For better or worse there has been a large amount of talk surrounding the newly updated 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX. The biggest complaint from enthusiasts? That it got soft. Gone are the bulging hood scoop, muscular fender flares and semi-aggressive face of the last generation WRX. What we have now is a much more conservative WRX that Subaru hopes will convince millions (or is it thousands?) of buyers to pick up a non-turbo base Impreza instead of a Camry or Corolla.

But that sort of compromised-for-luxury mentality doesn't fly here at SCC. When we got the chance to build our project 2008 WRX for Subaru's 2007 SEMA booth, we knew we had to give it back some edge. So we fished around for intake and exhaust upgrades (K&N and SPT, respectively), a real carbon fiber hood (Crawford Performance), big brakes (AP Racing/Brake Pros), forged wheels (Prodrive), a then-newly prototyped suspension (TEIN) and a custom flat black paint job (BASF).

The result was, putting it lightly, different. With it new color, look and stance, our WRX wasn't going to be mistaken for anybody's mom's Camry. And the new WRX showed off its true potential. With just our simple modifications, and without any real tuning done since SEMA, our car beat a certain all-wheel drive, turbocharged rally-bred car. That article is to come soon, so I can't (or shouldn't) say which car that was, but keep an eye out.

Project WRX V.08 has also proven to be quite easy to live with so far. We're now making 42whp and 49lb/ft of torque more at the peak than stock (without any ECU tuning) and the engine is rock solid. It boosts strong and consistent with no hiccups. The car goes, stops and turns unlike any factory 2008 WRX and we have yet to be left by the side of the road. Plus, the car holds five people, has a huge trunk and is quiet and comfortable on the inside. My 19-year old S13 should be so lucky.

The flat black BASF paint is also surprisingly easy to live with. Besides our SRT4, there are no other custom painted project cars in our fleet. So we don't really have too much experience with paint jobs beyond the orange Dodge missile. But Project WRX V.08's paint is, so far, quite durable and easy to clean. Dirt and rubber marbles (picked up while on track) don't show too easily on the flat black paint, so we haven't cleaned this car as much as we would like to. Plus, it doesn't help when almost every person who comes across the car says, "why isn't this car painted?"