Help! Legal and Safe Upgrade Path for LGT

[cyniclaus]

Well, after 12 years, I'm finally coming back to the USA from Italy next month. Unfortunately, I can't bring my beloved euro-spec cars with me. Since I love sports cars but hate the attention that comes with driving them in the U.S., I will probably be looking at picking up a LGT (non specB) as my daily driver.

 

My big question is about performance. The base LGT performance is not quite where I want my next car to be. I need to make sure that I have a workable upgrade path before I buy it. This is undoubtedly a cliche', but I want to get STi performance from my Legacy. Suspension, lightweight wheels, stereo, nav, all this is straightforward, but where I am unsure is with the engine.

 

This will be my daily driver for the next 5 years or so and I will routinely take her on long-distance trips, so my big concern is reliability. I also may relocate to CA, so any upgrades would need to be 50-state legal. At the risk of sounding incredibly naive, I have no idea how "street legal" works in the USA. I've spent my entire adult life in Italy and here you can't even change your rims unless they were specifically approved for the car by the Italian DOT! I understand that in the USA, with some state variations, pretty much anything goes as long as you are not messing with safety equipment or emissions. What I don't understand is how so many people apparently get away with running twin-turbo 350z's and big-snail turbo cars with free flow exhausts on the street.

 

I've seen the "Stage 2" setups with chip tune and catback exhaust, but 300 flywheel horsepower probably won't do it for me. What else can be done that is street legal and either keeps or improves upon stock reliability? Is there a nice street legal aftermarket turbo that I could swap in that would be more reliable, spool up faster, and make a little more power than the stock one? I know swapping to a quality FMIC will be a no-brainer. I'm not mechanically inclined enough, so I will be hiring a reputable professional for whatever work is done.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice and flames!

[dmp]

When buying stuff, stick to CARB-approved items, if you pick CA. Legality is a weird thing. Many laws are written so even changing a muffler is technically a violation.

 

Most enforcement happens at emissions-control/testing facilities. Some have visual inspections where folk look around the car for evidence of tampering to OEM emissions-control devices. Some check points, based on the age of the vehicle, simply plug in to the OBD2 port and read the ECU for any errors. Those are the easiest to 'fool' because it's not hard to simply tell the ECU to not-check things like 'cat/o2 sensors' - thus, no errors would be found regardless of mods to the vehicle.

 

Then there are sniffer locations where a probe is inserted () and the exhaust gasses are checked for pollutants.

 

Back to my first line - stick to CARB-approved items and you'll likely have no issues.

 

Does that help?

[Jerboa113]

move to the southeast away from atlanta, they dont have smog patrol at all in the rural areas.. you could run straight pipes and no one would even notice.

 

ATL has smog but from what I can tell its pretty lenient.

 

and.. if you need more performance than stage 2 out of an LGT.. you should consider a Z06 or something.. its gonna cost you less (if used) and be more reliable in the long run than an lgt running wide open imo.

[cyniclaus]

stick to CARB-approved items and you'll likely have no issues.

Does that help?

 

Yes, thanks for the advice. I grew up in California, and I would rather not go back there due to cost of living and too much government regulation of cars and everything else, but I may not have a choice based on work and my wife's school.

 

I just wonder if my performance goals are reasonable given the limits of using "CARB-approved items".

 

ATL has smog but from what I can tell its pretty lenient.

 

I have considered Georgia or Texas, but for now I have to assume I'm moving to CA

 

and.. if you need more performance than stage 2 out of an LGT.. you should consider a Z06 or something.. its gonna cost you less (if used) and be more reliable in the long run than an lgt running wide open imo.

 

Yes, I would love to own a Z06...as a track car. The LGT will be my daily driver. My daily driver has to fly under the radar of cops and thieves. I want my car to be an asset rather than a liability, something I can drive and park anywhere with no worries and no raised eyebrows.

 

Don't get me wrong--I am not one of those innumerable people who cling to the dream of having a daily driver that they can take to the track on the weekends and annihilate the competition. I will get a separate, dedicated car for the track in the USA, as I have my Cosworth here in Italy. I just would like a daily driver that is actually fun to drive and is a step up in performance from my current daily driver. I chose the Subie because it is every-day liveable, but can dip into the tremendous off-the-shelf aftermarket and tuning community of its STi cousin.

