Gurj's 2007 STI

Gurj's build has been quite the transformation, to say the least.

But wait, there's more!

Gurj's goal was to build a "Highway monster/Show car". Naturally, we started by pulling the engine.

If you know these cars well and have a sharp eye you will notice there has already been some modifications done at this point. You could have the sharpest eye in the world and still not be able to tell that this is in fact a "built" engine. If you're wondering why we're pulling it, it's because the engine had high leak down numbers.

Gurj wanted to ditch all the previous work that was done by another shop so he brought it to us to take care of. Not the best looking engine bay...yet.

Hmm...this would look good. Probably better with some paint.

That should keep it from rusting while we clean up the rest of the bay and prep for paint.

That looks even better...black firewall for the contrast.

Well hey if the engine bay looks this good, might as well keep going.

While the car was off at Herbert's Autobody getting refreshed, we were putting together a new V4 closed deck short block.

Here is a link to a video edit of the assembly:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlDoUYKF5Lm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Pinned mains lookin' good.

Fresh paint on all of the engine parts.

The red really pops!

She's back in the shop and the engine is dropped in to mock up the V-mount set up.

Well that looks cool!

Progress...

Really starting to come together .

Well she's back out and getting ready for final assembly.

Some new taillights arrived and they look fresh! While we're at the back end of the car, check out this trunk set up!

Freshly painted cage all installed.

Engine dropped back in, getting everything finalized. By the way, it was crunch time with about 30 hours before the first car show it was signed up for. Talk about cutting it close.

A little bird's-eye view.

We worked on her for 27 hours straight trying to get it done in time. With the first start-up 30 minutes before the show we had to do the break-in oil change for the cams and fresh engine etc. The show was over an hour drive away, we had all hands on deck for the better part of the last 2 days. We called ahead and arranged a late check-in to the show, and hit the road for its first ever drive with the new set up.

Unfortunately, we had overheating issues and didn't want to further risk damaging anything. We tried calling a tow truck but they were a few hours out. So it was back to the shop for us.

After some much needed rest it was time to design some proper aerodynamic pieces to ensure all of the air goes through the radiator and intercooler, not around it. We also built a custom crash bar that was less restrictive.

Looking pretty good...and it works much better now too!

We made some reliefs for the splitter support rods as well.

We made a custom fender liner as well to protect the fuse box relocation.

She was finally show ready! Gurj went on to win a ton of shows in Canada and the United States of America.

Oh and if you're wondering about the turbo, it is a GTX3582R with a T51R mod.

It's all come together for the shows but we still had to dyno tune it and see how much power she makes.

After the break-in period was all done we finally dyno tuned her on pump gas. Using our not-so-great Canadian pump gas and on one of the lowest reading dynos (dyno dynamics) she made some decent power, but we expect to see closer to the 500-600 wheel horsepower numbers on flex-fuel.

For the next season of shows Gurj got his car wrapped by North Shore Auto Styling. He was inspired by an old fighter jet and wanted to resemble the rivets and panels on his car.

Of course he was retaining his "Panda" theme, but instead of a fluffy white panda, he opted for an evil Panda for this round.

He is running 18X11" wheels, wrapped in a 295 wide tire.

Which angle do you like better, front or back?

Give Gurj a follow on IG if you aren't already @GD__Panda

We will update this blog with dyno numbers on flex-fuel. I'm sure there will be a couple of posts on IG with those numbers as well.