Between 2006 and 2009, Subaru made only a few thousand special spec.B variants of their full sized Legacy sedan. While the Legacy 2.5GT was a sporty ride in its own right with firmed up WRX suspension, the spec.B trim took the Legacy to another level with a Torsen limited-slip differential, SI-DRIVE, and a very luscious interior that wasn't commonplace in a Subaru vehicle at the time. It was essentially Subaru's ultimate grand tourer, but you'd never notice it when you drive by one on the highway.
Steve's spec.B still follows this formula - not overstated, full of nice touches, fun to drive, and of course, absolutely no shortage of power. You could say that it's the ultimate spec.B, and one of the fewer still that have been modified to extensive lengths. While the WRX has aftermarket parts aplenty, the Legacy platform is usually overlooked, leading to a lot of custom parts and unique solutions to create something that is truly one of a kind.
Steve's car: 2008 Legacy GT spec.B
Engine and Drive-train: Outfront closed deck EJ25 2.6L stroker block, Molnar 83mm billet stroker crank, Manley 100mm 8.5:1 pistons, Manley Turbo Tuff I-beam rods, King bearings, GSC S2 272 cams, Supertech dual valve springs with titanium retainers, Supertech stainless intake valves, Supertech Inconel exhaust valves, Race ported and polish heads, Outfront ARP ½” head studs, STI 11mm oil pump (shimmed), WPC treated crank, pistons, bearings, rods, cam buckets, and oil pump, KillerB oil pickup, KillerB windage tray, Process West billet street version intake manifold, Process West billet short TGV deletes, Process West billet fuel rails, Injector Dynamics ID2000 injectors, Tomei equal length headers, Ultimate Racing rotated up-pipe, Ultimate Racing rotated downpipe, Garrett GTX3582R .82ar turbo, Turbosmart Hyper-Gate 45 external wastegate @ 21psi spring pressure, Perrin 3” resonated mid/y-pipe, Prodrive dual mufflers (quiet), Custom Blitz Nur spec single exit exhaust (loud), Extreme Turbo Systems 3.5” FMIC core, Custom intercooler piping with Vibrant VanJen clamps, Boomba 75mm billet throttle body, AEM 5-bar MAP sensor, AEM IAT sensor, Six Star Motorsports 3-ports EBCS, Synapse Synchronic BOV, Mishimoto radiator, Mishimoto fan shroud and fans, Mishimoto coolant overflow tank, Radium Engineering fuel surge tank with dual AEM E85 320lph pumps, Magna Fuel adjustable fuel pressure regulator, Custom one-piece 4” driveshaft, RCV Performance custom rear axles, 2008 STI 6-speed with spec.B 5th and 6th gears, DCCDpro, Cusco motor mounts, Torque Solutions billet pitch stop mount, GroupN transmission mount bushing, Turn In Concepts transmission cross-member bushings, Turn In Concepts Holy Shift bushing kit, ACT SB10-XDR6 clutch, Exedy lightweight flywheel, Cobb double adjustable shifter, E85 speed density tune by Jorge Carrillo.
Wheels/Tires/Suspention: Whiteline front/rear sway bars, Whiteline front/rear control arm bushings, AST 4100 Coilovers, Swift springs 650F/700R, Front helper/tender springs, Vorshlag camber plates, StopTech ST-40 front calipers, StopTech ST-22 rear calipers, 328x28mm front and rear two piece rotors, TR Motorsports 18x8 +48 - “Daily” wheels wrapped in 245/40-18 Nitto NT05 tires, OZ Alleggerita 17x8 +48 - Drag wheels wrapped in235/45-17 M&H Racemaster drag radials.
Exterior:
Interior: DAMD D-shaped leather steering wheel, Redline Goods Alcantara shift boot, e-brake boot, and arm rest cover, AEM wideband O2 gauge, GaugeTek Vent Boost Gauge for boost, fuel pressure, and oil pressure.
Tell us a little about yourself: I help run a family business. We provide quality semi-trailer sales, rental, and repair services to the Chicago and surround areas. I handle most of the administrative work, along with managing our properties, IT, HR, and graphic design and vehicle graphics wraps. I wear many different hats, depending on the day/situation. When I get some free time, I enjoy spending it on the boat in the summer. In the winter, I enjoy snowmobiling in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
How did you get into cars? Growing up, I was riding dirt-bikes at an early age. It progressed into obsession of going fast and making modifications to go-karts, bikes, and ATV’s to see what they would do. After I turned 16, my brother eventually let me drive his Corvette, which changed everything for me. I never had a fast car, mainly because I knew I’d do something stupid with it, so I did what every young and not-so-smart teenager does; I put a loud and obnoxious muffler on a kickass Hyundai Accent with green neons. Then I eventually got into the world of Jeeps. Instead of going fast, I went slow off-road for a few years until I found the rare Subaru Legacy GT spec.B. At the time, I had a highly modded Jeep Wrangler and had plans for a Cummins turbo diesel swap and an all new drivetrain and suspension setup. I bought the spec.B to be my daily driver. Two weeks later I got a Cobb AP. A week after that I bought a downpipe and got tuned. I was content with the car as it was. Then on a road trip to the East coast, I blew a ringland (damn tune). Everything I had saved up for the Wrangler suddenly went towards the spec.B; then sheer stupidity ensued. I got the motor rebuilt with forged pistons and some other parts, along with a 20g turbo. I went through the break-in process and was finally getting tuned. There was a hiccup during tuning, which ended up being a cracked piston. Back in for round two. After another break-in process, similar issue happens. This time around, there was some communication issues with a local shop owner, who eventually ended up skipping town leaving customers hung out to dry. Eventually, things started to get back together after a new shop owner stepped up to take on the responsibility to trying to make things right, even though they weren’t his problems to begin with. Over the next few years, things slowly started to come together and changes were made with the direction of the car.
