Our friends at Kronos Performance and Backyard Turbo get the dubious honor of being our first real project car here on InfiniteGarage.com. I’ve known Adam (CEO of Kronos Performance) for a very long time now and we seem to always be bouncing ideas off each other. Adam got his start modifying cars in the J-body world and by the mid 2000s had built up a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable Ecotec guys in the world. So it was a shock to every one when he switched to Mitsubishis and then Subarus. This 2009 STI is not Adam’s first trip to the Subaru rodeo so it will be interesting to see where he takes it.
For the dyno graph, videos and discussion hit the jump to see just how much was left on the table from the factory.
For now Adam is keeping it simple with a catback exhaust and a tune. Turbo cars are tuned notoriously bad from the factory leaving huge lumps of power on the table. This is why it was important to get the 09 STI tuned before any serious mods were done, just to see how much was left on the table. The results? Pretty impressive
Check out a couple pulls on the dyno.
Test Car: 2009 Subaru STi
Dyno: DynoJet
Temperature: 100 Degrees
Modifications: Magnaflow Catback
Stock Dyno Tune Dyno Number: 247.2 HP / 237.6 TQ
1st Tune (So Far) Number: 271 HP / 298 TQ
The stats are very interesting, especially when you see that air temperature of 100 degrees. That kind of heat will heat soak an intercooler very quickly. I also think very telling is not only the huge jump in peak torque but the even bigger gains through out the power band. Clearly Subaru left a lot to be desired with the stock tune and with cooler air temps the results would be even more staggering.
Of course not every car will see those kinds of gains, but if you have a turbo car you can probably expect some pretty good results on just a tune. The benefits are not just horsepower and torque gains though, Adam’s STI picked up some good throttle response and fuel efficiency. This is to be expected when tailoring the tune to your specific car and working out the “caution” of a stock tune from the factory.
We will definitely follow Adam’s build as it goes on to see just what can be done to improve what is already an awesome car.
4 comments
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RenoWrench
September 5, 2012 at 5:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s a pretty substantial gain without much in the way of modifications.
Jason
September 5, 2012 at 7:41 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That is just how it works with modern turbo cars. They tune them very safely. That’s not to say tuning more horsepower out of the stock set up is unsafe because it isn’t. It’s just the companies do a one size fits all tune that goes on every car so to allow for variation in weather, altitude, and tolerances generally the cars are very conservative.
pistolpig
September 5, 2012 at 6:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Awesome! Can’t wait to see the progress on this one.
Jason
September 5, 2012 at 7:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yep gonna be a really cool project. Nothing crazy or over the top looks wise but it will just be done right.