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Sam Du, Photography by Jeremy Alan Glover
Stop shakin’ your head. Yeah, we’re talking to you. Although this is a STI built for stance, there’s a reason this Subie caught our attention—it looks friggin’ mean!
The owner is Tyler Williams, a 22 year-old college student from Montreal. He’s also a professional CrossFit trainer. So while we don’t want to offend Tyler ‘cause he could probably kick our ass, we had to ask the question why he went this direction with a car rooted heavily in rally racing and all-wheel drive performance. “I outgrew the whole speed thing,” he told us.
Huh? So what’d you drive before?
“My dad has owned a performance parts shop for years but now does mostly detailing. I got into cars this way when I was only 12. I always wanted a Skyline so I saved up. When I turned 17, I bought my first project—an R32 GT-R, one of the first in Quebec,” he explained.
Because the R32 was a 15 year-old car at the time, Tyler was able to import one hassle-free from Japan in accordance to Canadian law. And as a teenager addicted to speed, the Nissan was rebuilt and tuned to almost 500whp. Rolling on R-compounds, it was daily driven and beaten on the track on a monthly basis.
“But I got tired of driving a 20 year-old car and I needed something more mature and reliable, especially since the winters here are harsh,” he continued.
With no intention of tracking his future car, Tyler picked up the STI and went with the idea of going low. His days of thunder were over, but that didn’t mean it was a bad thing…
The owner spent months researching for a suspension setup that would give him the ultimate drop. Eventually he came across AirREX through his friends at Memoryfab. AirREX has become more popular in the last two years offering bag-over-coil setups with vehicle-specific kits such as the STI. “I was expecting to do a custom setup but these fit and work great,” he revealed. “You’d expect to sacrifice a lot of performance, especially on a Subaru but the suspension is just as good as the coils I had on the car before I did air. It’s really stiff and still offers dampening adjustment.”
The rest of the air hardware came from Bag Riders including the tank, valves, manifolds and management. For Tyler’s wheel choice, everything fell into place like butter. The 18x10" Work Emotions are actually the same rims fitted on his old GT-R. But instead of rocking 275-series tires, he’s stretching 225-series rubbers for the perfect fitment.
Some simple bolt-ons and a flat black wrap finished the project car.
“I get a lot of mixed emotions toward this car but it doesn’t phase me,” Tyler concluded. Stance isn’t for everybody, especially on an all-wheel drive car. But Tyler’s justified himself. He’s been there and done that, having owned a GT-R. And while 99% of Subaru owners wouldn’t consider taking this direction with an STI, we give props to Tyler for trying something different and making this car his own. Still have a problem? You can meet him by the free weights.