tampo on the hood of the ’08 appears to include a tiny Dodge ram logo, the ’07 doesn’t.
Since I haven’t taken either out of the blister, I can’t say whether the interiors are different.
Both have Dodge tampo’d in the center of the taillight bar.
The bases, on the other hand, appear pretty much identical except for lettering.

I have a Hot Wheels model of the concept (I did, anyway–my daughter was playing with it–I think it may be under the couch) but now I’m gonna have to go out and get the 2008. More pics after the jump, along with the official definition for the word "tampo," also provided by Paul. Thanks Paul!

Continue reading "Hot Wheels Collectors: 2008 NM Challenger SRT8" »

Air travel is really the only decent excuse for waking up early. After all, you get to go somewhere, and at least if you’re supposed to arrive two hours before your flight, the bars open at six. But I don’t even care about the fact that I had to get up at at the crack of dawn, because I’m headed to Detroit—Motor City!—for the kickoff of the 2008 DUB tour. While I missed the 2007 stop, I was on the ground in Detroit in 2006, and at SEMA, I talked to head honcho Myles Kovacs about what was hot wheel-wise. So I’m curious to see what heats up the floor tomorrow. In ‘O6 I liked this two-tone Charger, and as always, the audio gear in the bed of the Meguire’s truck made me dizzy. And while I know it’s two Chargers in a row, I really like how this Mopar from last year looks like a shark. Right now, I don’t know what the coolest ride I’ll see this weekend will be, but as soon as I do, I’ll post it on the blog. Also look out for interviews with David Banner, Nick Cannon and Llyod. Stay tuned—Motor City here I come!