MRT Subaru: Project 300 STI revisited
MRT are one of the leading performance specialists when it comes to modifying your Mitsubishi, Subaru or Mazda. The company has strong relationships with some of the top Australian performance brands, including Ecutek, DBA, Whiteline and Go Fast Bits and are well known in the Australian track scene www.mrtperformance.com.au.
We take a look at the hot hatch 08 Subaru STI, known as Project 300, put together by the team at MRT for the 2010 Castrol Hot Tuner Challenge.
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From the outside, this hot hatch resembles all brands MRT if you haven?t noticed. You definitely will stand out driving through the streets of Sydney, but take all the stickers away and the exterior is quite sedate with its lower ride height, black 18? Oz Racing wheels and STI front lip.
The interior is kept simple and there are no signs that this car has been modified from the inside. No after market gauges, no boost controllers, no roll cages, no fixed back buckets, heck we didn?t even know it had a Motec adjustable diff controller as that wasn?t even in sight! This keeps the car looking fairly stock and removes it from the ?boy racer category? providing practicality and comfort to those looking to have a car that can be used on street as well as track.
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Under the bonnet appears much the same as the interior. Everything appears factory, apart from the 90mm thick top mount which is noticeably thicker than the factory unit, helping to improve the cooling system on this 300kw hot hatch. Behind the factory 5-0 friendly look is a overhauled forged engine build featuring upgraded conrods, pistons, valves, springs, camshafts, MRT custom turbo and ported head. The engine build alone goes in excess of $30,000 worth of parts! The fuel delivery system is supported by a higher flowing intake unit, and 1000cc injectors to help this bad-boy hatch produce the magic 300. All the exhaust is MRT in-house with stainless steel front pipe, high flow cat, centre muffler and twin outlet sports muffler.
Run your eyes under this vehicle will see lots of little yellow bushings. Get the Whiteline catalogue and you will find most, if not all of the options have been applied to this hatch. The more noticeable improvements are the custom MRT / Whiteline dampers with remote canisters and a set of heavy duty adjustable Whiteline sway bars.
The brakes have had a rotor and pad upgrade, sporting DBA 5000 slotted rotors with alloy hats combined with MRT high temperature pads upfront, and DBA 4000 slotted rotors on the rear also using MRT high temperature pads to help pull this STI up when necessary.
We spoke with Brett Middleton from MRT and asked him what the best three upgrades to this STI were given the amount of modifications completed to this vehicle. I?m sure Brett would say all components compliment each other, but his top 3 were the ?EcuTek tune, Whiteline adjustable heavy duty sway bars and the MRT brake pads?. Overall this STI is a complete package that can deliver the results at the track, yet be able to meet the requirements of daily duties.
MRT will be at it again for the 2011 Castrol Hot Tuner Challenge. However we have been told that Project 300 STI has been relieved from its duty and a new Hot hatch will take its place for this year?s event.
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For more information contact MRT on
Phone: + 61 2 9767 4545
Fax: + 61 2 9743 1931
1 Averill Street Rhodes (corner of Concord Road)
NSW 2138 Australia
Email: brett@mrtperformance.com.au
Web: http://www.mrtperformance.com.au
