Looks good. What's a Opti-coat? How much and where to get it done?

Nice car. Enjoy your WRX. Ignore the haters. ;) Some won't be able to understand why you'd want to trade-in a RWD "sports car" for an AWD "econobox". Especially in a Z forum, what'd ya expect? :p I owned a 2005 WRX, and I still miss it from time-to-time. Especially when it snows. :tup:

Seriously though, if you've going to mod, be aware of the warranty implications. While no manufacturer embraces mods, Subaru is especially vigilant about denying claims for modded WRX's. They know that people mod them. At least, that was the big hubbub back in 2005-2007 when I was into the NASIOC scene. Maybe it's different now.

Good luck!

Oh i'm not worried about them... I know the car is a very good car. I'm not planning on going to some super high power level... 300 whp or a little over would be fine and not that expensive to do... but i'm in no rush. Most of the guys on here that give the WRX a hard time are mostly upset because the car... as much as I like the Z, just isn't that fast... not as fast as they would like it to be.

I stand corrected I got the HP from wikipedia and took the lower of the 2 ratings, so its a 2.5 Liter 4 cylinder boxer rated at 224 HP and 265 HP.

Right from the start its down, almost 70hp on a stock 370Z and it has 4 doors, there is really no getting over that.

As you stated you still have drop $2k into it just to get it approaching a 370Z's stock numbers.

If anything you should have went for something that more HP than the 370Z, unless your getting to old to handle a more powerfull car.

I learned a long time ago that once you are spoiled by a more powerfull vehicle, going backwards never really satisfies you.

The only reason I could really see to down size in HP would be to get greater gas mileage, lets say 45-50 mpg.

Face it you went from Catrinel Menghia, to a life with Snooki.

I had the WRX STI Special Edition which came from the factory with Spec C suspension. Did autox and tracked it on a road course and was real happy with how it did "out of the box"

and this right here is your entire problem from the get go... you're an uneducated wannabe gearhead who really knows nothing about cars. The Z has more HP sure... the problem is that 310-315 whp is all you're going to get out of it and about how much wtq? I said 2 grand will get me over 300 WHP while ALL the NA mods on the Z will net you the above numbers... get a clue dude. This wasn't to turn into a who's faster or who has more power. If you come up on a new WRX i'd think twice about running it if I were you... i'll leave it at that.

I've used Opti-Coat, Opti-Coat V2 (a nice improvement), Cquartz and Aquartz and semi permanent coatings are the future in my opinion. The Subie looks great btw! I love seeing clean cars.

It isn't that fast? A 300whp WRX might have the advantage to 60 or slightly above but power/tq starts to drop off at the top end, especially when tuned. From experience, my Z pulled on a cobb stage 2 Sti, even more so in the triple digits where the subie started to struggle. It may feel faster from the additional torque, but the Z is hardly "not that fast". Anything with a 3.7l V6 (w/ minor bolt ons) that can keep up with the likes of an E9X M3 is fast in my opinion.

There's a video on youtube with the Z, the Spec C, I think an Audi maybe and something else... that light goes green and that spec C was GONE lol. They are quick man.

This is a great comparison, thanks. I don't think you mentioned it, but why didn't you look into the STi also?

I considered the STi before getting the 370 because the pricing was so similar and I did kinda want the 4 doors + AWD. But something about the Z just made me pull the trigger. I think it was the push start button :p

The STI is one of those cars that was out of the price range I was looking at... and unless you track the car... you really don't need all the car comes with.

Mine came with the factory SPT exhaust and after a long drive it got rather annoying and would drowned out the audio system. Fit and finish is not as nice as the 370Z IMO. It seemed rather baseline and for $40K it should have been a little more upscale to me. Handling was great on both autocross as well as full track road courses.

I'm not talking Cobb maps here man... i'm talking a protune that's going to give you 15 or more whp than any OTS map. Cobb makes great stuff don't get me wrong, but with all of your mods for instance I need 3 simple, less expensive mods to get about the same power... a downpipe, a thicker top mount IC and a pro-tune.

Thanks for the compliment... yes, I love the opti-coat ... just use the hose to wash the car and that's it... blow it dry, or drive it and you're done lol. Of course now i'll be bored and wish I could polish my car once in a while. Oh well, more time to detail other cars and make a little extra money I suppose.

Interior sucks compared to the Z most defintely... especially for an STI. They really should have done something about that years ago on those and the Evo's as well. My OE exhaust has a nice little growl to it and I don't want anymore tone than that. I'm happy with the car though. I would have kept the Z... my wife and I are going down to 1 car though and I wanted something I could put a few things in if I needed to and wanted to go back to AWD.

Opti-coat is sort of like putting on a sealant or wax... it's a semi permenant coating that nothing will adhere to. When it's fully cured it has a level of 9h on the hardness scale. I read that's about as hard as pencil lead... pretty good. Bugs, tar, etc etc don't stick though.. you use the hose and the stuff just sprays right off. For many it works for 2 years... depending on conditions in your area. I really like it. You can get it pretty much at any auto place... autogeek, etc and can apply it yourself, but you really should polish the paint or have someone do it. 1 syringe of it costs 60.00 and you only need about 15 cc's to do a car. You can do headlights, wheels and plastic as well. The car MUST be cleaned with an alcohol/water wipedown before applying as well. I have a youtube video on it... look it up, you'll see the blue WRX on there.

Sorry to tell you tell you, I have over 35yrs, working on muscle cars, sportscars, all motorcycles, and complete rebuilds and mods on most of them, electronic engineering and. CNC machining. So I don't need the "clue dude ", sounds 13 yrs, old