It's with great pleasure that we're ready to announce the latest member of the Forged Performance shop car stable: Our brand new 2011 STi sedan! As many of you know, over 1/3 of our business is Subaru and we've pumped out some pretty impressive builds and tuning results over the past few years. Each year, we put together one showcase Forged vehicle that usually ends up on the cover of Modified Magazine, and is seen at events all over the country. We are pretty sure this one will result in the same fate. We took possession of the car about 30 days ago and so far it's bone stock with 1600 miles on the odometer. Sharif has been using it as his daily the past few weeks and has fallen in love with the car. Everything feels a little bit different (in a good way), than the 08-10 STi. The seating position is lower, the ergonomics a little better, and visibility is significantly better. It's going to take some effort to pry the keys away from him! We have an exciting build plan scheduled for the car, with a very fast timeline in place. Our goal for our 2011 STi Sedan, is to create a 500-600whp daily driver that is also well suited for the fun track day weekend. This is a departure from some of our last project cars which were all out race-car efforts with tons of power, no interior, and lots of noise! While those are fast on the track, we wanted to create a sleeping giant that could serve double duty as daily driver and track monster, while remaining socially acceptable. Like all Forged vehicles, everything we install and sell is thoroughly tested both on the road and more importantly...on the track. We can't tell you how many times we've seen high performance parts fail under moderate track use. Those are parts that Forged will never sell to the public. That said, I wanted to announce our collection of heavy hitter sponsors for this project. We are really excited to have them on board, and have selected only the best leaders in their respective industries. Without their support, this project would not be happening. We are honored that they are partnering with Forged Performance on this amazing full scale buildup that is sure to set some records. Marketing Partners: - Mackin Industries/Volk Racing - Whiteline - AMS Performance - JRZ Suspension - Cobb Tuning - GTSpec - Manley - DeatschWerks - StopTech - Perrin - OS Giken - Tomei Stay tuned, as we'll be updating this thread very regularly. Baseline track data, and dyno charts, and full build details coming shortly!! In the meantime, here are a few teaser shots. At Forged, we take it one step further. In addition to baseline dyno numbers, we present baseline Road Atlanta laptimes. 1:47 BONE stock at Road Atlanta. Parts are rolling in by the UPS truck load....you'll gonna love this!
AMS really stepped up with the project build and sent us their larger turbo kit available for the STi. We've done almost a dozen of the AMS rotated turbos kits and the quality, fitment, materials used in the kits are second to none. It's no wonder we are among the top dealers of these kits in the country. After a thoughtful discussion, we decided to take the go big or go home approach with the turbocharger selection. So we opted for the AMS Rotated Mount 950R V-Band kit which features a 44mm WG, .82AR, and a Precision 67mm turbocharger capable of producing 800hp worth of airflow. We took some high res macro close up shots so you all can really appreciate the quality of this kit. We've visited their facility and Martin and Eric gave us the guided tour. They house some of the best welders and fabricators in the country. We've decided that while our Forged S2 Shortblock and Cylinder Heads are coming together, Sharif is going to install and tune this massive turbo kit on the stock block. 22-25psi and E85 on the stock block should work nicely until our stroker motor is ready to go! It's going to be really interesting to see what kind of numbers we can achieve with this turbo.
Alright, it's time to reveal the braking package. The guys have volunteered to come in on Saturday and install these bad boys so I should have the install pics up by Monday. StopTech is a company that needs no introduction, but I will give one anyways. We first met them back in 2003 and immediately sensed their passion for all things related to performance vehicle braking systems. They are enthusiasts, just like all of us. Their brakes have been used on countless track, and daily driven vehicles, and are the stoppers used by many teams in World Challenge, Grand Am, Time Attack, and many other professional motorsports organizations. They are constantly testing, and improving their products and we've been with them every step of the way. Ask any good race car driver what the MOST important element of a good track car is. Universally, the answer is a strong and consistent braking system. Nothing is more confident inspiring that an amazing set of brakes that can haul a vehicle down from 150mph+ down to 50mph in just a couple of seconds. Without 110% confidence in our brakes, our lap times would suffer dramatically. I'd gladly take improved braking power and feel over 50whp any day of the week. During my baseline laps at Road Atlanta, the OEM brakes were horribly soft, inconsistent, and confidence eroding which is exactly the opposite of what we want in a performance car. I just never knew what I was going to get when I dipped into the brakes. Of course, the OEM pads, lines, and rotors were never designed for the abuse I gave them and they gave the best they could. Because our STi project car is destined for more weekend track fun, it made perfect sense to install StopTech's largest big brake kit which features a 6 piston front caliper with 355mm rotor, and a 2 Piston rear caliper with 345mm rotor. We selected a set of Carbotech XP10's all around which should compliment our tires, weight, and suspension choices nicely. This is a complete bolt on solution, that includes all the lines, brackets, calipers, rotors, nuts bolts, and so on...install takes about 4-5 hrs including removing all the old parts, and bleeding the braking system. We'll keep you posted as the install takes place this weekend.
