Here's one for the car enthusiasts, I have just finished my purpose built 'beach weapon'. It's an MY07 Subaru Forester XT Luxury, I bought it stock standard in April last year and have been modifying since. I have done almost all the custom work, modifications and fitted all accessories myself. There's been a lot of attention to detail to get everything looking and performing just right as this car is a keeper. For those unfamiliar with Subaru family the XT has a 2.5L turbo boxer engine but I have tuned it up so it now puts out more power and torque than a standard 'Hawkeye' WRX. It also now has more clearance than a standard 100 series land cruiser and will literally drive rings around the big 4x4's on the sand. Not only does it get me further off the beaten track, it gets me there quickly !
Hope to see you Queensland guys up at Double Island Point this summer !
Forgive my saying that the base vehicle is, in my opinion, pig ugly, what youve done with it looks very interesting though. That bit of partial rudeness aside, Im quite interested what other mods youve done. I would look twice should you pass me in my subi or SWB Patrol and would love to see it in action. Post a clip if you get some good video!
No offence taken, I guess beauty is in the eye of the Beer-holder
As far as mods go I have prepared a brief list for the offroadsubarus forum....
Protection:
Subaxtreme Front Bar (customised)
Subaxtreme Rear Bar (customised)
Subaxtreme Sump Guard (customised)
Custom Lower Radiator Guard
Suspension:
KYB Excel G Struts
Scorpion Subaru 50mm Strut lift (front)
Subaxtreme 40mm Strut lift (rear)
Dobbinsons Standard Springs (rear)
Whiteline Camber bolts (rear)
Subaxtreme rear sway bar linkage extensions
Custom 50mm Trailing Arm Spacers
Tires:
16” Forester GT rims
215/70r16 BF Goodrich AT Tires
Engine:
Ultrex 3” WRX stainless dump-pipe and mid-section
Magnaflow muffler
Process West Intercooler and splitter
ECU Tune by PITS
Digital Boost Gauge
EGR System Delete
Transmission:
B&M Transmission Cooler
4EAT MPT Clutch Lockup Mod
Electronics:
3400 lumen LED Driving lights
2250 lumen LED work light
LED Combination Stop/Tail/ Reverse/Indicator lights
Oricom UHF Radio
OBDII Bluetooth Dongle
Body:
Thule Roof Racks
02 STI Hoop Scoop
Subaxtreme picnic table boot floor
Liberal application of rustproofing products
And being an XT Luxury it had these Factory Options:
Rear LSD
Satnav
Vehicle Dynamic Control
Sunroof
Black Leather interior
Privacy glass
Premium Sound System
Headlight washers (deleted)
Foglights (deleted)
Urban Grey Metallic Paint
The big four x fours suffer from too much weight, a light weight vehicle can rock across the sand. Best beach basher I've had was a Suzuki Sierra long wheel base. Cheap but never got it stuck.
Looks very nice.....
But some advice you could get every where quicker than the traditional 4x4 but my advise is ... don't .... Drive it easy otherwise the first washout you hit at speed will probably collapse the front suspension or wishbones The car is not designed or built as strong as a traditional 4x4...
Enjoy being fast on the black top and enjoy the extra comfort etc... Off-road but nurse it or you will regret it.
Nice looking run around
Interesting list k b. Is there off the shelf kit to realign your drive train, or did you manufacture spacers, or (I ask doubtfully) is that somehow not necessary?
Tha rear bar is amazing and good to see you have chosen the best off-road on road rubber money can buy!! Any build shots ? I wish sea breeze had more constructive posts like this !! Especially ones related to beach activities!
Will do, I'm off to Indo August/September but have a boys trip to Sandy Cape on the top of Fraser Island planned for October. No doubt that will produce some good footage!
I wish!! I had an XS1 many years ago similar to that but it was a "rat" bike.
It had been a death wobbler that a mate gave me to do something with.
First up was stripping it to bare frame and welding a strut each side from centre down tube to the swing arm mounts, you can see them fitted to that bike, rear setting the pegs and fitting a TX front end with Ceriani type fork legs and disc brake hub.
I then laced the hubs with DID high tensile alloy rims as fitted to Honda off road bikes. I tossed the blinkers into the bushes and fitted a custom 5 inch headlight. Blinkers were not compulsory in 1975.
With the rear set pegs I had to shorten the rear rake lever and reverse the gear lever so gear changing was reversed too. I topped it off with Dunlop TT 100 trigonic tyres and a Hi tune 2 into 1 exhaust. It sounded awesome especially when I opened it up in tunnels.
At 64 I am too fragile for bikes anymore so I play with my current toy which is a Lotus 9.2 yacht. Water is softer than bitumen when you hit it.
i used drive one of these for work. it was affectionately called the "sewing machine" because of it's sound, and couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
they have obviously come a long way since then