Introducing...The Subaru DE-Forester!! (racecar content inside)

S

Stryker

New member
Hello everybody, I'm Matt and my friends and I have started a LeMons team, we are based out of Maine/NH.
 
I'm just starting a build on this forum to document our car build. We purchased a 1998 Subaru Forester with about 193,xxx + miles on it (odo has that many but has been disconnected for some time I guess) for $600 a few weeks ago.
 
So far we've stripped the car, have some parts up for sale and have sold a few, we have the car ready for a cage and are just waiting for our fabricator to have a space open (should be fairly soon) and when it gets back we'll be doing a lot more work on the car, so far we've not done much at all, it runs good but has some odd electrical problem we need to sort out...but we'll get to that later
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Our theme is going to be a logging truck, should be pretty interesting to do.
 
Here's the car so far:
 
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Since those photos were taken we've taken out all the sound reduction crap, covered a few holes in the floor (those circular fillers came out with the sound stuff), and done a few other things. 
 
We have a spot with our cage builder next week so we're taking it down to Rhode Island to get the cage installed and picking up a race seat at a shop on the way down.
 
 
We're quite excited to get out on the race track! I'll keep updating this as we make more progress, we've got a lot to do!
 
If anybody has any spare parts, motors, tranmissions, etc...let us know and we'll see if we can squeeze them into the budget. We're also looking for a set of brembos that will fit on it and a set of cheap coilovers!
 
 
 
That's an awfully clean looking forester (at least on the outside) for almost 200k. Nice find!

Looking forward to seeing where this goes
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Swap to disks all around if its an L not an S. A good rotor and track pad will be enough to stop that thing. Braking parts don't have to be budgeted in lemons, but brembo is overkill.

When you get your cage done, get a bar going from the top rear strut going down to the bottom of the main hoop. Really solids up the cage.

You can also run WRX stuff on it. I suggest wrx or even better STi springs. Foresters have good castor out of the box, but more is better as well.

When you get your alignment go for zero toe as much neg front camber as possible.

I'll be keepin an eye on this and feel free to throw up any tarmac Q's.

 
Cheap coilovers are going to suck, listen to dan on the springs.  and no need to do a brembo swap.  Just toss some WRX brakes on, and buy extra race pads. 

 
Pedro said:
Cheap coilovers are going to suck, listen to dan on the springs.  and no need to do a brembo swap.  Just toss some WRX brakes on, and buy extra race pads. 
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We're aware that they'll suck. If we can find somebody to swap our Forester struts/springs with for WRX stuff we'll jump on that (saves our budget). As for the brembos...we'll think about it but I personally think having the extra stopping power would be rather beneficial.

HR, what kind of seat? Send me some information on it and some pics!

 
Good pads, rotors, stainless lines and a master cylinder brace will stop just as good if not a little better then brembos from what I've heard/read!

And I could be talked into swapping struts perhaps...

 
Neat build! looking foreward to updates, I have always been interested in the lemons races and the crazy cars that enter.+1 on Brembos being overkill. I have Brembos on my Legacy and stock brakes with good but basic ceremic pads on my 01 forester S and the difference is negligible. With the money saved not buying Brembos and the correct hubs or adapters for the rear you could build a good suspension (anything better than riceland coilovers), find decent tires and still have money leftover for things like new bushings or swaybars.

 
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Ray said:
Good pads, rotors, stainless lines and a master cylinder brace will stop just as good if not a little better then brembos from what I've heard/read!

And I could be talked into swapping struts perhaps...
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Let us know, if you can do that we'd be super happy! We could pull the parts whenever you're ready!

urabusturbo said:
Neat build! looking foreward to updates, I have always been interested in the lemons races and the crazy cars that enter.+1 on Brembos being overkill. I have Brembos on my Legacy and stock brakes with good but basic ceremic pads on my 01 forester S and the difference is negligible. With the money saved not buying Brembos and the correct hubs or adapters for the rear you could build a good suspension (anything better than riceland coilovers), find decent tires and still have money leftover for things like new bushings or swaybars.
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Will keep that in mind, the issue is that in Lemons we can spend unlimited money on the brakes because they're safety, but suspension we must include in the $500 budget of the car...I'm sure saving a few bucks would be good all around though. Maybe we'll upgrade to drilled/slotted rotors and some good brake pads though!

 
I did not see that thread, I haven't been on MS much lately.

We'll be getting at least slotted, the races are 8+ hours long and even though we aren't racing a "fast" car we're still going to be using the brakes quite heavily.

What's the best setup you can throw onto a Forester for around $500, we can go to $1,000 or so but if it's not getting us any huge gains it's not worth it I guess. Are SS lines worth installing?

 
Driving down to the shop that our cage is getting built at in Rhode Island this week, making progress! Picking up a seat and harness on the way down. Should be a fun trip!

 
You could run WRX calipers and race pads.  My preference is EBC Blue with their rotors.  But just the rotors and pads are going to run you ~$600 let alone the caliper upgrade cost.

 
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