Some quick pics from the install, and a quick bedding in around the block. Sorry for the poor lighting...it was late. As usual with Stoptech products, the fitment and installation was absolutely flawless and perfect. Very straightforward install, even with the current street oriented pads on the car, the braking performance is exponentially better than OEM. Also a little teaser for the wheels...Volk SuperLaps.
Now that the StopTech brakes are on, here is a proper look at what they have to work with! I've known Eddie, Brian and the guys at Mackin for nearly a decade. Over the years we've become good friends and their largest Volk Distributor in the country. Rays/Volk make the strongest motorsports oriented wheels in the business. Ray's is also a leading supplier of OEM wheels for the likes of Nissan (GT-R, 370Z, 350Z..etc), Toyota and and many others. They also supply wheels for Formula 1 and the American Lemans Series. We approached Mackin Industries about our build and they set us up with the newly released Volk Racing TE37 Super Laps. As opposed to the normal TE37 wheels, the SuperLaps are meticulously machined down to reduce excess weight and rotational mass, thus creating the lightest TE37 racing wheel to date. And as an added bonus, they are significantly cheaper than the regular TE37! Looking closely at the Super Laps, you can see that the lug area has been machined smooth and concave. Each spoke has been shaved down. Furthermore, track cars don't use center caps so you won't find any here either. The 18X10 +40 is a perfect fitments as you can see in the profile shots. We are running a Toyo R888 in 265/35/18 size and once we dial in the camber and ride height it should tuck in perfectly behind the fender. We also rolled the rear fender and there is absolutely no rubbing. I will also point out, that we temporarily installed some Tein S Tech lowering springs as our JRZ shocks are about 2-3 weeks out. The car just doesn't look right with the wheels without a drop...so we had to take care of that. Mackin Industries is the sole distributor of Rays Engineering wheels in the USA and being that we at Forged Performance use nothing but these high quality racing products on our projects, it seemed like a perfect fit for our STi build. If anyone is interested in securing a set of these wheels for their own project, Forged Performance is the #1 Volk Racing dealer in the USA and we try to keep decent stock at all times. WHEEL SIZE TE37SL 18x10J +40 TIRE SIZE Toyo R888 265/35/18
OK, the moment we've all been waiting for! Stock vs. Cobb OTS vs. Cobb Pro Tuning Results on STOCK car! Forged Performance has been a Cobb Pro Tuner for a few years now across the entire array of Cobb support cars: Subaru, Nissan GT-R, Mitsubishi, and Mazda. So naturally, we looked to the Cobb AP as the best solution. I can't think of another company that has invested as much time, and resources supporting the Subaru community than Cobb tuning...some of the smartest people in this industry work there, and it's great to have those resources at our disposal. I had a feeling the OEM tune was horrible, based on how the car performed on the track and street. So I wasn't expecting a whole lot from the baseline. As most of you know, our Dyno Dynamics AWD Dyno reads very low. Bone stock, we put down just 196whp I then loaded up the Cobb Stage1 93 octane OTS map and the car made 238whp, and had a terrific looking power and AF curve. In the final step, I prepared a custom calibration for this specific car. Althought I've tuned many dozens of Subaru's, this it actually the first time I've tuned a BONE STOCK STi...really wasn't sure what to expect. Nearly maxing out the WG's netted my 19psi peak pressure and a taper to 15psi, and 256whp/301lb/ft Below, you will find an assortment of dyno charts for your viewing pleasure. Next up....Whiteline and GT Spec Suspension components. Power and AF Power and Trq Power and Boost
Just got some high res shots back rom our Road Atlanta test day couple weeks ago. The body lean is so severe you could change the oil cresting at Turn 3. Moving into position. All is well, in the balance of power:
From looking at all those pictures at the track the team decided enough is enough. Time to install some goodies! Here are some teaser pictures of what we are working on today. As you can see Sharif, and crew have a whole lot of work to do! I think we are going to need another table for all of our stuff. haha Stay tuned for more updates and feedback soon! Tray
Here are a few shots I thought you guys may like of some of the work being performed yesterday. As you can see Alex is hard at work. My favorite is turbo comparison from Stock vs 950R Stay tuned for more updates soon! Tray
Alright got a few more progress pictures for you today. Turbo is positioned nicely and the front mount intercooler core has been secured. Alex is working away steadily hopefully tomorrow we will be able to start her up.
