It’s no secret that the hawkeye is my favorite stage of the Impreza.  When first unveiled to the public, it wasn’t an instant hit with everyone due to the new tri-grille front end being so wildly different from the past models.  Even I wasn’t too crazy about it at first but seeing as I have owned two of them now, I have grown to love them.

I first laid eyes on this beautiful example of an STi at the Florida Subaru Mega Meet back in December.  I saw CJ off in the distance taking photos of it and talking to Wigberto, the owner.  Back then the car was static and still was as attention-grabbing as ever.  After Mega Meet, I was hoping we’d meet up again with Wigberto for a full Limelight feature.  I loved his car and wanted to see more of it, so we drove over to Orlando recently to meet up!

When we go out to shoot features, it sort of feels more like we’re hanging out with the owners rather than showing up for a photoshoot and leaving when we’re done.  We often spend more time talking than actually shooting or interviewing.  This feature started off with us standing around in Wigberto’s driveway admiring his STi and his newly-acquired WRB 2008 Forester XT Sports.  It’s his daily, and what a perfect daily that would be.  He was nice enough to let us use it as the camera car for the shoot too!

Our shoot location this time was an unfinished neighborhood entrance.  The long straight road was lined with light posts and had little traffic, so it worked out nicely.  Wigberto parked and aired out right in the middle, and CJ got busy shooting.

Wigberto is no new-comer to Subarus – he’s owned nine other Subarus in the past.  In fact, our second Limelight feature last fall, Michael’s WRB STi hatch, was previously owned by Wigberto!  Despite all of the Subarus he’s owned over the years, this STi is his favorite.  “I chose this one because it’s my favorite year and favorite color, Satin White Pearl.”  He’s had the car for nearly two years now and has done a pretty good amount of work to it.  When he bought it, he mainly took care of the maintenance the car needed and eventually started on some appearance mods, like wheels and suspension.

Wigberto’s STi looks amazing in my opinion.  The wheel fitment with his Karlton flares is perfect.  To get this kind of fitment on a flared sedan, you need some pretty wide wheels.  Like 11” wide.  The car is on 18” x 11” +10 MST Suzuka wheels with 295/30r18 Pirelli P Zero tires.  Yes, 295s.  And I thought my 265s were wide.  The car is on air of course, sporting Airlift Performance’s V2 system with a wood floor trunk setup in the rear.  Wigberto wanted to switch to air after being convinced by Marc (one of our previous Limelight features) to pull the trigger on them.  He chose bags mainly because the car was his daily and he liked the fact that he can just raise it up on rough roads to drive over comfortably.

Wigberto told me that he bought the car with a blown headgasket.  While getting that repaired, he decided on getting the bottom end built and getting some Wiseco pistons, Manley turbo tuff rods, and ARP head studs as well.  Once rebuilt, the car was still having some issues and he even thought about doing a motor swap from something non-Subaru, but in the end he had it fixed up and kept the good old EJ257.  So far, he’s done the basic bolt ons, IAG TGV deletes, a V3 Cobb Accessport, Walbro 255 fuel pump, and a Cobb catback exhaust.  He said the last time he had the car on a dyno, it made 290whp, but he plans on someday building it up to be a 600 hp monster.  For now though, he has been thinking about taking it out on the track as long as he can keep it looking good.

Perhaps Wigberto’s favorite, and the most prominent modification on the car would be his Karlton flares.  These are probably the most popular flares out there for these cars, and for good reason.  He said when he bought the car, the previous owner had hacked up the fenders a little bit and he wanted to fix them.  Wigberto started looking around at flares and fell in love with the Karltons soon after.  He purchased some and found the courage to cut into his fenders for installation.  As you can tell, it all worked out nicely.  Some other exterior mods he’s done are the HT Autos side skirt extensions, rear valences and front lip, along with the Perrin wing stabilizers, and of course, his Vipmotoz C-lights up front.

Inside the car there are some comfy Corbeau seats, suede-wrapped trim pieces, and a nice black headliner that was swapped in.  To complete the all-black interior look, he also swapped in ’05 WRX rear seats.  Once CJ was done with stationary shots, we jumped in the FXT and spent the next 15 minutes going back and forth down that same road for rolling shots.

Like I mentioned earlier, these shoots feel more like meeting up and hanging out with the owners of these cars.  We went out to get some burritos at a spot Wigberto took us to and spent easily an hour and a half sitting around and talking, then standing in front of the cars after eating and talking as well.  His friend with an R32 GTR also came with us, so we spent a good amount of time admiring it and asking questions about that as well.

Part of the reason we love doing what we do is the connections we make.  We’ve made several friends just from reaching out and asking if they want a photoshoot and article written about them.  A photoshoot turns into going out to eat and hanging out, telling stories and talking about cars and car parts.  It’s amazing what can happen by just sharing the same interest in a car, after all, it’s how we got our start.

 

Thank you to Wigberto for meeting up with us!  Check out more of his car on Instagram @stinkeyewrb!

By Ethan Pfab – @supwagon

 

Wigberto’s Full Build List

Engine/Performance:

Cobb intake

Cobb downpipe

Cobb catback exhaust

Manley turbo tuff rods

Wiseco pistons

ARP head studs

IAG TGV deletes

Exedy stage 1 clutch

Cobb AccessPort V3

Walbro 255 fuel pump

Protune by Mike Botti @290whp/290 ft/lbs

 

Wheels/Suspension:

MST Suzuka 18” x 11” +10

Pirelli P Zero tires 295/30r18

Airlift Performance air struts w/ V2 management

 

Exterior:

Karlton fender flares

HT Autos side skirt extensions, rear valences and front lip

Perrin wing stabilizers

Vipmotoz headlights

 

Interior:

Corbeau seats

’05 WRX rear seats

Black headliner

Suede-wrapped trim pieces

HKS turbo timer

Kartboy short throw shifter

Wood floor trunk