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Today installed spoiler and went for a small photoshoot. Spoiler isn't 100% done yet though. Need to hook brake light as the STi plug and WRX plug isn't compatible. Actually WRX doesn't seem to have any plugs.

Picked up my parts today finally. Painted by King St. Auto Body. Very happy with Everything. Jon installed my bumper for me, sometime this weekend I'll install STi spoiler and sideskirts are for later on or maybe even for after winter.

Installed new K&N Air Filter (33-2304). Also got some Valvoline general-multi-purpose grease for short throw. When I installed short-throw, I think I did not have enough. So this is a precaution.

As I mentioned before, I bought brand new OEM '08 impreza/outback roofrack. Today I finally got around to installing it. Everything went extremely smooth until the point when I had to secure racks on my roof.

On Sunday sold my OEM tyres and rims for $450 so I had an opportunity to put my Rotas with new Blizaks. Rims look phenomental on my car I think so I am very happy.

Today got my K&N 33-2304 air intake filter delivered, purchased from amazon. Recently I glanced at my OEM one and it's nasty. I suspect that's mostly from Nevada driving. Sometime this weekend I'll throw new one in.

Another second great find on craigslist is winter tyres. I found a guy who works for famous American tyre sales dealer and the deal is pretty much there is discontinued model of Bridgestone Blizzak. Brand new winter tyre mounted and balanced on the rip for $300. How can it get any cheaper than that? Really best deal ever. You can find same set of Blizzaks on craigslist used that are more expensive. So I am very happy!

On Saturday, I decided to end the upgrade wave with finishing off short throw shifter. It ended up being quite a to install as it took some effort to remove c-clip. Then when I installed new shift lever, I forgot that that lower part of the level is adjustable too. So second, fourth and rear gear simply wouldn't work. But finally I figured out that it's adjustable. Overall quite happy, may decrease short throw as it's too rough right now.

Today installed front bumper underspoiler, kind of a painful process with aligning it but other than that pretty straight forward. Also started cleaning my new rims. Short-throw shifter still be be installed as I am calling it a day.

As a follow up to my post-install COBB springs concern, I contacted Dave from nasioc who owns same car with same springs and asked him whether he experiences same noise as do I. I was happy to find out he has same "symptoms". It's kind of good and not at same time. Good because that means everything is fine with my install. Bad because I don't think I'll get used to the noise as he did. I will quote him:

Big thanks to Nate (Skyline8409), almost all the goodies are now installed — COBB Springs and sway bars and SPT exhaust. Difference is immediately noticed at first drive. Car is way more responsive on cornering as well as it is stiffer. SPT catback gives fake feeling of more power :). Despite that Nate owns an '06 STi, he was pleasantly surprised by the car. He says it's lacking immediate torque but other than that he likes it. All in all I am very happy. I am still getting used to it. Front springs might be slightly too low as I can hear strange bumping sounds.

Amazing how far car manufacturer will go to prevent its cars from so-called debadging. On various models there are different approaches Subaru tries to prevent people from debadging. On my previous car they had an nice Subaru logo on trunk lid in a place where I believed it was ugly. When you removed it, there appeared two holes behind it. This time it was a different fight.

Today got the car inspected and debadged rear trunk door. Looks much cleaner. It was pretty easy, didn't even need a wax — used dental floss string to remove badges, then soaked risidue leftbehind with Windex. It didn't really work too well. So I used "BAG TAR" to soad and then removed it with towel within few minutes.

Now need to find some time today or tomorrow to clean the car inside to get it read for tint.

Today I discovered another cool thing about my new car. I was driving and realised my steering wheel didn't feel right. It wasn't positioned all the way down. So I undid steering column latch and started positioning it down but it wouldn't go as low as it did before.

After playing with it for a while turns out steering wheel doesn't only go up and down but also goes towards the driver and against the driver. That was pleasant surprise as it allowed me to position steering wheel as lower than before and closer to dash which is my preference.

I am still getting to know my new car. One of the new features of the new car is one (among others?) driving aid, which at first might be upsetting to hard-core manual transmission lover as myself. But eventually I got over it. I always look at the sport of Formula One, and how many driving aids F1 drivers have.