Ok, We are back from our vacation and back to work. We are getting very close. Here are a couple of pictures of how she is sitting and the fuel mods we are running now from Deatschwerks. We are very excited to see how well the 1300cc injectors work with their new Deatschwerks 300lph fuel pump. More updates to come shortly! Best regards, Tray
Well, we have to remove the Perrin FMIC because there simply wasn't an elegant or feasible solution to make the turbo kit and IC piping work nicely with blow through MAF, so we installed the AMS instead. We wrapped up this week, and I am dyno tuning right now. 20psi pump will be done today, and I will report back with dyno numbers. These are hot off my camera...
1/14/11 I apologize for the lack of updates. We have been playing catch up due to the weather Atlanta has been seeing. We have finished installing all the GTSPEC products on our 2011 Subaru and have been really impressed with their fit, finish, and quality. If you are not familiar with the GTSPEC product lines the GTSPEC products are designed to strengthen OEM chassis rigidity and minimize flex. Their R&D team of engineers pinpoints the weakest areas of the vehicle (mainly frame rails and strut towers) and develops the products to maximize performance and minimize body roll. Take a look at the huge list of parts that GTSPEC sent us for testing. The quality is absolutely race class, and Sharif is ready to give these pieces a good track testing very shortly. Part list: - GTSPEC Front Strut Bar - GTSPEC Rear Strut Bar - GTSPEC Front Fender Braces - GTSPEC Rear Lightweight Bumper Beam - GTSPEC Rear A Brace Version 2 - GTSPEC 4 Point Ladder Mid Chassis Brace - GTSPEC Rear Lower Control Arm with Camber Adjustment - GTSPEC Prototype Rear Lateral Link Here are some pictures of some of the parts and installation along the way. Enjoy! This is a great comparison photo of the OEM bar with whiteline bushing installed, vs. the GTSpec Shot of the front underbrace. The rear end is full of GTSpec and Whiteline goodness all around. Handle will be razor sharp as it should be! A little closer shot: Now all that is left, is the JRZ RS1's...hint hint...caugh caugh. JRZ has been focusing on the upcoming Grand Am Daytona race so we are still a couple weeks out. Right now, our STi is on the alignment rack and we'll have some more pictures of the finished product tomorrow. Next week, we'll be working on our custom 3 inch exhaust so we can finally let this big turbo breath and demonstrate what we can do with the stock block!
The weight difference between the lateral links and rear arms was negligible. The Fender bracing, and A Braces did add a small amount to the car. But the improvement in chassis stiffness will out weigh the added weight gain. The real savings is in the GTSPEC rear bumper beam. Have a look at the difference in made. OEM Rear Bumper Beam: OEM Rear Bumper Beam: (Weight 21lbs) GTSPEC Lightweight Rear Bumper Beam: (Weight 5.5lbs) Savings of 15.5 lbs GTSPEC Lightweight Rear Bumper Beam Installed with no issues at all! Take a look at some of the other high quality items that we installed. GTSPEC Front Strut Brace: GTSPEC 3 Point Rear Strut Brace: (Perfect install on the 2011. No modifications needed) GTSPEC Front Fender Reinforcement Braces: Forged Performance is really excited to head back to the track to see how well the vehicle has improved with the GTSPEC products. We will let you know as soon as we get out there!
