We don't just feature completed cars, sometimes the coolest stuff can be found in the under construction section. Meet the SUB20VET
Tom Warren’s project is pure blasphemy — to the purists, of course, but, for everyone else, it’s all things rad. It started three years ago with a blown motor. “I went away from the boxer engine, as I’ve had three S13s and five STi WRX wagons over the years, and I wanted to combine the two — I’ve learned a lot along the way with both the SR and WRX chassis,” he said.
He had previously chucked in a simple SR20DE+T to iron out the gremlins with the driveline and to dial in the suspension. As it sits now, there is a freshly built SR20VET underneath the bonnet, which is home to oversize Supertech valves and springs, with a forged bottom end, Sinco intake and turbo manifolds, and a Tomei M8270 mounted in pride of place. Ditching the four-wheel-drive system, Tom opted to run a standard SR20 box behind the VET, although he does plan to replace this with a DK1 dogbox when time and cash permit.
Support comes in the way of BC Gold coilovers, with V7 STi front LCAs, V11 rear brakes, and a full S13 rear-wheel-drive back end. “The car is super twitchy,” Tom told us, “but I’ve had a bit of seat time and think it’s on the right track now … I swapped out the lower arms for a pair of V7 STi units, which are about 20mm wider each side. I’ve also done a little custom work to get as much caster out of it as possible — it’s still not enough, but, with the redrilled tie rod ends there is plenty of lock to play with.”
Tom’s plan is to produce in the ballpark of 373kW as a street-legal track car, and there is only a handful of pieces left to do — mainly the wiring and some pipework — before it’ll be good to go.
This build originally appeared in NZ Performance Car issue No. 249 — you can get your grubby mitts on a print copy for this and other rad content by clicking the cover below
