It’s always cool to meet owners of the cars you see all over the internet and at shows.  You follow someone on Instagram for a while, maybe months or years, see their car at every show you go to, but you’ve never met or talked to them.  That was the case with Michael.

I’ve seen his STi several times at shows, most recently Simply Clean 9, parked next to the HighwayStar Garage booth.  If you’re involved in the Florida car scene, chances are you’ve heard of HighwayStar Garage.  They’re a tightly-knit group of friends/car enthusiasts, and we got a chance to meet up and shoot with Michael, one of the members.




First off, I’ll start by saying Michael is a great dude – super friendly and excited to meet up with us for a shoot.  We met him just outside Tampa at a 7-Eleven on a Thursday afternoon.  He rolled in and all three of us broke our necks to watch him pull up.  The car is definitely eye-catching thanks to the World Rally Blue paint, the Varis wing and his unique CCW Twisted Classic wheels.  You can even see his bright red Recaros through the windows which shows that he’s got great taste.




After chatting for a bit and walking laps around his car to take it all in, we decided to head to our first spot which happened to be next to a cow pasture.  Watching this thing rolling made me question my decision to keep my wagon, or to opt for a GR hatch.  Not only do I love the style of his, but the exterior parts he has make it so much more appealing to me.

To name a few, he’s got a BTA VR08 carbon fiber front lip, Chargespeed carbon fiber side skirt extensions, a Seibon carbon fiber rear diffuser and a Varis wing with a carbon fiber blade.  As you may guess, Michael likes carbon fiber.  But just look at how the parts look on the car – It all flows so well from the front to the back.  None of us have ever even seen that diffuser on one of these cars before either!  The rain visors are OEM parts but look just right on his car, and his red tail light overlays are a nice touch compared to the factory all-chrome tail lights.  If you look closely, you’ll see that he even shaved off the front license place mounting bracket – something I’ve always wanted to do.




Moving to the interior of the car, of course you’ll notice his gorgeous Recaro Raptor seats, straight from Japan.  One of his friends brought the seats over to the States, where Michael traded a set of CCWs for them.  His Japanese Recaros really boost the “cool” factor of the car as a whole.  Other interior bits include his custom Recaro armrest, a custom Recaro shift boot, a Flossy limited-edition STi shift knob, and a JL audio 10″ subwoofer in the back.




“How does the car even move like that?  How do the wheels turn?”  Bags.  Michael’s STi sits on a set of Airlift Performance air struts with the V2 management kit.  I have the same with my car, and I can understand his choice to go for air ride.  His bags allow him to daily drive the car whenever he wants (although it isn’t his daily) and hard-park at shows and stunt on everyone, as he often does.




Tucked up against those fenders are some beautiful and not-so-common 3-piece CCW Twisted Classics.  The CCW Classics are some of the most popular wheels to come out of CCW’s factory.  They’re basically what Michael’s wheels are, but with a twist.  Literally.  His wheel/tire setup works so well on his car.  The fitment is perfect – even without needing the help of aggressive camber, which Michael really didn’t want.  The wheels are 18×10″ with a +30 offset up front and +20 in the rear.  This helps even out the rear fitment by adding another -10mm to sit flush against the OEM widebody quarter panels.  Behind those beautiful wheels are some slotted DTM Rotors with Stoptech pads, because when you’re cruising around town you have to be able to stop, right?

A lot of the exciting mods sit under the hood though.  It’s already an STi, so he’s got a fun amount of power to begin with.  But that’s never enough, is it?  In Michael’s own words, he “just can’t drive a stock car.”  Some of these mods you may see in the engine bay include an AEM cold air intake, a Grimmspeed turbo heat shield, and a Perrin radiator shroud.  The things you don’t see though, are his Tsudo downpipe, his Southbend Stage 2 clutch, and his Cobb Stage 2+ tune.




While he and I were talking about the car, and CJ was running around in the grass taking photos, I started to ask how Michael ended up with this car.  No good feature of ours leaves out a story about the sentimental value the car holds to its owner, of course.

Michael told me he remembered that he was just fascinated with Subarus since he was around 13.  He wanted an STi as his first car so badly.  He said it was really the sound that drew him in – it caught his interest right from the start, and he needed to have it.  He finally snagged one back in 2013.  It was a white 2008 STi, but he unfortunately only had it for 3 months.  Michael was in school at the time, and wanted something a little cheaper to own and maintain, so he ended up with a 2007 Civic Si.  He had the Civic for a while, and modded it of course, until he came across his current STi hatch, which he purchased nearly stock with the exception of a CNT cat-back exhaust.  “When I first started thinking about my plans for the car, I sat down with a friend and described my exact vision.  I guess after that, I just made it happen over time.”  The car turned out exactly as he envisioned it at the beginning, even right down to the rare CCW wheels.




Like I said in the beginning, it’s cool to meet someone you’ve followed on the internet for a while – it’s cool to put a face to the car you’ve seen so many times before.  Michael loves his car, and it shows when talking to him about it.  After the shoot, we headed over to Chipotle for some burritos.  Throughout the time we were with him, CJ, Zach and I took turns riding in his car to see how the Recaros felt and to chat a little more.  This time it was my turn.  I started to sit down and basically just fell into the seat.  They sit pretty low, and he told me it took him a while to get adjusted to the seating position.  They were so comfortable though, and they held you right in place.  Plus the red looks really cool.




Once at Chipotle, we talked for almost an hour, and he even bought us dinner!  This made me realize that there really are some great people out there in the car community.  He was excited to hear about what we have planned for MFortyFive, and he was quick to answer any question we had about his car.  If you ever see him at a show in the HighwayStar Garage booth, go up and say hi!  Lastly, a huge thank you goes out to Michael for being available to meet up with us for a photoshoot, which eventually turned into all four of us just hanging out over some food and talking.  We appreciate it, and we all love the car!

 

By Ethan Pfab – @indecisivewagon

 

Michael’s full build list:

Engine:
AEM cold air intake
Tsudo Downpipe
CNT cat-back exhaust
Grimmspeed turbo heat shield
Cobb Accessport V2
Cobb Stage 2+ tune
Perrin radiator shroud
Southbend Stage 2 clutch
KillerBee oil pickup system
KillerBee oil baffle
Cusco oil catch can

Suspension/Brakes:
Airlift Performance air struts w/ V2 management
DTM rotors
Stoptech pads

Wheels/Tires:
CCW Twisted Classics, 18×10″ +20/+30
Nitto Neo Gen tires, 235/40r18

Exterior:
BTA carbon fiber front lip
Chargespeed carbon fiber side skirt extensions
Seibon carbon fiber rear diffuser
Varis wing
OEM rain visors
Red tail light overlays

Interior:
Recaro Raptor seats
Custom Recaro armrest
Custom Recaro shift boot
Flossy Limited-Edition STi shift knob
Cobb short-shifter kit
JL Audio 10″ subwoofer
Memphis Audio amp
Kenwood speakers (mids, lows & tweeters)
Custom hardwood trunk floor
Perrin SI-Drive selector
Perrin reverse lockout
Turbosmart boost gauge
Prosport oil pressure gauge