Westend Alignment is the best, the end.

After you’ve sunk thousands of dollars into your adjustable coilover suspension (at least 2-way), you’ll need to get an alignment to uncap the potential that now lies within your car. If you’ve got a car that requires additional parts for camber adjustment in the rear, I would recommend you get those parts too and get it all setup at the same time. For us Subaru GR STi owners, Cusco makes lateral links to adjust camber in the rear up to -3 degrees. Darin would prefer to work with lateral links as opposed to the Whiteline Rear Camber Bushing Kit.

Don’t cheap out and use band aid solutions; get the real thing, if you’re serious about performance. Once you know you’re ready, give Darin a call and schedule your appointment two weeks in advance. Two weeks you ask? If you absolutely have to get aligned before hand, I’d take it somewhere else; but if you can wait two weeks, your car will handle like Hades’ chariot of death when all is said and done. Do yourself a favor, wait the two weeks, and thank all parties involved. That’s just how good he is!

When you make an appointment, you better be prepared to bet your life on that appointment and make sure you get there early. Darin aligns every single car himself because he’s a perfectionist and can’t stand the thought of even one car making it out of his shop not perfect. His shop is actually a good size and he could easily hire another guy to go through twice the cars and make more money, but again, if one car isn’t perfect, he can’t bear the thought. That’s the kind of guy you want working on your suspension!

I’ve tried Robispec as well as Firestone alignments; Robispec was above average, however I still think Darin’s alignment is superior. Oh that reminds me, make sure you get corner balanced too; it makes a difference. Now I bet you’re wondering, so how does my car handle now? Handling is so sick, it’s confidence inspiring. When I get on the throttle the rear just keeps on rotating and my understeer problems are a distant memory. Turn-in is significantly improved, and I’m still yet to turn on the track settings.

Darin knows I go to the track often and what he decided to have me do is when I get to the track, max out my camber plates to -4, which will also give me a little toe out in the front. He said it’d be my little secret to shave that extra 3/4 of a second to beat my friends. When the track day is over I can go back to my normal setting and preserve the tires, bringing the toe back to 0. How cool is that? No one does it better.

Westend Alignment
18008 S Vermont Ave
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 808-9233

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A couple months back, Amy and I got casted in a commercial for the new Subaru 2010 Legacy. I don’t know how else to put this: basically they were going to pay us all a good amount of cash to stand around as if we were at a typical Subaru meet. I guess the marketing folks at Subaru have a thing for the whole community aspect of owning a Subaru; kind of cool I guess. We each walked away $1200 less poor after 2 nights of standing around and eating free food somewhere in Long Beach.

I'd bent all 4 Advan wheels and was rolling on stock BBS for a while.

Honestly, I was stoked considering I’d just bent all of my wheels at Streets of Willow maybe a month prior and hadn’t located new wheels yet. This was before I’d upgraded to a Project Mu big brake kit, so I could still fit the stock wheels. Later on after the big brake kit, I could no longer fit stock wheels in the rear, but that’s another story. Anyway, Subaru made this YouTube video called “AWD For Life” and I happen to be in it here and there.

I’m the guy who says “With these cars they’re quick out of the box and if you want to make them even faster, it doesn’t take a lot.” At the time, I was still rocking Stage 2 (turboback exhaust and intake) but still managing a healthy 90whp gain over the factory. Since then I think I’m at 130 over the factory output and almost pushing 400wtq? Yeah, it’s quick alright! I think I’m past the “it doesn’t take a lot” though, oops. I can’t wait to get casted in another commercial or even a movie.

Click image above to watch video.

To be honest, I’ve never been a super big Nissan fan. Sure, I love the GTRs and the Silvias, but that doesn’t count. Everybody and their mother love those cars. The Nissan 350s, the Maximas, that’s what Nissan’s normal lineup consists of, and I can’t say I’m dying to get into the seat of any of those cars. Still, when I’d seen the latest Top Gear with good old Jeremy Clarkson matching a Nissan 370Z against a BMW Z4, I was a bit underwhelmed. I mean really, who ever thought a BMW “Zed” 4 would ever outrun a Nissan 370 “Zed”; it’s just not possible.

Sure the horsepower sounds the same, and the shape of the cars look around the same ballpark, but here’s why a BMW will lose every time. It’s heavy. It’s made for people who like to drive 90mph on the 405N, and feel like they’re driving 40mph. The BMW Z4 is a luxury car on Halloween with a sports car costume and it isn’t fooling a soul (some people like that sort of thing, so in that case, it’s consensual). Sometimes I think that’s why people speed on the freeway like it isn’t a big deal: suspensions that don’t have feedback.

I think if people could actually drive with what 90mph is supposed to feel like without all that soft dampening from the shocks and sound deadening material, they’d feel a little more weary about driving at speed and making illegal maneuvers. Imagine having to drive a stripped out Z4 with nothing but a cage and a race seat; I can only imagine.

Aside from the fancy livery and Prodrive wing, it looks stock.

