SPD Tuning Service

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SPD Tuning Service is not one year old, but the SPD Impreza is all already five years old and has 85,000 smiles on it.Other than the story below I have just changed the plugs twice, air filter three time, wiper blades four times and the oil every 3000-5000 miles. For the curious, I have a sort of car background. I have always been building come car or another. The first car I rebuilt was an Austin Healy 100-6 at age 14. At 18, I was a service writer in a large Chevy garage for a year out of high school, and I spent three years as a mechanic. The Impreza has been in a constant state of change for almost five years now, and is pretty close to "keeper" status at this point.

In spring of 1994 I when to the Vasek Polak Porsche Audi VW BMW Saab Subaru dealer in to look at the new Impreza. $10,600 for four doors and four tiny 165/75-13 tires. Two wheel drive, but the blind nuts were in the floor pan for the rear differential mounts. 1800cc 5-speed, but the blind nuts were in the left front strut tower for the turbo control valves. No electric window, locks or mirror, but it weighed only some 2550 pounds. Hummm, so I write a check for 11,400 and drive it home.

Went to the salvage yard the next month as bought the entire back section of a crashed Legacy wagon. Installed the gas tank, differential and crossmembers, 18mm rear bar, and disk brakes to replace the drum brakes. Still 2wd now weighing 2635 lbs. mount the 205/55-16 Michelin XGTV on DP5 wheels, totally make room for them with hammer, baseball bat and more hammer. Add KYB WRX replacement shocks. At least it is interesting to drive.

Summer of 1994, drive it out of brakes in the mountains, come home and purchase new Subaru 10.9 Turbo brakes. Fixes problem. Now very curious about developments in England at a company called Prodrive. Order Japanese language factory manuals to learn about the car. My wife happens to know passable Japanese, so I drive her nuts teaching me to read in Japanese. She also knows nothing about cars and cares even less to learn about cars.

Summer of 1995, 'invited' by my parents to the family reunion in Bad Durkeim, Germany,   I stop by Prodrive for a two day visit. I purchase 17x7.5 Speedlines, Group N bushings, Recaro seat rails and a '555' T-shirt. Have blast in Germany, again. So I now have a fair handing car, stops great with the new bushings, the new Recaro SRD makes a real difference in driving., and take many long trips to Washington state, Canada, four corners and countless trips to Monterey and Laguna Seca.

Couple of years slip by and I begin making somewhat informed comments to questions raised pm the WEB. By summer of 1997, with Subaru's intervening rally success, people are all of a sudden saying, "hey, this is a bitchin' car, how to I get one?"

A local dude, Reid Hartenbauer calls up and says, "I hear you know about Subaru's. Can you help me setup my car?"  So I order a bunch of stuff and we put it on his car. Turns out great and I write a web site on a long Saturday night and start SPD Tuning Service.

Send mail to mshields@spdusa.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: May 23, 2000