RS Revival: Gettin' Rumbly

A friend of mine working a corner at a local rallycross event made an interesting observation last year.  Thanks to the Gorilla Top-Mount Cold Air Intake, you can hear my RS approaching... but as it passes, it sort of disappears.  At this particular event, it was like my car was a ghost vanishing into a cloud of dust and dirt until, of course, the cloud settled and you saw a familiar RS trying to keep it together on a long banked turn.  Unlike most rumbly Subarus, my car's exhaust is very quiet.  Perhaps... too quiet!

This is because of a quick fix that still hasn't been revisited.  When this rust-bucket RS changed hands, it had a lot of problems.  Cracked windshield, down on power, mismatched wheels and tires, body rust, rotting suspension, bad wheel bearings and, the most noticeable issue when I first fired it up: missing 45% of it's exhaust.  In that first month of repairs, part of a 2004 WRX STI exhaust was welded on to the midpipe where the axle back had rusted and broken off.

This temporary fix is still in place, but now the system is leaking.  It whistles pretty loudly when on the interstate and it's high time something was actually done about the exhaust.  The plan is to repair and improve the entire system.  The great people at Russ' Garage are helping me once again with this, and I got some advice from the exhaust master himself.  After hearing his recommendations and ideas for it, we came up with a plan to bring some boxer rumble out of the RS.

I've decided to turn to Strömung for an axle-back exhaust and then repair and redo the rest of the stock exhaust.  To my delight, I found that there aren't many here locally that have heard of this system... which is great for someone like me who wants something unique.  Additionally, I've found that the Strömung exhaust has been embraced by many enthusiasts and GC owners.  One of the video clips I found featuring this distinctive exhaust note was on a car from RS25.com, which I frequently use to find parts and get ideas from other 1st Generation Impreza owners.  The Strömung exhaust should be here in a week or so.  I'm excited to finally get the ball rolling on this!