Estates are great. They are based on their sedan siblings and, often, this translates into car-like handling characteristics as well as enough room for your whole family. And they are even better if you also need a sizeable boot to haul your stuff around.
Like this jet black Legacy GT Wagon. Its owner, Ian Yeo, co-owner and tuner at local workshop Edge Racing, needs its big boot to stow items like exhaust systems, coilovers and strut bars for his work, as well as spare wheels, tyres and tools for track days at Sepang. And when fully loaded, this haul can weigh quite a bit.
“The standard engine output is not enough,” says Yeo, “so I had a few mods done to it to give it more punch.”
Right. The 2.5-litre boxer-four in the Legacy GT Wagon puts out 250bhp and 339Nm of torque. Anyone who feels that this is insufficient must have either spent his entire life driving supercars or he has a serious power fetish. In the case of Yeo, it was the latter. And who can blame him? After all, he spends most of his time modifying and tuning WRXs and Legacys, getting the most bang for his customers’ buck.
With his own Subaru, Yeo has made 390bhp and 550Nm of torque at the crank. These outputs are not to be taken lightly, and even the most serious of performance hotheads will concur.
The original turbocharger has been discarded for a larger IHI unit. Together with the uprated boost solenoid, huge Hyperflow top-mount intercooler, the custom-tuned ECU allows for three boost levels pre-set into the car’s standard SI-Drive interface. Maximum boost is 1.4bar in “Sport Sharp” mode. In this mode, a jab of the throttle sends the car hurtling down the road. Lag is virtually non-existent, as speed builds up with ease.
The only obvious signs that you are about to lose your licence is the rate at which objects in front appear to leap at you, and the ascending boxer throb emanating from the street-legal Kakimoto exhaust muffler.
Other noteworthy mods to the engine are the Tomei extractors and uppipe, and a host of customised items (made by Edge Racing, of course), which include the 3-inch downpipe, air splitter and WRX STI intake manifold.
Power aside, the handling and braking departments have also been improved to compensate for the added weight that the Legacy has to put up with. Added weight puts more pressure and stress on the brakes, so a set of Brembo Gran Turismo brakes has been installed, complete with slotted rotors at the rear, four-pot callipers up front and Movít brake pads.
Undercarriage-wise, adjustable JIC Magix coilovers and Cusco front and rear sway bars help keep this wagon planted with lesser body roll, while preventing the rear from bottoming out when stowing cargo.
Rounding out the mods are the Rota Formula wheels, measuring 18 inches in diameter and shod with grippy Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres. Special mention must go to the wheels, as their bronze finish complements the car’s black exterior to a T.
It’s nice to have a workshop to call your own, where you can spend hours tuning and fussing over every modification to extract the best out of them. And Yeo has done just that with his Legacy GT Wagon. He has also purposely kept the interior stock, so as to maintain its inherent cargo-carrying usefulness.
DHL, eat your heart out.
+ ENGINE/ELECTRONICS
Edge custom ECU tune
Edge custom 3-inch downpipe
Edge custom IHI turbo
Edge uprated electronic boost solenoid
Edge custom air splitter
Tomei equal length extractors and up pipe
Hyperflow top-mount intercooler
HKS actuator
Kakimoto twin exhaust mufflers with titanium tips
Walbro fuel pump
K&N filter
Cusco oil catch tank
Customised ATF cooler kit
Customised Subaru Impreza WRX STI intake manifold
+ WHEELS/TYRES
Rota Formula 18-inch alloy wheels
Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres
+ BRAKES
Brembo Grand Turismo brake kit
Movit Komfort brake pads
+ SUSPENSION/HANDLING
Cusco front and rear sway bars
JIC Magix coilovers
Beatrush aluminium undertray
