Yeah, exactly. What is the cost of this 22B? And keep in mind they are illegal in the US. So you can't drive it on the road at all.
Your opinion of course. For 100k, you could buy two 2.5RS coupes, install the widebody 22B parts on them, and put in a USDM STi engine and driveline and brembos, then put together a nice suspension setup for them and still have money left over, plus both your 2.5RS's would smoke the factory 22B and at the same time be cheaper to register and insure.
would keep my Forester.. that way I could actually drive my car and not watch the value take a pisser every minute it is driven... well at least not as much of a drop in price!!! ha ha View attachment 11560 View attachment 11561 View attachment 11562
fly to he Gold coast in Australia.. probably still on the showroom floor... I will check in about 5 yrs when I go back again
I plan to make friends with the owner of this one and visit it on a regular basis. If you missed it before, click the photo for the thread I made earlier in the year. Stuart.
why are they illegal for the crash test reason? not enough safety features or what? and why the hell are they so expensive? limited amount made?... they do look sweet though.
Expensive because there isn't that many of them made. Illegal? Probably because it was not brought over to the US and tons of US laws and stuff and blah blah blah.
Well you could bring it in the gray method: just buy a salvage Impreza with the same body style and swap VINs. I know a few Cossie Escorts stateside are driving under the XR4ti badge... Though I agree with the money you could build something better it still isn't a 22B. That car is a legend. Along with the P1, RB5, and some of the other crazy versions the Brits get. Same thing with the turbo swaps into the USDM GCs. I'd rather turbocharge the EJ253 time bomb than just throw a turbo powertrain at it. What's the fun in that?
Search Nasioc, hell search MNSubaru if you want, this topic gets hashed out about once a year by some new user that hasn't read one of the numerous other threads on this topic. If you import a 22B it is either not legal for road use - track/offroad only, or they hack the thing in half at customs. There aren't enough of them in existance for you to want to spend the amount of time and money required to own it when you can easily build a comprarable car for less than half the current market value of the 22B
I come really close. 2.2L closed deck good flowing heads I would assume lolz short gears w/ dccd and LSD 235/40/17 same size as 22B good brakes decent power like a 22B ROLLED fenders lolz Similar performance if not better. ..... hehehe?
Right, but that was my point. You can make a car that will best a 22B for less than the cost of buying and importing a 22B. Impreza 22B STi EJ20G bored to 2.2L with a 7000 rpm redline Version 4 STi heads/valvetrain Shotpeened V4 Transmission IHI VF23 Bilstein suspension 4pot/2pot Subaru brakes (I believe same or similar to the current WRX's red brakes) 17x8 wheels factory wide fenders Aside from the VF23, the STi engine/drivetrain/valvetrain would best the 22B. A decent set of struts and springs would equal or better the suspension, you can get red 4pot/2pots from the dealership, there are tons of 17x8 wheels on the market, and there are a few companys that make widebody flares similar to the 22B (doesn't aerosim research make a 22B replica kit?) If you wanted to have something that was close to or better than a 22B, you could do it on a cheap budget by picking up a 2 door Impreza L AWD, slapping on that Aerosim body kit, upgrading the suspension parts and buying the red brakes, then doing a full STi engine/tranny/ecu swap. All you'd need to do is find yourself a VF23 or VF22 and you'd make the same power and likely more torque. You could do all of that for under 20k if you had a decent set of tools and a garage to work in. And with 100k in cash, you could make about 5 of them. Hell, save 20k and do 4 of them and then have all 4 painted in different colors. But if I had 100k, the last thing I'd do is blow it on a bunch of Subarus.
heheheh 22B performance in a wagon. but then I guess if you want the said 22B with right hand drive....I guess. You probably wouldn't want to track it because you want it to last long. har har har lolz
I guess I never actually answered the OP's question. Having seen one up close, and having sat in it, I don't just want one, I want two. One to keep nice and shiny, the other to go hooning around the countryside in. Yes, you can build something that will best it. In fact, most test drive reviews weren't even very complimentary about the Bilstein suspension, so it's not like the car isn't without its flaws. But this is the legendary 22B we're talking about. An icon in the world of Subarus. I've seen a lot of exotic cars in my time, sat in a few, driven a couple, but the 22B still makes me lose my dip whenever I see it.
as stated, as you can't even have fun with it on teh streets legally... i could also go a different route. 100k minimum can easily get you into a purpose built, street legal 650whp C5 Z06. fun, i think so.
The 22B is an amazing car. As has be stated numerous times it is very possible to make an equivalent or better car for much less than it would cost to get a real one. FYI: The aerosim body kit is a replica of the WRC car body kit. It has higher cut fenders / wheel wells and the fenders flare out considerably more than 22b fenders do. There is so much that went into the creation of the 22B which makes those cars special. Each car was built from a bare chassis separate from the assembly line. Each ECU was custom tuned for the car and turbo (vf22 and vf23 models). The EJ22G was a very unique engine featuring the closed deck of the EJ20G that it was bored from and a revised oiling system which supposedly is better than that in the EJ22T. V4 Type R heads were used for the high lift and long duration cams. Granted not everything was perfect. The suspension might not be the greatest, the paint is probably thin like on every other Subaru, but for a limited edition model from the factory its one hell of a car.
^ Yeas, I was gonna say the 22B motor uses a phase 2 oiling system. No squirters there. Yes the car is cool. No its not worth the effort of making it legal stateside.
