SPI Motorsports Bugeye WRX
Came across an old magazine the other day that I had from 2004 with the SPI Motorsports black bugeye WRX on the cover, owned by Ben Jennings. SPI Motorsports (defunct since 2004) was the performance affiliate of Irvine Subaru. The article is still online here but only one picture from the multi-page feature is available online. It’s a shame because there has never been another Bugeye WRX that has looked anything like this car.
Found some old pics that I had saved from the now-defunct “Carandmodel” website. They also had a great feature article on this car (now gone like much of the things I’m mentioning in this post)
The styling – a mix of Prodrive UK300 and JDM Super Taikyu endurance series faire – is insanely aggressive yet bizarrely good looking. The “Turbo” article dubbed it Darth Vader’s WRX. You can be the judge on that one…
People simply don’t build cars like this anymore (call it rice, call it a show car, I’d rather drive this than a 100% bone stock car with “aggressive fitment” and “stance” and 0% any other mods)… maybe it’s the economy. I kind of miss car tuning circa 2004. : P
Wish I had saved more pics of this car… if I find anymore I’ll definitely post an update
UPDATE: Rear shot
Known/Visible mods list
- Gram Lights full body kit (front bumper, sideskirts, rear door pieces, rear lip)
- Prodrive UK300 projector headlights
- Prodrive UK300 rear wing
- Zerosports carbon fiber fender ducts
- Kaminari carbon fiber reverse cowl hood
- Prodrive PFF7 wheels
- Stoptech 328mm big brake kit (black)
- Front mount intercooler
- NX fmic intercooler spray kit
- Autopower(?) rollcage
- Cusco OST front strut brace
- Cusco OST rear strut brace
- Cusco OST rear triangle brace
- Cusco front sway bar
- Cusco rear sway bar
- carbon fiber alternator cover
- AVO 450 Garrett-based ball-bearing turbo
- Cusco headers
- HKS Super Sequential blow-off valve
- MRT front-mount intercooler
- Nitrous Express Intercooler Spray Bar kit
- Blitz 550 fuel pump
- 800cc Denso injectors
- Vishnu fuel rail
- Link Electrosystems ECU
- PDE up-pipe
- MRT exhaust
- PWR radiator
- Samco silicon hoses
- Exedy twin-plate clutch
- GReddy ProFec B boost controller
- Link ECU
- Sparco Pro 2000 buckets
- Speedware stainless-steel harness bar
- Sparco five-point harnesses
- Sparco-inspired rear seat reupholstery
- Defi gauge pod with Greddy Gauges
- Sparco steering wheel
- Tein Type Flex coilovers
- Tein EDFC (Electronic Damping Force Control)
- MRT rear-links
- Toyo T1-S tires
BUGEYE GARAGE 
John we seriously need to hang out LOL! I couldn’t agree with you more, in reference to the comment about trading in the HellaFlush for some proper performance tuning.
I really miss the scene from back in the day. It was going strong when I picked up my WRX in 2005 and has unfortunately seen a decline (especially in the last 2-3 years).
I like this car a lot. It reminds me of the Brainchild Customs WRX. Do you know what front bumper that is?
February 2, 2011 at 12:56 am
Haha yeah man definite! I miss the old school builds and going to the Fri./Sat. night car meets to see the crazy-money-spent cars that you could look up to (and rice you could look down on :D)… I guess its something to be thankful that there’s A car scene during a recession but it’s just so boring! Carbon copy modification and people are still like “you’re killin’ it” even though its the same car repeated 50 times – I guess there’s only so much you can do on a budget.
Re: the kit it’s the Gram Lights bodykit as seen on their bugeye Super Taikyu entry… And yeah! Alex/Stealthwrx from BCC (which I think is also defunct now) had that kit. I used to chill with the BCC kids all the time back in the day but kind of lost touch over time.
February 2, 2011 at 5:56 am
I cant believe you guys found pictures of my car. I have a ton more if you want to see them. Sadly, I sold it to a kid on the east coast who blew it up and parted it out. The pictures you have dont show the final version. Damn, that thing cost me a mint to build, tune and run even with full support from a bunch of manufactures. 429WHP was the best we ever put down. I havent seen anything like it in a long time.
April 4, 2011 at 10:19 pm
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I actually built that car and used to run SPi Motorsports. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line. Really cool to see this again. Funny enough I have a framed picture of the car in my bedroom.
Thank you so much for keeping this alive.
Cheers,
Ryan
October 5, 2011 at 6:34 am