GO GO GROCERY GETTER
350KW SR20VET-POWERED WRX STI
When Wellington’s slipway facility was forced to shut its doors to the region’s drifters, it left everyone who had drifted that sliver of concrete high in the Brooklyn Hills overlooking the city with almost no options when it came to hitting the track sideways. For many, the dream was over. With nowhere to drift, they promptly put their drift cars on the market and moved on to other types of automotive exhibition.
For Tom Warren, the sale of his S13 would introduce him to the world of all-wheel-drive Subarus, setting him on a journey that would eventually see him go full circle back to drifting, only this time doing it with a Subaru WRX STi that is underpinned by parts robbed from a Silvia. How Tom came to build the SR-powered WRX was through his own repetitive indecision, which saw him swapping from Subaru to Silvia and back again. The cycle continued until, one day, the light bulb came on and Tom found himself picking up a matte black house-painted WRX wagon that had been mistreated, abused, and beaten to the point that it would’ve looked right at home as a drift missile at Ebisu.
Go Go Grocery Getter
With a modest budget in mind and a solid plan to repower the WRX with an SR20, the build kicked off. “I planned to keep it around the 10- to 12-hundred mark — just +T an SR and make it driveable, so [that] I could begin sorting the steering and suspension,” recalls Tom. Surprisingly, fitting the long block in the wide-railed WRX bay was no drama. In fact, Tom describes it as an “easy conversion”, with the hardest bits being the wiring and getting the fuel to the right places. Doing it almost entirely in the shed at home, this was certainly balling on a budget. The interior was replaced, and the SR was tuned to a modest 220kW, and, thanks to the help of some mates, the beaten panels were soon a distant memory and a fresh coat of black laid down.
The next year was spent dialling out the all wheel drive to rear wheel drive drift conversion, until the realities of having built it on the cheap struck. The steam-pipe exhaust manifold failed at the track. Tom was sold on the idea that the chassis could work and took it as a sign that it was time to up the power ranks: “I realized [that] I was going to have to spend some more money in certain areas to make it reliable.”
A Tomei M8270 turbo and Sinco top-mount manifold were soon on order. But the old +T just wasn’t going to do the new hot side justice in his eyes. It was time to build a proper motor, something with much more grunt. Initial plans were to build a forged mid-200kW SR20DET, but, after doing some research and hearing a bunch of horror stories about high-powered DETs breaking rockers, etc., he decided to do it once and do it properly by just building the SR20VET and being done with it.
Tom’s had no shortage of wheels on the wagon, thanks to the 5x114.3 conversion. The latest R33 GT-R wheels have been something Tom’s hunted down for years. “With the guards and suspension, it’s not easy to achieve good fitment,” he says, “but I’m happy with how the GT-Rs fit; they are the best I’ve found so far”
Enlisting the help of Nicholas Brian, an SR20VET of epic proportions was pieced together. The block itself is forged using components from the likes of JE, Automotive Racing Products (ARP), ACL, and Eagle, but where the real magic happens is in the P11 Primera VET head. Currently, a set of stock cams remains, but a date with the die grinder resulted in a heavy port job before a Supertech 2mm oversized exhaust valves, 1mm oversized intake valves, and bronze guides were installed. Coupled with the new Sinco intake manifold and 75mm Proflow throttle body, the new combination didn’t disappoint, delivering big time on the dyno, throwing down 350kW with 98 octane flowing through its veins.
“It’s definitely over-built for what it’s producing now, but, with some big cams and new turbo and larger intercooler, it will handle making a lot more,” states Tom. With that much power on tap, it’s a good thing that Tom had the foresight to upgrade the SR gearbox with a Wellington Automotive Gearbox Specialists (WAGS) dogbox long before the inevitable would happen. Now, running a dogbox on the street certainly isn’t the norm, and most certainly attracts attention from those unaware, perhaps concerned that Tom needs more driving lessons. But then again, all that could also be down to the fact that Subarus don’t usually snake their way from the lights with the howl of an SR under the hood.
Being such an unorthodox build, Tom was pretty much left to work out all the issues and weak points as he went. Thankfully, the year with the plus-T was time well spent ironing things out as much as possible before the power levels would double. One of the first upgrades was for the rear, swapping in a hybrid of WRX and Silvia parts, with Silvia axles, bearings, arms, and hubs all now hanging off a modified Version 11 WRX diff housing with Silvia R180 limited-slip differential (LSD) internals. Tom was able to purchase
Like the exterior, the interior was also in need of a big tidy up. A V7 dash was installed, along with a set of Racepro seats. The intention is to install a roll cage before Tom tries his hand at some hill climbs and grip-orientated motorsport
Once the engine build kicked into high gear, it was obvious that the SR gearbox wouldn’t cut the mustard. In its place now sits a WAGS-built DK1 five-speed with full dog-engagement gear set