Progessive Thinking

MRT - Progressive Thinking

It started as a minor repair job/upgrade that just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
A resident at MRT for the past 15 months, this could well be the ultimate never ending story.

Some people are just never happy, and the owner of this particular Rex is one of them. What started out as basically a repair job has since grown into one of the more extensive WRX upgrades you're likely to see. Only a young car, it has spent the bulk of its life to date in the hallowed halls of MRT where it is becoming more and more modified as time goes by.

The car's owner, Matt, lives interstate and so sees the vehicle only on the odd occasion when he has another idea for further improvements. The Subaru came to MRT via a long tow truck trip from cairns where Matt was holidaying. At the time he had a power up kit on the car which included a turbo, intercooler and exhaust system, with a state-of-the-art boost controller.

Holidaying in the sunny north proved this arrangement to be a little much (for whatever reason) and ended up melting No.2 piston.

This resulted in the car being loaded onto the tow truck and sent back down south with half of its engine sitting in the boot. Once at MRT, Matt arrived to get the quote on what it would cost to have a full engine rebuild and the rest, as they say, is history.

Since they were going to the trouble of rebuilding the engine, Matt decided that they may as well go the whole hog and put forged pistons in this time around. Then, while these components were being organised, he decided to go stroker which led, in turn, to getting a whole new block (which took several months to source from Japan), then MoTec engine management and a top-of-the-line full dash unit. Of course by this stage the gearbox was deemed unworthy and was the next item to receive the full treatment in the form of a Group N rally syncro unit, limited slip diffs in the front and rear, and a suspension overhaul.

From here the front brakes came under close scrutiny and a full brake conversion was carried out, quickly followed by a similar treatment for the rear.

After only a cursory glance down the list of specifications, it's obvious that no expense has been spared where this car is concerned. MRT has painstakingly rebuilt, fine tuned and upgraded almost all of the vehicles componentry using knowledge learned rallying and through years of experience.

Although some bits and pieces still remain in standard trim, the bulk of the car has come in from major revision and some very special touches to date. As mentioned, a stroker crank is fitted with light weight H-beam conrods, Teflon-coated, forged pistons (can't risk another melt down) with rings, cam, rocker arms, head and valves all remaining standard.

MoTec fuel injection is in place while the VF 22 turbo is now safely dialled up to between 22 and 24psi of boost.

Exhaust gasses exit through MRT pre-turbo extractors and on through an MRT race pipe with long waste gate separator and three-inch stainless steel straight-through system with four-inch outer.

As we mentioned, the transmission seriously upgraded to full Group N rally spec and mates to an MRT light-weight billet fly wheel and nine-segment ceramic clutch that is either in or very much out.

Follow this very serious theme right through to the diff, suspension and brakes for a no-holds-barred package. The 20kg centre diff is twice as strong as the original spec and the adjustable DMS 50mm struts and coil overs and adjustable rear sway bars, bump and rebound adjusters give the Rex rally-like handling and suspension control.

Braking, too, is as good as it gets with AP Racing 335mm rotors and six-piston callipers at the pointy end with Subaru 22B twin-piston alloy callipers, 290mm rotors and Pagid pads on the rear with an MRT brake master cylinder support bracket.

Inside the car, the modifications continue even further with retrimmed seats, MOMO Course racing harnesses, V5 MOMO steering wheel (the air bag variety), MoTec two-stage shift light, Alpine video CD stacker and a Carin navigation system to boot. But while all this is very impressive, the MoTec dash display has got to be the icing on the cake.

The MoTec ADL is straight out of a super car and displays just about everything you need to know about what the car is doing. With a G-Sensor and a beacon fitted, it will literally draw a track lap on the computer that will show braking markers and gear change points.

In its standard form it lists all vital information, including engine revs, fuel and oil temperature, gearbox temperature, ambient temperature……. the works. This is currently mounted in the centre console, but if Matt decides to make the Rex a full club car it could easily be relocated to be right in line with the driver.

In case you haven't already cottoned on, this is an expensive vehicle that represents pretty much the best of everything. As to where and when (if ever) Matt will decide to call it quits is anybody's guess and it could well be that we're bringing another update this time next year.

At time of writing, no figures were available on the car and, given that it's only done about 700k's since it came down on the tow truck, it will take a little while longer to get it tuned just right. But then what's the rush? Fast cars are easy enough to build, perfection it seems, takes a little more.

Reproduced with kind permission from:
Fast Fours Magazine - May 2001 Edition
by James McRory & Phil Aynsley

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