1999 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS

Five years ago, Robert Jacques of Bensalem, Pa., walked into his local Subie store and purchased a brand-new 1999 Impreza RS. At the time the WRX was still forbidden fruit, and the RS, powered by a 160-hp normally aspirated 2.5-liter SOHC engine, was the hottest Subaru money could buy in America. Jacques had the car of his dreams.

His enjoyment was short-lived, however. After the WRX came out in 2001, people would constantly ask him if his car was turbocharged. "Nothing hurt more than having to constantly say no," he says. But Jacques simply couldn't squeeze the funds for a custom turbo kit. Instead, he upgraded other areas on the car.

Interior and exterior cosmetic improvements were first on his list. To give his car a little more visual tension, Jacques decided to pump the sedate RS sheet metal with some subtle aerodynamic steroids. He added a V5 front lip, tall V5 WRC rear wing and V5 rear spats (actually a two-piece lip for the rear bumper). He also decorated the Impreza hood with 22B hood vents and added STi foglight covers to fill in the blank holes in the front bumper.

On the other side of the window glass, Jacques added choice interior components like the JDM MOMO steering wheel and reskinned his seats with black Katzkin leather. He replaced the pedals and shift knob with aluminum Razo pieces, and upgraded the stereo with drop-in Pioneer door speakers and a Pioneer in-dash head unit.

Next he started tweaking the suspension, lowering the chassis 1 3/4 inches with H&R sport springs and KYB AGX struts. Weeks passed and more equipment was installed, including Whiteline front and rear anti-roll bars, Cusco strut braces and rear tie bar and Kart Boy rear end links. Jacques also changed his wheels, but instead of going big and flashy, he swapped his 15-inchers for 16-inch O.E. wheels from a 2001 model and painted them black. They bolt to the hubs using lightweight lug nuts and have been wrapped in Falken Azenis rubber, sized 205/55R-16.

Meanwhile, he kept driving, and people kept asking about the turbo. Nearly two years had passed and Jacques seriously started considering his power upgrade options. Though turbocharging the RS motor with a specially fabricated turbo kit was an option, he just wasn't comfortable with the idea of forcing air into the naturally aspirated engine.

Then, one day he was flipping through the local "Auto Trader" when destiny smacked him in the face. "I noticed there was this wrecked 2002 WRX for sale; I thought to myself, 'Man that sucks,' and flipped to the next page," Jacques recalls. "Ten minutes later, I was on the phone with the guy who was selling it."

A week later Jacques had a wrecked WRX sitting outside his house. It was completely totaled. Every panel had been smashed and the frame was tweaked, but the turbocharged EJ20 engine and five-speed transmission were both OK and had accrued only 20,000 total miles before the fatal impact. They would make perfect donor organs for his own car.

Within days he transported both the wreck and his Impreza 15 miles east to RalliSpec in Hainesport, N.J., (East Coast Subaru wizards, according to Jacques) for a complete motor and tranny swap. Though both the engine and transmission bolt directly into the Impreza RS chassis with no modification-other than a new WRX front crossmember that allows clearance for the turbo motor's exhaust-the tricky part was wiring the engine correctly.

"This swap is actually harder than a lot of people realize because the wiring harness for the ECU is integrated with the main harness," says RalliSpec's Dave Anton. "It's not a simple 'bolt-in-and-you're-done' process, but it's something we've been doing for about five years, and by now we've pretty much got it figured out." Jacques' new engine even retains complete OBD II compliance, essentially making the car completely and utterly street legal despite the extent of its modifications.

The engine and driveline swap wasn't the only thing that went down at RalliSpec. Comprehensive bolt-on upgrades were also added, as you'd expect, beginning with stiffer STi engine and tranny mounts. A Piper Cross custom intake was added in place of the factory induction system, and an HKS Super Sequential blow-off valve welded into the intake tract. A Turbo XS manual boost controller was added to increase boost to 17 psi, along with a Vishnu underdrive pulley to scavenge additional power and a complete front-mount intercooler setup from XS Engineering to replace the smallish factory top-mount chiller.

The exhaust system, too, was holistically revised, beginning with a Borla turbo manifold, Perrin up-pipe, 3-inch downpipe and terminating in a custom-fabricated 3-inch exhaust system fitted with a Magnaflow muffler. Last, the RalliSpec magicians added fuel enrichment provisions consisting of a stronger Walbro fuel pump and a reflashed and tuned ECU. Though some have informed him that he can't use a manual boost controller with the reflashed control unit, Jacques says he can, he does, and so far he hasn't experienced any problems-but he runs a minimum of 94 octane whenever he goes to the gas station.

The engine and tranny weren't the only things to come out of the wrecked WRX. Jacques sold various bits and pieces to recoup about a third of the money he spent on it. He also took off the front brake assemblies and adapted them to the front hubs of his Impreza, along with larger slotted DBA rotors. One other piece he took-he blushes to admit-was the WRX gas cap, which conveniently plugs into the gas filler door while Jacques puts gas in the car. That way, he'll never lose it.

Jacques and his Impreza haven't seen any real dyno time since the transplant was completed, but based on other RalliSpec conversions he estimates power output to be somewhere around 270 hp at 17psi. Around town he's finally getting the respect he deserves, and nowadays inquisitive gearheads don't even have to ask-they just have to listen to the music of the HKS SS BOV.

As for Robert Jacques, he hasn't had this much fun since he drove the brand-new car off the dealer lot. It was at RalliSpec for about a month while the new drivetrain and power upgrades were put in, and now he drives the piss out of it in an effort to make up for lost time, beginning the very day he got it back.

"I haven't slept since,"he says with a grin.