Farkle (Non-FJR)

[Bounce]

The weather warmed up for the first time in a long time, so off the driveway headed I...

In a little over an hour I had the oem shifter of the WRX pulled and the short-throw replacement installed.

Out of that, most of the time was spent grinding the base plate for the clearance needed by the linkage. With the new shifter, the linkage rises a little higher than OEM and needs to clear that steel trim piece that surrounds the opening in the transmission tunnel.

After several trial fittings, I finally had just enough trimmed for the linkage to clear in all gears. Everything snapped back together nicely and it was off for a test drive.

WOW! It's more than just a closer shifting ratio. It's also crisper snicking into gears. I suspect it has to do with not needing to reach into the glove box to get into 5th gear (or into my hip pocket for second).

In any case, this was well worth the investment! Two thumbs up!

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

WRX...they have intrigued me. In 1971 my dad bought a BMW2002 tii. It seems the WRX is of the same cloth. Small, good handling and quick. How do you like it?

 

[Bounce]

It's great fun. Sticks like glue in the twisties. The 2.0 displacement means it's HP is high strung. the gearing is such that 5th (top) gear at the posted speed limits seems like it's dogging the motor. When new, I was advised to keep it under 4k (half red line) for the first few miles. Even sticking to that, it would do 120mph.

It's not much of a stop-light dragster, but wind it up and send around the bends and WHOOOO!