From 3SI Wiki

June 2009 - Ride of the Month Submission

Matthew "1320VR4" Stefans

Cosmetic:

• Tinted snake eyes
• Silverstar headlights
• Red tinted interior lights
• Grey/Black catskinz style seat covers
• Sunpro volt gauge
• Sunpro narrowband air fuel (both are temporary and were free)
• Custom airbrushed radio trim
• LED replaced door lights
• LED reverse lights
• Ronal 17” wheels
• Aluminum shift knob
• Aluminum cluster trim
• HDR lip

Sound:

• Alpine head unit
• Infinity speakers all around

Performance:

• APS 50/50 bov
• K&N intake
• AEM Truboost
• IPS Stainless Single Shot Exhaust
• Maximal Test Pipe

Since building my Stealth ES starting in 06, when I was 16, I became more than glued to the platform. After paint and everything was finished and she was exactly how I wanted her to be I felt the need to TT her. Well 3si persistently told me that instead of that, buy a TT, so I did. In November I came across this 92 VR4 down in Bloomfield NJ for $5500, 111k on the clock. Being in much better shape than I had hoped it was a definite. The 120k being done was a benefit, only issue was a slight studder under load which was fixed simply with plugs. I also replaced the transfer case seals, outer tie rods, and other misc. problems. As of today she runs incredibly smoothly, next on the list of maintenance is to change the trans fluid. As far as mods go I haven’t gotten too far just yet. I’ve gone through the basics as well worked on the 17 year worn interior. To go to the performance side of her, the APS bov and exhaust are perfect in sound and tone; the bov is audible but not rice and the exhaust has a nice deep growl to it. IPS makes awesome products. Jason at PMP helped me out a lot and gave me great deals on parts. I got a K&N intake from him as well as the BOV and most of my maintenance stuff. The test pipe is from Maximal, after getting one for the Stealth last year I was certain I’d be buying one for the VR, (Terry FTW). The gauge pod and AEM came from other members here on 3si for bargain prices. The other gauges are fillers until my wallet allows me to buy the real deal; my friend sold me both the volt and air/fuel gauges for $5. Interior wise, the leather seats were torn up like most, so I patched them up and put some quality ebay catskinz style seat covers over them, which for an EBay product, is excellent. I custom made and airbrushed my own radio trim piece out of some lexan I got from the hobby shop I work at. As far as sound, I’m waiting for my friend to build me a sub box to complete the sound system, the infinity speakers have great, great, great mid and high but almost no bass at all. The wheels came with the car when I bought it and although I hated them at first they grew on me; internet surfers say they look ugly, however in person I always get compliments on them. All I can say is in 6 months I’ve had great fun with this car.

As most do, I have big plans for the future and I’m looking forward to building her into something wicked. My hopes are to get her into the 11’s while still maintaining drivability. One nice thing about turbo cars is I can cut the power by a push of a button on the boost controller. Near future I’m planning some black 5 spoke rims, perhaps saleens, a drop and an FMIC since my side mounts are beat up and the look of a front mount is unbeatable. Still a long way to go and since I don’t plan on selling her any time soon, there’s still a lot of excitement to be had.