Hi everyone, I want to give you a brief street-based review of the GT Spec and Whiteline components now that I've had a chance to drive the car around town for about 350 miles. As a refresher, we've installed nearly the entire GT Spec and Whiteline catalog on our 2011 STi sedan, however, the shocks are still stock with just some drop in TEIN S-Tech springs. Obviously, the shocks leave something to be desired, but here are my impressions nonetheless. Even on stock shocks, the car's chassis is transformed from washy and unstable to very firm and tight. Gone is the overall slop and play of the OEM bushings and arms. The car now tracks straight and true with very little input from the driver. Body roll has been reduced and staright line manners have not been sacrificed. It's also important to note there is ZERO increase in noise, harshness, rattles, or anything else of that nature. It's tight and quiet as a church mouse. That said, we are really looking forward to installing the JRZ RS1 coilover's which are really the centerpiece of our suspension system. As a preview we just installed the first set of JRZ RS1's on the Forged Performance 370Z and the improvement is literally night and day compared to the TEIN Monoflex's that were on the car. The car changes directions like a go kart with no body roll whatsoever yet is extremely compliant in a straight line for daily driving purposes. Once the JRZ RS1's are installed and dialed in, I'll be retesting the STi at Road Atlanta in March. I am really looking forward to what kinds of laptime improvements we see. Now back to working on the exhaust... Sharif
The Subaru chassis overall isn't nearly as stiff as many of the other vehicles we work on. It's a good question, and probably one that we can't answer with absolute certainty. For general road use, I believe the bushings play a major role. But for track and more aggressive driving I think those braces are really helping to support and stiffen the chassis. The most extreme example of this, is installing a full cage in the car....it definitely quickens steering response and stiffens the chassis. The nice thing about the GTSpec parts, is they are fairly inexpensive and most of them are pretty easy to install. I would start with a strut brace front and rear and go from there.
Ok, we just wrapped up our prototype 3inch exhaust. We are still making some changes to the system, but I want to share a quick teaser dyno. On the first pull, I realize just how much trq, spool, and power we were missing and the results are nothing short of spectacular. Boost level is the same on both runs, and I think we're one of the only shops to post boost curves. All in the interest of sharing as much as possible with the community. The only change is we switched from the stock exhaust to our 3 inch exhaust. I did not adjust timing, but I did have to ADD additional fuel because the new exhaust naturally resulting in less backpressure and more efficiency from the engine. 400rpm earlier spool which shifted the power curve 400rpm to the left 50ft/lbs peak trq improvement and 21whp peak improvement. But even more telling, is the 100lb/ft trq improvement in the midrange That said, the car as it sits now is actually decent in the midrange and a lot of fun to drive around town. Certainly not a road racing turbo by any means but much more tolerable than I would have expected with this big PTE 6765. I've got a bit more tuning to do on pump, but so far these are the highest numbers I've produced from 20psi on a 100% stock engine STi on our dyno. It would be nice to hit the magic 400whp on pump. Good stuff.
Sorry for the lack of updates. We have been completely consumed with customer projects that the STi has been neglected. Here is a picture of our new FP Dual 3inch exhaust. This baby sounds killer! Thanks for looking! Tray
Who said that? I just said it wouldn't be a full race car...haha.....for now. Hi everyone, it's been hectic to say the least. I wanted to thank all of you your interest and support of this project. The 11 of us that work at Forged are all hard core enthusiasts that live, breath and eat this stuff just like all of you. As such, I can get pretty addicted to working, tuning, and trying to do the best possible job for everyone. So bear with us as we're burning the midnight oil. As Tray mentioned, I spent a couple hours last night finally getting a chance to tune the car on E85 at higher boost. The objective was to push to 30psi on the stock block, knowing our single pump DW pump would not make it that far. But I was pleasantly surprised at just how far it did make it and far exceeded what can be done with the traditional Walbro 255. At the end of the tuning session with E85 fuel, I acheived 471whp@26psi peak boost pressure on our Dyno Dyanamics AWD Dyno (no BS inflation added) before running out of fuel. For reference, our project car did a 197whp baseline. The turbo absolutely JUMPED to life after about 24psi, and I can tell it's begging for much much more. Full boost at 4750rpm isn't too shabby either for a big PTE 6765 turbocharger. Before our stroker engine goes in, I'll do one more tuning session with our big flow fuel system before yanking out this engine. Enjoy the pics from last night, and the videos are being edited as we speak.
