Rommy Widodo obviously doesn’t listen to old sayings, because his MY96 WRX isn’t just the best in regards to mechanical and audio modification. It’s awesome, wicked, cool, mega ...

Let’s face it, most people simply go sick on either the mechanical or the audio front, but generally not both.

In fact, because the WRX is such a good handling, exciting to drive package in standard trim, most punters would actually just go for a monster sound system.

Mechanical modifications with the WRX are usually limited to a bigger turbo, an exhaust, perhaps a front mounted intercooler and some suspension mods (plus the obligatory acres of fibreglass).

But Rommy wanted a bit more excitement in his life, so it was off to an outfit called Race Torque in Perth, the sunny capital of Western Australia.

Bring in the Sti factor
Heavily involved in the preparation of rally cars throughout the South East Asian region, Race Torque soon had Rommy’s motor out and an STi version III engine drafted in as a replacement.

Now just in case you didn’t know, STi is Subaru’s racing wing, the people behind Subaru’s World Rally cars and the builders of some frightening limited edition road cars.

You’d need to be something of a Subaru expert to fully grasp all the lingo, code numbers and such like associated with STi and all it’s offerings, but they’re undoubtedly the best place to start when building a Scooby with a bad attitude.

Still, Race Torque only used the STi engine as a starting point and the serious mods began with a touch of crank lightening.

The WRX crank (STi cranks and conrods are usually shot peened) webs can have a fair bit of weight removed without any effects on strength or reliability and of course the engine will rev more freely as a result.

The associated STi conrods were then re-attached, with the standard STi pistons also being reused.

There was talk of pistons being machined from Cosworth blanks, but that’s for this car’s second or ‘race’ engine.

Yes indeed folks, most of us have to make do with one engine, but some, like Rommy, can get up in the morning and choose which engine they want to run for the day.

To tell the truth, Rommy’s race engine is being developed for drag and race circuit use, but as the lessons learnt with that particular motor will be applied to Race Torque’s most dedicated National and International rally customers, no-one was keen to divulge too many secrets.

Nonetheless, the road going engine is still a blinder and with the bottom end built bullet proof, attention turned to the heads.

Secret stuff…
As indicated above, there are numerous little secrets with regards to STi parts and one of these is that the STi version III heads don’t have valve guides which stick out into the air stream (as in the stock WRX motor).

This obviously improves air flow and with a good dose of additional porting and polishing , there’s no doubting that the heads on this motor now breathe better than one of those late night phone calls.

Race Torque were a little secretive as regards the valve gear in Rommy’s engine, although the actual valves are known to be standard STi version III items.

The cams, meanwhile, are also said to be Version III - but we suspect there was some development went on behind the scenes there too !

Ultimately, air flow through the top of the motor is based around a decent turbo - in this case an AVO ball bearing unit that’s good enough for 400 horsepower. AVO (Advanced Vehicle Operations) is a Melbourne company with an enviable reputation for engine development on Japanese cars.

The standard STi exhaust manifold is used to feed the turbo its exhaust gases, while air for the combustion process is sucked in through a K&N air filter and up to the turbo.

Once compressed - to no more than 1.3 bar - the air is fed through an Apexi front mounted intercooler.

This comes as a complete bolt on kit, although the inside of that Apexi front bumper had to be modified for the intercooler to fit properly. Now there’s a funny thing - an Apexi front bumper that had to be modified for an Apexi intercooler to fit !!

Anyway, further cooling is aided by a water injection set up of Race Torque’s own design.

Actually, it’s a water squirting system, with two Mitsubishi Evo III squirters directing the H2O onto the front of the intercooler.

Although it sounds a bit crude, in operation the set up is controlled electronically to operate above 0.4 bar of boost, from 4,000rpm and only when the intake temperature rises above 33 degrees.

Eventually, the cooled and compressed air is sucked in through the original - but match ported - STi intake manifold.

Fuel is added via four STi series III injectors and the whole deal is then controlled by Autronic SMC ignition / EFI electronics.

Unlike many who like to shout about power figures, Race Torque simply develop their engines to produce the goods on the road or the rally circuit.

It was pointed out that careful tuning - especially in regards to fuelling and air flow - is crucial to getting the most out of the WRX engine.

Consequently, Race Torque don’t always go for extra injectors with these engines, unless something like wild race cams make the additional fuel really necessary.