 

I am not on a specific budget but, for example, I would not be opposed to spending $10k on engine/tranny parts, a good turbo, a FMIC, and installation if it will get me where I want to be legally and I don't end up where I need to have a ride-along mechanic to keep it running.

[subarussian]

How do you like the S6+ plus? my last car was a 92 S4...awesome drivetrain, heavy car.

[Infamous1]

There are certain parts required which are illegal anyway you look at it. At the minimum you will need to remove atleast one of the DP cats to go stg 2 and beyond. It is illegal in any state to remove a perfectly functioning cat within the first 10yrs/100,000 miles or something similar to that. It is also illegal to chip/program/tune or any altering of the vehicle's ECM from the manufactors settings. So these will be risk that must be taken if you do plan on modding.

[gianspi]

It also depends on where you go to get inspected. I was "referred" to an inspection station by a friend. They checked OBDII port for any CELs and slapped a sticker on. And I have a full catless exhaust with methanol injection.

[cyniclaus]

How do you like the S6+ plus? my last car was a 92 S4...awesome drivetrain, heavy car.

 

She has served me well over the past four years! Audi does interiors like no one else, and the Plus is all Recaro leather and walnut burl. I got into a pissing match with an M5 on one of the few remaining "choose your own speed limit" parts of the Autobahn one night...by the time I passed him, I was doing about 170mph--and the Audi seemed just as stable and poised at that speed as at any other With the sport suspension, 255 tires, and AWD, you don't notice the weight as much as in other cars this heavy (just under 3700 lbs)...but it's still there to rudely noseplow you through a corner when you try to drive it as if it were a Lancia Delta Integrale or something.

 

My buddy here has an '01 twin turbo RS4 that makes 450hp with just a chip tune. I was really considering getting a 2.7TT S4 when I come back to the States, but they are just a little too old for a daily driver right now, especially considering all the "too easy to resist" mods for that car.

 

Audis are awesome until they get to a certain age/mileage, then you start the regular (and expensive) trips to the mechanic. Over the time I've owned the Plus, I've spent close to the value of the car in maintenance costs. It doesn't help that there were only 1000 of these cars ever made by Quattro GMBH which means all parts must be bought OEM new, if you can even find them

[cyniclaus]

There are certain parts required which are illegal anyway you look at it. At the minimum you will need to remove atleast one of the DP cats to go stg 2 and beyond. It is illegal in any state to remove a perfectly functioning cat within the first 10yrs/100,000 miles or something similar to that. It is also illegal to chip/program/tune or any altering of the vehicle's ECM from the manufactors settings. So these will be risk that must be taken if you do plan on modding.

 

Yeah, that's what I figured. Here in Europe it is similar in that each EU member state has their own rules for mods. In Germany you can do quite a bit of "hard" tuning, but in Italy you can only do "soft" tuning--and even then you risk getting noticed by the wrong people. The grand irony is that Germany is tree hugger ecoparadise and Italy is filthy polluted. They apparently blame it on tuner cars and not on the huge perpetual convoy of Eastern European diesel trucks running import/export or the factories that can freely continue to spew black smoke in the sky as long as they line someone's pocket. Of course, the cars are not innocent--CATs weren't even standard equipment until the mid-'90s, so there are plenty of older cars with clouds coming out of the tailpipes. My Cosworth is one of these. The government is currently trying to make those pre-CAT cars illegal, or at least so inconvenient to own that nobody will drive them.

 

They had it on the TV the other night that taking a walk in Milan is like smoking half a pack of cigarettes. Just one of the reasons I'm leaving.

 

It also depends on where you go to get inspected. I was "referred" to an inspection station by a friend. They checked OBDII port for any CELs and slapped a sticker on. And I have a full catless exhaust with methanol injection.

 

So it's all a game. I have a friend here from Cali and back there he has a Lexus with a turbo Supra engine and he also has a "tuner friendly" inspection point. I guess you gotta "test out" your smog station prior to pulling up in your modded car. What do they do if you are noncompliant? Do they report you to DOT/DMV or just give you an F on your paper report car?

[subarussian]

you just failed the smog/emissions inspection, they don't report you.

[dmp]

Right - they tie Smog Passing to buying the anual vechicle license. If you fail, you can't renew (until you pass). Make sense?