Here is the sought after AMS Intake Manifold. Let me remind you this is their Prototype. This is not a final product. The final product will be made from cast and will look much different. Forged Performance is honored to be given the opportunity to test the manifold. We will be performing a back to back dyno session. We will let everyone know the performance, and feedback of the AMS prototype. Install and Testing coming soon! Thanks for looking! Tray
Got a few more items in the mail today that I'd like to share. Tomei sent us a few goodies that are going to be perfect for our Engine Build. We ordered the Tomei Timing belt, Belt guide, Baffle stiffner, and 270/270 Camshafts. The quality of each of the Tomei parts are second to none. We look forward to installing these items, and putting the camshafts to test. The Tomei Kevlar Timing belt, and Belt guide. The timing belt is super tough and is claimed to be 4x the strength of OEM without sacrificing durability. We paired the timing belt with Tomei's belt guide. The Belt guide is a straight cut of aluminum with an extended length to securely apply more tension to the timing belt. This product comes in handy when immediate changes in torque are experienced by the engine, eliminating belt whip. Tomei's highly experienced engineers developed an engine baffle stiffener to help prevent bearing failure, and help regulate the oil supply. During the R&D Tomei found one of the main causes of engine problems on the EJ20/25 are the bearings. The majority of the cases were caused by lack of motor oil in the oil pan (sump) and passages. They also found that the lack of rigidity in the crank case is also another problem facing this engine design. Under extensive research, Tomei created the baffle stiffener which helps strengthen the left and right side of the crankcase to help provide the added support with its dual structural design. The rubber baffle design greatly aids the regulation of the oil supply. This gives added control to reduce blowby for EJ20/25 owners who use their cars for high performance driving. The most exciting parts that arrived were the Tomei PROCAMS. We decided to go with Tomei's PROCAM 270 Intake, & 270 Exhaust. We felt this was the best bet for our large turbo application. The specs on the camshafts are quite impressive. The Intake side has 11.0mm lift, and the exhaust side has a lift of 10.8mm. With that lift we know it will make an significant improvement to our 2011 STi build. Not only do we hope to achieve more power with the camshafts but improve the powerband. We look forward to performing a dyno test in the weeks to come. Thanks for looking! Tray
Hello everyone. No major mods for today's update. But I did want to share some pictures after our most recent auto detail. Mike from Mirror Detailing spent the afternoon performing a 2 stage paint correction. We had a lot of swirls on the car straight from the dealership. Have a look at the work! Before Paint Correction: After 2 Step Paint Correction: Outside shots:
Here are some brilliant photos that Chad took for us at Road Atlanta. Although the testing didn't give us much data it did allow us to capture some terrific shots of the car on track.
Did you all ever finalize your exhaust design? I recall before that you mentioned the single canisters were only temporary.
Yeah I'm wondering too.....that's the only thing I don't like on the car. IMO the dual canisters just look too much. A nice single with dual output would look very sleek and as if it belonged.
im curious about the engine. you got around 470 on e85. and you were gonna put in a built motor. are your still running the stock motor? how is it running? also when and if you pull it i would be interested in the tear down picks. 470 on a stock 2.5 motor is a bunch. curious how well it held up or if it failed, where. also curious about your build up of the new motor. parts etc.
Yeah, hope they ditch the ugly exhaust. Guess it does show off their FP innovation and how well they can fab stuff though, vs buying a nice looking bolt-on exhaust.
Yes, we are still running the stock engine. Its running great, even with all the fun you can have in that car... still runs fantastic. I'm fairly certain that there will be quite a few pictures when the stock engine is removed.
The stock motor has been holding up really well. No oil consumption, no smoke, strong power and I've been daily driving, tracking, and mountain cruising with E85 now for 7000miles. Total on the odo is roughly 11,000miles. Just scheduling timing to complete our new engine assembly so we can move on to the big show. Everything is machined and ready for final measurements and prep. It will definitely be interesting to see the stock components and any wear patterns we see. I really have grown fond of this car. It does so many things right.
Still running strong! We have been really busy taking care of customers builds but we are making progress on the engine build We received the heads that will sit atop the Manely 2.6L stroker in our 2011 STI. The heads have been reworked with CNC porting, Manely oversized valves, Manely Beehive springs and retainers. We installed the PASSPORT 9500ci in the 2011 STI. This is a really sweet system! The PASSPORT 9500ci is the ultimate custom-installed radar and laser defense system. With blistering all-band radar protection and precise laser "shifting" technology, speeding tickets can be a thing of the past. ESCORT continues to lead the industry by incorporating its patented GPS technology that automatically identifies the source and location of all radar signals. Real threats are processed in less than a second, while false signals are learned and eliminated. Now all you have to do is drive! The PASSPORT 9500ci is completely undetectable to all radar detector detectors, keeping you unseen and unnoticed. Crystal-Clear Voice Alerts, Speed Alert™, Safety Warning System and its stealth installation make the PASSPORT 9500ci the ultimate in discreet protection. The all-new PASSPORT 9500ci is the Mack-Daddy of all radar and laser detectors. For those who only want the best in their vehicle. It is the ultimate balance of long-range performance, intelligent signal processing, simple intuitive controls, and the best overall driving experience ever developed. And, it's an ESCORT. Here is a couple teaser shot of the block :naughty:
ooooohhhh diggity. Should turn out to be an awesome engine. You still going to stick with Tomei cams?