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In 2018 my buddy, who works at Solo Motorsports, was selling the wagon, and I had a friend who was interested in picking one up. I mentioned that it was available, but he ultimately passed on it. So, I decided to buy it myself for an incredibly low price—roughly a quarter of what the car would be worth today.
Overall, it wasn't in terrible condition. The paint and clear coat were shot, but the previous owner had already made several modifications. He had swapped the original Ecru interior for black and redone the headliner in Alcantara. He'd also upgraded the turbo to a Turbonetics T4 50-trim, paired with an unknown chipset and 63 lb RS2 injectors.
The car also had a screamer pipe, which I absolutely hated. The exhaust itself had been cut up and custom-fabricated, a significant departure from the subtle factory setup. It had oversized mufflers and sounded decent, but nothing special. I eventually had a local shop replace the rear muffler with something smaller and sportier. They also addressed the screamer pipe, eliminating that obnoxious noise whenever the wastegate opened.
Another early change was replacing the aftermarket racing bucket seats with factory seats. The stock seats were significantly more comfortable and better suited to the car.
In 2019, I ordered a suspension kit from 2Bennett Racing and lowered the wagon considerably. I also installed a big brake kit, which turned into a much bigger project than anticipated. Getting everything to fit required sourcing, modifying, and replacing the front uprights. It was far more hassle than I wanted, but the improvement in stopping power was tremendous. With a set of 19-inch BBS CH wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, the car was finally coming together.
Then disaster struck.
The oil temperature sending unit randomly failed, dumping the engine oil onto the highway. My crank bearings promptly decided to throw a disco party, accompanied by some pretty impressive knocking. Surprisingly, I continued driving the car for about a year in that condition, knowing I'd always planned to rebuild the engine for more power anyway.
When the COVID lockdowns started in 2020, boredom finally pushed me into tearing the engine apart. Unfortunately, I quickly realized I didn't have nearly enough space to accomplish everything I wanted. So, the project came to a halt, and the wagon sat.
During that time, another friend offered me a built engine originally assembled by a now-defunct rally builder in North Carolina. It was based on the same engine architecture but used a taller block, increasing displacement from the factory 2.2 liters to 2.5 liters. Naturally, I bought it.
And then, once again, the project sat.
Eventually, we moved into a house with a 1600sqft basement garage. I was eager to start the build. In January I also made a 32 hour round trip from Atlanta to Minneapolis for a 6speed transmission and a gas tank for my roommate.