Click. Starvin' worse than Marvin, but lazy as hell, you hang up the phone aftermaking a late night call for some pizza delivery. Sinking into your sofa, you turn on the TV to take your mind off the loud growl in your stomach. Fifteen minutes into an Entourage episode, you barely make out the ring of your doorbell over super agent Ari Gold's verbal tirade. What the heck? It's too early to be the pizza guy and way too late for a Jehovah's Witness, you get up to investigate.
Rum-bum-rum-bum-rum-bum
As you walk to the front of your house, a loud lumpy idling noise reverberates through the walls. Like twenty lawn mowers going off, the sound from outside is shaking the latches on thewindows. This better not be a John Deere sales pitch, you think to yourself as you open the door.
"Domino's Pizza, I've got you order here," greets the smiling delivery guy. Stunned that the food arrived so quickly, you peek over his shoulders to glanceat the source of the clatter-a loud, blue, heavily modded Subaru sitting in your driveway. Ahh, no wonder it got here so fast.
For a car enthusiast, you can't get better than a job at a pizza delivery joint. Although it's miles away from delivering tofu up a mountain touge at the butt-crack of dawn (get it? semi-tenuous connection with Takumi? they both deliver a food product? nevermind), it certainly beats toiling away in cubicle Hades. You get to be out and about rolling in your ride and bringing cheesy goodness to the world, while the rest of us sit behind our monitors filling out TPS reports. And if that delivery ride is tuned and the order is late, well, it gives you an excuse to stomp on the throttle, especially with a cash tip at the end of the run. Take a look at Byron O'Hara for example.
As a manager for Domino's, Byron wanted to build a car to take to the tracks, get featured inSuper Street, and deliver pizza all while avoiding the noid (sorry, couldn't help it, had to go there). Already having owned two Subes, it made sense for him to pick up an '04 Subaru WRX STi. Four doors, big trunk, and hella fast, the STi could pack enough pies to feed a prego Britney Spears and the entire K-Fed posse. Popo, er, pizza zao! Um, anyway, as fast as STi's may be, Byron let the car marinate stock for a whole minute until he went to work on it.
First order of business for improved pizzafreshness was to quicken up the STi for delivery runs. The doughy center of the horsepower gains comes in the form of an FP Green turbo mated to an APS intercooler and plumbing. An APS cold air intake and Perrin silicone inlet ensures the turbo breathes freely, while a blow-off valve from APS protects against surge. On the exhaust side, a GT spec manifold, ceramic coated by D and FPowdercoating, flows out to a Helix downpipe and is channeled out the rear via a GReddy Evo IIexhaust. A GReddy Profec E-01 boost controller matched to a TiAL wastegate protects against boost creep, while a Cobb Accessport ECU tuned by TDC Tuning spits extra fuel thanks to a higher flow Walbro pump and Perrin injectors.
Next on the agenda was beefing up thechassis like a specie-spicy sausage filled pizza. A set of rare JDM KG/MM DNA inverted coilovers were tracked down to handle height and dampening adjustments, while a set of Cusco antiroll bars and front titanium and rear carbon strut braces keeps the chassis from flexing and spraying pepperoni colored oil all over the alcantara interior. Further hardening the ride like an over-baked burnt crust, is a JDM STi 6-point roll cage, NRG subframeH-brace, JDM STi differential mount, and Whiteline rear subframe and steering bushings
With the car making decent power, Byron's next step was to make his ride look good while cruising the streets of Saratoga, NY. A full body kit from Chargespeed molded to an '06 STi rear diffuser sets it apart, while a RC-style hood vent, Spec C roof vent, STi sidemarkers and fender flares gives it the rare JDM flavor. Ron's Autobody out in Glen Falls, NY put it all together and after the paint vapors dried, Byron had Adam at Monster Graphix vinyl up the exterior. Still feeling a little naked, like a cheese pizza sans pork-flavoredtoppings, Byron clinched the looks department by ordering a set of super fresh and super fly,18-inch Super Advan Racing Version 2s straight from Japan and wrapped them in rubbers of the finest variety-Falken tires.
After a spin during a night run less than a mile from his home, Byron swapped his stock seats and restraints with Status Racing seats and a Crow Enterprises harness. Defi BF series gauges now remind him when he's pushing his car too hard, while an Alpine head unit and full JL Audio set up by Boomer McLoud is primed to pipe some soothing Norah Jones tunes when he's feeling the itch to go too fast. Other interior modificationsinclude a Cusco waterspray controller, A'PEXi turbo timer, and a funky JDM STi IDK window tint.
Rocking a stock bottom end, Byron knewit would only be a matter of time and pizza deliveries 'til something would give, and give it did. With a cracked piston and worn rings, Byron had the hand-calculating wizards over at Abacus Racing balance a set of Crower rods, Cobb bearings, Wiseco pistons and rings to a micropolished stock crank. Afterwards, Dominic Acia assembled and dropped in the refreshed motor using new Hyoshi belts and hoses, Cusco clutch and engine mounts, HKS circle earth kit, GReddy catch can, and had him delete the Tumble Generator Valve.
Tuned, the new set up puts down an impressive 420 ponies with 430 lb-ft of torque. Results? If you lived a quarter-mile from Byron's Domino's you'd get your pizza in 12.2 seconds flat from the oven. With cheese on the pie still boiling, your first slice will be almost as hot as his car. Just make sure to tip him fat.
Pizza Deliveries
Like teachers and ugly bartenders, your friendly neighborhood pizza delivery guy is often underappreciated and very underpaid. Earning on average a paltry $2.50 on tip per pizza trip, this is how many deliveries it took to build this car.