The Winter Beat

As mentioned in my first blog, winter should be a time of automotive reflection and planning.....at least for petrolheads. I've been scheming. How can I waste money on my cars this year?
 I have this far-fetched idea that I can make my little, naturally aspirated Legacy wagon into a sleeper/WRX eater. I start looking for a cheap upgrade to quench my thirst. I do a little research on 2003 Legacy GT brakes. That was it! I could do a simple brake upgrade. It turns out that to do the swap all you need are GT caliper brackets (to incorporate larger rotors) and some larger, aggressive rotors. It would be something I doubt anybody would ever notice or appreciate. I would know they're there and that's all that matters. I haven't done the swap yet because I don't have my rotors, but rest assured 3 people that read this blog, it will be done.
To continue the trend of wagon upgrades I move to my secret weapon, a 2004 WRX long block! It is missing a lot of things, but the essentials are all there and assembled (block, heads, cams, rods, pistons, crank).  When I graduate college and get a real job, I'd love to start building a nice and reliable EJ205. Nothing too crazy, maybe 300 or 320 horsepower. That's plenty for daily driven fun, plus the stock internals can hold that power easily.
Next one the list were tires. My wagon needed new ones, the search on eBay was quick and painless. A set of cheap Mastercraft tires. I probably could have made it through the winter but a drive on an icy road had scared me. My friends at Mercedes-Benz were kind enough to mount and balance them for me. Now the Subaru claws through snow with ease.
By far, my best purchase was my 1978 440 cubic inch V8 for my Coronet. Holy crap is this motor cool. This is just a short block, it comes with a forged crankshaft, connecting rods, water pump housing, flex plate and pistons. Those pistons will need to be beaten out of the engine because it is seized, but that is no big deal because a set of forged pistons will take their place. The plan with this is to build it over the next few years. I'm planning on aluminum heads, mild camshaft, headers, aluminum intake and an 850 cfm carburetor. All said and done I'm hoping for about 9.5 or 10:1 compression and around 500 horsepower with some pretty aggressive torque figures. The block will definitely need a lot of time and money but that will all be worth it once I lay down some serious rubber.
That is really about it. I need to save money now because I'm broke. Hopefully with my tax return I can buy this fiberglass hood for the Coronet. Its styled after the 440-6 pack hood on the A12 Coronet. My goal is to make my '66 look like a "Day 2" modified car meant for street racing.