What we’re trying to say here is that no power figure would be given for Rommy’s car, although Race Torque’s Lane Heenan did say that its torque output is "phenomenal".

Getting it to the wheels
In fact, the torque is so good that a gearbox capable of handling the Newton metres has yet to be found !

A number of leading aftermarket gearboxes specifically designed for racing have actually been tried on this car - including one that was claimed to be unbreakable! (It wasn’t).

Dare we mention Ivan Albins and Precision Performance - oh well, we just did, sorry Race Torque.

Curiously, an AP Racing single plate clutch and lightened Toda Racing flywheel haven’t posed any problems and the original diffs have stood up to being thrashed… er, driven sportingly too.

The LSD option for the diffs has yet to be explored for strip and circuit applications and there’ll no doubt be some deep discussion in regards to ratios.

When it comes to handling, many car owners throw a multitude of parts under the wheel arches and end up totally confused.

The four sets of fully adjustable Tien suspension on either corner of this WRX are as good as it gets and with the Cusco strut braces front and rear, everything is kept fairly simple.

Getting the `right’ look
There’s no denying that the Work rims from Japan, wrapped in Proxes 215/35 ZR18 liquorice, combined with the Apexi bodykit and lowered stance, make this one of the horniest WRXs we’ve ever seen.

The metallic paintwork too is fully custom and was applied by a bloke named Matt, who used to work for a leading re-spray outfit, but doesn’t anymore - so we won’t give them the publicity because Matt did the work.

The colour is based on that of an undisclosed European car manufacturer (looks a bit Porsche to us!), but Matt added in his own custom mix and with more than a few coats of clear and hours of rubbing back, the result speaks for itself.

The visual feast continues inside the cabin, with a full custom re-trim, STi racing wheel, coloured dash light inserts, carbon fibre MoMo pedals and more

Call the car a visual stunner, eye candy, sex on wheels or whatever ... fact is that it’s all of these and more.

Yet Rommy’s WRX also sounds good - and not just when the pedal is floored and that exhaust starts to Baarrrp, Baaarrrrrp…

Time for serious ICE
The sound system was designed to capture the essence of this particular WRX’s two major characteristics - power and class.

Clint, at Perth’s Audioart & Technologies, put the whole sound package together, blending plenty of visual appeal with a system that’s certainly not lacking in Wattage.

The front Ottomusik Studio Driver 3-ways, for example, are receiving 280 Watts RMS each, while Xtant’s mutha’ mono block 1001D amplifier delivers at least 1000 Watts RMS into four Solo Baric 10" subs.

Four 10" subs in the boot of a WRX?! Not just four 10" subs, but a… look, let’s start right from the top.

The system is headed up by an Alpine 3DA-W880E head unit, before an Xtant P500a signal processor / equaliser takes control.

The P500a has five bands of parametric equalisation and Xtant’s unique balanced line input technology.

Balanced line technology - for decreasing the chances of unwanted noise entering the system - is nothing new, yet Xtant’s approach to the subject is somewhat individual.

Xtant state that with their balanced line technology, there are no common ground connections between channels and hence no ground loops to cause unwanted noise. (Don’t ask us, we just read it straight from the brochure!)

Another feature of the P500a is that it puts out signal voltages as high as 17 Volts RMS to the amplifiers, therefore allowing gains to be turned right down and hence aiding sound quality.

The amplifiers in question are an Xtant 2100b for rear fill, two Xtant 2140c amps for the left and right sides of the front stage and the above mentioned Xtant 1001d mono block amp.

They may not be the very latest amps from the individualist American manufacturer, but properly set up and tuned their performance is nothing less than impressive.

Crossing over correctly
Part of any professional sound system’s tuning is of course establishing the crossover points.

In this case there’s nothing complicated and signals leaving the two 2140c amps for the front stage are simply regulated to 90 Hz plus - bearing in mind that the Ottomusik System 6 three-ways come with a substantial passive crossover network anyway.

The amps have been tuned with 12dB roll off slopes, but 12dB added to the 24dB in the 1001d amplifier adds up to a very steep 36db per octave for the subs.

There’s no denying that Audioart set the bass - from 90Hz down - in this car to play loud, hard and ultra responsive!

Rear fill meanwhile, is handled by a pair of Alpine DD Drive 5 ¼" two-ways in the rear doors, with a crossover point of around 100 Hz.

A good smack in the gob
It is of course one thing to have a car full of exotic sound gear, but it’s something else to have the gear installed in such a way that those who see it for the first time are absolutely gob smacked.