It’s hard to tell with the loud graphics and overly large $4000 carbon Prodrive wing, but Ken Block’s 08 STi is for the most part, stock, on the outside. Sure you’ve got that roof vent and rally mirrors; the bumpers, side skirts, fenders, that’s all from the factory though. For weight savings, it looks like the hatch and hood have been switched out for carbon, but they both retain the factory appearance. Apparently the roof is carbon as well. It’s really in the details that make this car rather amazing, at least to me anyway. There’s more I’ve missed, you get the idea; it’s light as can be.

I love that Prodrive carbon wing.

Actually, I have to mention the carbon door panels from Syms! I didn’t even know Syms had carbon door panels. But anyway, the custom Volk TE37s with the neon yellow Brembo big brake kit; very cool! I’m curious about that Tein SRC setup with custom valving. I’ve heard Tein is very supportive and makes sure you get the real deal if you’re actually serious in racing. They’re certainly more affordable than JRZs, but if you’re an average joe like myself, I doubt you’ll get the same sort of treatment.

You're looking at a gold mine.

I know this engine is stroked, I know it has a forged crank, but what I really like is that setup with the air oil separator and I guess what they call a “fuel swirl pot.” I asked my buddy Vince about it who’s more of an expert on this sort of stuff; he says it’s a surge tank with a fuel pump next to it. I wonder if Crawford would be interested in selling something like that. I’d just have to get rid of my Cusco strut bar to make room. Supposedly the chassis on the new STi is very stiff as is, having no need for a strut bar.

Look I'm not the only one that likes to sit ultra low.

You know what I noticed; the serious guys sit in Recaros with Motec dashes. Not all, but a lot of them do just like the STi Nurburgring car. You can get a closer look at the carbon on those Syms door panels; very cool. I guess I know what I’ll be dreaming about tonight, except in my dreams, the engine bay will have an HKS rotated turbo kit instead, with Cosworth heads!

I got it bad.

I have so much great Subaru content to post; I’ve been excited all day just thinking about when I’d finally finish all my deadlines so I could get to it! Last month, Jon and I were at the Spocom show in Long Beach checking out the HKS booth, chatting with Mike at HKS about how much I appreciated having to buy an HKS downpipe because their exhaust doesn’t fit with any other downpipe. Well I wasn’t too sore about it; the HKS piece was a lot higher quality than my Invidia and I recently upgraded my turbo to a stock location ATP 3071 anyway. It all sort of worked out, kind of, not really.

But anyway, HKS had a 08 STi on display sporting a prototype rotated turbo kit and front mount intercooler (not prototype anymore!). We were drooling for days on that setup. It’s an external wastegate turbo (50mm), basically the HKS version of the GT30R (rotated baby yeah!) that dumps to the downpipe and it’s v-band. Comes with the uppipe, downpipe (great, I need to buy a new one, again), bypass pipe, chamber pipe, suction pipe, water lines, oil lines; everything you need, except for the intake and exhaust manifold.

I want!

The front mount intercooler requires a smaller battery and is flanged for the infamous HKS SSQV blow off valve, you know, the one that goes “pew pew.” If you’re not familiar, watch Fast and the Furious or watch this video for reference. I don’t have a problem with a smaller battery; I was actually planning on doing it anyway. You can probably shave a good 30 pounds just by switching to a small battery.

How ricers let themselves be known.

I’m a little hesitant on that blow off valve though. You see, the HKS SSQV is world renowned for being the mark of the ricer. It has a distinct 3 fin fitting where the air is released, creating this unique whistling (pew pew) that ricers seem to love. On the other hand, there’s something amusing about being mistaken for a ricer when you’re putting down 400 horsepower to the wheels! I mean I guess you could remove that and your BOV would sound normal, but what fun is that? Alright, maybe I’m a little ricey, just a tad.

I’m set on getting this kit, I must have it! I have a built motor ready to handle the power and put the smack down on the circuit. The only problem is, after I add up the cost of the intake and exhaust manifold, I’m looking at $8830 list price. I get a significant discount, but still, we’re talking a good amount of money here. I still need to get some aero modifications along with new coilovers too. If you know anybody who needs web work, send them over to so they can help support my new turbo kit fundraiser!

Rick is in the middle.

It’s not news that the Obama administration has asked Rick Wagoner to step down from his position as CEO of General Motors, but it’s just now that we’re getting wind of his golden parachute package. Nobody seems to be getting the numbers spot on as I’m seeing everything from $8.2 million, $10 million, $20 million. Regardless, it seems quite established that we’re looking at a minimum of $8 million in addition to an annual salary of $74,000 for the rest of his life.

Rick’s held the reigns to the General Motors machine for the last 9 years and since then its stock prices have fallen from $30 a share to $3. What you should’ve done Rick was handed it over to me! I would’ve told the union to get bent and cut costs by manufacturing only Escalades and Corvettes. Hybrids, are you kidding me? I’m always getting smoked by a Toyota Prius doing 90mph in the carpool lane, while I’m driving my 350whp turbocharged race car at 70mph.

Anyway, the point is big payouts at thriving multi-billion dollar corporations are great. Big payouts to federally bailed out companies who aren’t doing a damn thing, well what do you think? So who else wants to punch Rick in the face?