Crawford Performance STI Specifications

CRAWFORD PERFORMANCE 2008 STI “TIGER”

Photos: William Knose

TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT IN THE FORESTS OF THE NIGHT, WHAT IMMORTAL HAND OR EYE COULD FRAME THY FEARFUL SYMMETRY?
– FROM “THE TIGER,” BY WILLIAM BLAKE

The staff at Crawford Performance may not be immortal, but they’ve shaped a fearful beast. They refer to the orange-and-black 2008 WRX STI as their “Tiger” car. Its development is the result of years of experience modifying SUBARU BOXER engines and building such high-performance head-turners as Ken Block’s Gumball 3000 Rally and 530-horsepower gymkhana cars. Crawford also has fielded its own silver wide-body STI in time attack competition and is one of the significant forces in the sport.

The Crawford Performance “Tiger” car has been around for less than a year, yet it has already made its mark. With only six weeks to prepare, Crawford first fielded the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI at the Long Beach Grand Prix last April. In the Super Lap Battle, Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada drove to 2nd in the AWD Unlimited Class and Overall AWD and 4th in the Overall Unlimited Class and Overall.

Most recently, the STI Tiger appeared in the GT LIVE East Red Line Time Attack at VIRginia International Raceway. Competing in a field of unlimited all-wheel-drive cars, Yamada placed 2nd.

POINT OF ORIGIN

The size of the Crawford Performance shop belies its reputation. Based in an industrial park in Oceanside, California, the company has four engineers: Quirt Crawford, David Maldonado, William Knose, and Chris Escamilla.

The Crawford people are Subaru enthusiasts – one of the reasons that they bring so much to the STI performance party. Crawford, a dune buggy racer in his younger days, has been building turbocharged SUBARU BOXER engines for years – since before the WRX landed on American shores. His experience put him way ahead of the curve in tuning the flat-fours. He didn’t have to start from scratch when the turbocharged engines arrived; he was already up to speed.

Today, when you tour the shop, one of its outstanding features is the room with engines in various stages of being built and boxes of parts filling the shelves. In another part of the shop, crated engines await shipment to all parts of the world – all stemming from Crawford trading buggies for boxers and proving how good the engines are over a period of time.

Housed in the shop along with the Tiger car in early August was Ken Block’s gymkhana car and the silver Crawford Performance wide-body.

THE TIGER PROJECT CAR

Crawford Performance had a number of reasons for building their “Tiger.” At the heart of the project, they as enthusiasts wanted to see how good the new 2008 STI really is. From a business perspective, they wanted to remain on the leading edge of Subaru technology.

Because of the company’s emphasis on Subaru product, it often has come into contact with Subaru of America, Inc. They struck a partnership around the 2008 STI project that was intended to benefit both companies – build a car that demonstrates the performance potential of the new car in time attack events.

From the car’s purchase to its first race day, the Crawford crew had six weeks for research, development, and modifications. There were no available upgrades on the market for the 2008 model at the time, so Crawford designed and built nearly 90 percent of the modifications in-house. Product and support from TEIN and EcuTek were enlisted as well. However, except for the TEIN dampers, EcuTek control unit, RECARO seats, and Volk wheels, modifications are all Crawford Performance.

Per Chris Escamilla, “The new STI is solid straight out of the box. In fact, it would be quite competitive in street class at your local time attack events. You can simply throw on a set of stickier tires, get a Crawford downpipe, and have I-Speed tune it.

“What we did for our use (unlimited time attack): We focused on the engine and moved on to the fuel system, intake system, exhaust system, cooling systems, brake system, front and rear suspensions, tire and wheel packages, aerodynamics, body stiffening, electrical, and, of course, the paint scheme.”

TRACKING THE CRAWFORD PERFORMANCE STI TIGER

At the time of writing, the Tiger car has appeared in just a few time attack events. Follow the car’s progress at www.crawfordperformance.com.

See recent images of the car at the GT LIVE East event (VIRginia International Raceway) with this article here.

THE BLUE CAR

At X Games 14, a blue STI with Crawford Performance graphics was brought to the rally service area. The car is one of the first subjects that Crawford is using to test its parts for the 2008 WRX STI model.

Visit www.crawfordperformance.com for the most current list of parts available for the new STI, including air/oil separator, carbon fiber body parts, engine management systems, engines, exhaust systems, and power packages. The blue car at X Games had a Stage One system plus miscellaneous parts.

STAGE ONE CONSISTS OF:

• Crawford Performance Divorced Downpipe
• I-Speed EcuTek Reflash
• Horsepower/lb-ft Torque – 350/350

OTHER PARTS:

• Crawford Performance Carbon Hood
• ENKEI 18-inch RPF1

CRAWFORD PERFORMANCE/SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. PARTNERS

Tanner Foust

According to James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc.: “The relationship between Crawford Performance and Subaru of America, Inc. relates mainly to this 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI time attack project car. Acting as a rolling billboard that incorporates dramatic color and design, this development vehicle showcases the performance applications of Subaru core technologies on road race courses and benefits from the tuning plus car setup experience of Crawford Performance. Relaying crucial driving impressions at various events are guest drivers Tanner Foust and Tarzan Yamada, who are both time attack specialists helping the team extract maximum performance.”

Tarzan Yamada

Chris Escamilla of Crawford Performance added, “Our goals are to draw more people and more teams to the Super Lap and Time Attack arena and to continue to raise the bar within the import performance circles as well as within our own shop.”