As such, it’s hard to know where to start with the ICE in this WRX, but perhaps we’ll begin with those custom kick pods that house the Ottomusik mid-range and tweeter in each front foot well.

It was necessary to make these pods for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that getting all three speakers from the Studio Driver package into the door would have been near on impossible.

Clint also felt that it was necessary to get the mids and tweeters neatly ‘out’ into the foot wells as such, so that with proper angling the sound could be directed upwards for healthy staging.

In fact, the staging in the car is remarkably high, but it’s no doubt also aided by the very healthy 280 Watts RMS that each Studio Driver set receives, not to mention some very careful tuning of that P500a parametric equaliser.

Whilst it might look like the speaker pods are somewhat obtrusive - especially that on the drivers side - there is in fact plenty of space for fancy foot work if it is required.

As Clint said; "If you’ve got massive feet and wear size 14 boots then it’ll be a problem, but otherwise it’s fine!"

The difficult part was actually manufacturing the pods from a mixture of MDF, fibreglass and body filler, constantly shaping and moulding to avoid obstacles such as the fuse box, bonnet release and even the Autronic SMC engine management system.

Consequently, the pod on the left is a different shape to that on the right. But guess what - despite their different shapes, Clint still managed to ensure that each pod is of equal volume!

Move to the rear, please
If the custom front speaker pods in this WRX are a neat touch, then the boot can only be described as a work of art and an undertaking of mammoth proportions.

Preparation down the back began with the construction of a massive MDF base plate that extends from the rear of the boot right through to just behind the back seats.

Knowing from the start that the car would be driven in a ‘sporting’ manner, Clint cut healthy chunks from the base plate in non strategic areas to try and keep the weight down as much as possible. Nonetheless, this base plate has been firmly glued and bolted to the floor of the car.

But before constructing the base plate, Clint had to figure out how exactly he was going to get four Xtant amplifiers, an Xtant P500a equaliser, two Brax stiffening caps, four 10" subs plus all of the associated distribution blocks and wiring into the boot of a WRX. Just think about that for a moment.

It’s no small task and as Clint explained; "It took me no less than two full days of measuring and planning to figure out how it would all go in!

"It didn’t take me long to realise that everything would actually fit, but the challenge was to create something that looked stunning but didn’t compromise on sound quality. I also knew that Rommy wanted to keep his Cusco strut brace down the back, so its presence was another planning obstacle."

Eventually a plan was hatched and the bench saw in Audioart’s workshop was quickly filling the air with that lovely fine MDF dust as Clint began constructing a couple of 1.7 cubic foot fully sealed sub boxes.

Each box would ultimately house two of the Solo Baric 10s in an arc arrangement, while the amplifiers for the front and rear stages were to be mounted on pods in front of the subs. The P500a equaliser would then float above the subs, although the 1001d mono block sub amp and two Brax caps would have to wait a while before their new home was decided upon.

Enter the Batcave
Looking at the photos, the sub woofer and main amplifier home can only be described as a ‘cave’.

Not that constructing a couple of sub boxes and wrapping the whole thing up in yellow or blue vinyl with a few lights was all that happened down the back of this Wrex.

The very early stages involved the application of massive amounts of Dynamat sound deadening - in the boot, the roof of the boot, on the back floor, in the sub boxes…

There was also an extensive amount of work involved in actually blending the sub boxes together as well as adding the final touches, so this of course meant more hand laid fibreglass ( this is a sports car remember !), body filler, sanding, smoothing, more hand laid .....

The rear of the cave - or what you see when the boot is opened from the outside of the car - was actually the most time consuming part of the entire install.

"We knew right from the start that Rommy wasn’t going to use the boot, so in this respect completely sealing it off was never going to be a problem," explained Clint.

Nonetheless, getting the contours right, never mind ensuring that it all joined up with the car correctly, was a massive operation.

Ensuring that the boot could actually be closed and that the boot hinges wouldn’t pose any problems were further concerns and all up Clint says that a full two weeks were spent on this part of the car alone.

A home for the 1001d mono block amplifier and the two Brax caps had been found by now also.

Speaking of the power aspect, two Brax caps are backed up by an Optima battery in the stock engine bay position, while the power cable is 2 gauge from Brax.

Quite a project, and proof that you sometimes can have the best of both worlds!

Nuts`n'Bolts - Rommy’s MY 96 Subaru WRX