What is your dream car? I don’t really have a dream car, but I would really like to import a Ford Escort RS Cosworth someday.
Do you go by any nicknames? A lot of people call me ‘spec b,’ because of my good looks (just like my car). My good friends call me ‘Stevie.’ Other drivers on the road probably call me ‘asshole.’
Does your car go by any names or nicknames? I’ve never name my cars, but I always refer to it as “The spec.B.’ My passengers always call it ‘Jesus Christ.’
Does you have any future plans for your car? My future plans for the spec.B, which is in the works, is to change out my fueling setup with a single large external fuel pump, and get tuned for flex fuel. I’m currently on a basemap from Graham at Boosted Performance Tuning, who will be doing my Cobb flex fuel tune. If you’re wondering, no, Cobb doesn’t have flex fuel available for the Legacy platform yet. We just have a trick up our sleeves that we’ve been figuring out for some time now. So far, it appears like it will work.
What's your favorite thing about your car? My favorite thing about my car is how understated it is. The exhaust isn’t loud or obnoxious and it doesn’t attract attention, but it will rip your heart out at any chance it gets.
What is something that you don't like about your car? There honestly isn’t really anything that I dislike about the car, other than I’ve been too lazy to get the driver side windows re-tinted. I scratched the driver side rear tint, so I removed it. The car looked weird with the rear tint missing, so I took off the driver side front tint as well. This was three years ago. Possibly four.
What is your car like to drive? The car drives fantastically easy for a built car, once you get used to the clutch. You wouldn’t know it’s a racecar, other than the slightly stiff suspension. Or until the boost kicks you in the chest.
Start-up procedure of the GaugeTek vent gauge
What was your inspiration or objective with this build? I never really had an inspiration or true objective for my build, other than I wanted a ton of torque and horsepower to match. I also wanted to beat a Dodge Viper in a roll race, which recently finally happened. Best. Night. Evar.
Why did you choose a Subaru? I didn’t choose Subaru; Subaru choose me.
I’ve been a fan of Subaru for as long as I can remember. I have always wanted a blobeye STI (still do), but something about the spec.B called me to it. Then bad things happened.
What was your first car? My first car was a red Hyundai Accent that literally fell off a truck. The transport truck that was carrying it was in an accident. The truck was towed to our family’s repair shop and it came with multiple damaged cars on the back. I ended up purchasing one for a good price and repaired it right before I turned 16.
What makes your car special to you? The best thing about my car is all the new people I met when I brought it to the shop for the first time, and to the meets. Some of those people are now my closest friends.
What is something about you (or your car) that no one else would know about? My license plate “CAR SIK” once belonged to my dad. He had it on his 1966 Corvette Stingray. He let the plate expire long before I could even drive a car on the road. I tried to register that plate again, but it was in use by someone else. After many years to trying to get the plate, I finally succeeded and put it on the spec.B.
Also, my dad always gives me such a hard time about my car being in the shop “all the time,” and tells me I should get something more reliable.
Any memorable moments with you car that you would like to share? A few memorable moments with my car include me fully knowing my fueling wasn’t enough for my turbo at the time, and completely disregarded any warnings I received, while I roll raced a Dodge Viper. I ended up blowing a hole in my piston, adding a 5th motor rebuild to the car.
Another moment is when I just left Six Star, then called a few moments later saying my fuel pump just failed and that I was just down the road. Turns out that “just down the road” is about 10 minutes away for a normal driver.
Oh, and another one is from two years ago trying to get the car ready for Scoobapalooza. A new transmission was just swapped in the car, with DCCD. The car was dyno tuned the night before leaving for Scoobapalooza. Not even two minutes off the dyno, I decided it would be a good idea to do a light launch, to see how things are. Loud noises came from under the car. We figured it was the center diff, so Sammy So put the car up on a lift and pulled the center diff from the trans. We tear it apart looking for anything abnormal, but everything was fine. He put it back together and we test it out. The awful grinding noises were. The problem ended up being a broken rear axle, or more accurately, a destroyed bearing race inside the axle’s CV joint. The car stayed at the shop for Scoobapalooza that weekend.
Any shout-outs to anyone who helped you along the way? First and foremost, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank Sammy So, who has been through all of this from the beginning and has put up with my bad decisions, dumb ideas, and stupid questions. He’s been there to bail me out of sticky situations and gone out of his way to help when you’d least expect it. None of this would be possible without him, and I am honored to be able to call him one of my best friends.
I also would like to thank everyone at Six Star Motorsports, past and present, for all of the incredible fab work, for helping me piece together parts for the car, and for making a pile of parts I bring to them, fit. You guys are like a second family to me and I truly appreciate everything you have done. Thank you, Marvin, Mark, Chase, Chach, Dewey, Jorge, Graham, and everyone else who has put bad ideas into my head!!
