Car Feature ~ Subaru Vortex

Subinats 24' was a wild ride.

While strolling the show & shine, making sure to get enough footage, I finally got to meet Shane. Meeting another Vortex owner is a rare occurrence and Shane didn't disappoint. A super genuine dude, we talked wedge, getting the run down on his Wynn's Safari inspired Vortex. 

I'll type up a page on that car soon, but during the tour, Shane told me he was not alone. There was another Vortex at Subinats. 

At that very moment I noticed a red coupe. It was absolutely hauling ass around the elevated sections of Sydney Motorsport Park. Once Shane's attention had turned to the parade lap I knew it was my job to go track down the red Vortex.

Seeing Grant's car in front of me was VERY surreal. When the Vortex came out it received a donk of a motor, the EA82. Later on in Japan and the US, it would receive revisions including a new motor the ER27 (essentially a six cylinder version of the EA-donk).

Anytime you had a problem with the EA motor, and tried to enlist help on a Subaru forum, you would be greeted with the same answer regardless of issue. Stick an EJ in it.

They'd often tell you something like its all Subaru Lego, but when I asked Grant about his Lego experience he was happy to explain combining new and old Lego required some finesse. That being said, boy does that EJ20G look at home in the engine bay.

 

Before I lay down the nitty gritty of what this car has become I thought I'd build a little background on Grant.

 

Grant has liked Subaru's 'since [he was] about 15'. His brother worked at TurboXS, and would sometimes bring over 'done up' Subaru's. 

'I wanted to build a coupe race car and considered Leone, SVX and Vortex'

He decided to choose Vortex adding that he 'felt the Vortex made the most sense and it was a bit of an unloved oddball'.

 

It was also 'a cost effective starting point into motorsport and I'm very glad I chose it.' 

 

 

So in 2011 Grant started building his track car. The car was sold to him by a backyard wrecker in Cessnock, originally Marina Blue.

 

'Interestingly I happened to be up there two weeks before and saw the car driving with p-plates on it. I think it had just run out of rego when I got it.'

The car was in an sub-par condition and needed a few repairs. Grant managed to recall seeing a red example on Google Images which led to it's change in appearance.

 

'On a budget [I] resprayed it enamel red but it faded after a few years.' 

Last year (2023) he resprayed it in '2k single-stage kenworth red gloss,' which alongside his blue companions gave the car a serious presence. 

The EJ20G from earlier was pulled from a JDM 95' WRX wagon half-cut (from ICHIban), and the drive-train altered from front-wheel-drive to rear-wheel-drive with a 2002 WRX box and transfer case (current setup). It's had various differentials, 'was running a mix; 4.1 and 3.545 r160 with visous LSD's,' but as of more recently he upgraded to 'r180s; 4.444 and 3.545 with torsen LSD's.'

 

'The main part I break is rear CV [shafts], a mix of all the power to the [rear wheels, bad angles, lowering etc] doesn't help.'  

 

And lastly at SUBINATS24 it was on G3 WRX wheels (8 inch wide) and wrapped in Toyo R888r 235/40/17 tyres.

So you might be thinking, but how does it go?

Well after 10 years the motor is still happy, it's done over thirty-four events and driven on notable tracks such as Sydney Motorsport Park, Phillip Island, Wakefield Park and Mount Panorama.

 

Lap times:

Sydney Motorsport Park (Gardner) 2.00

Phillip Island 2.05

Wakefield Park 1.12

Bathurst 2.52

 

Fair to say it's been a successful endeavor but I still had one more question for Grant. What did you think when Subaru released the BRZ?

'It was cool to see them bring out a sports coupe, I'm surprised they did being a small volume market for coupes.'

'I didn't actually know about it when building the Vortex RWD, [I] got to see one at Wakefield Park doing a track day when they came out. A motormag was doing a review.'

June 2012:

'I enjoyed Subinats, it was good to not be the only Vortex this year and meet fellow enthusiasts. It's good to see how its grown from the first Subinats in 2014 at Wakefield Park.' - Grant

 

 

If you want to see Subinats a decade on from the first one: