Yeah. I think ill end up with a 02-04 z51 I really prefer the z06 body style but the added room of the hatch for track days is tough to give up.
I havent kept up a ton on the newer ones, but I know that the GR generation (08-14) stock sti’s (probably wrxes too) come with a tune that is super lean and knocks on a lot of cars from the factory. Combine that with a cast piston design that cant handle knock…well…you know what happens. I assume they are chasing fuel efficiency requirements. I dont see the boxer motor being competitive for another 5 years, even with direct injection. If the new focus RS actually has 340hp from the factory and is reliable, subaru is going to be in a world of hurt. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used it as an excuse to get out of the market.
It’s sad that this motor let go. It’s hard to say what caused it without doing a tear down.
I had a motor with drop in CP pistons and basically stock heads last a few years of abuse making over 350 whp, until I money shifted it. It has something like 10k miles on it that were mostly track miles. The next motor I believe oil starved, which I think is a problem when you start running sticky tires. The oil can’t get back out of the head into the oil pan without a dry sump or a scavenge system. I think that the motors are pretty decent until you get over a sustained 1.2-1.3 g’s.
Here’s a video. I only recorded 2 sessions. I was still getting used to the car -knocked a second off my best lap in the session after this but then blew up.