SEMA 2007 Spotlight: Cusco tunes the WRX, develops easy-adjust LSD

Click the image above for more shots from Cusco.

Cusco has been bringing the knowledge gleaned from its racing exploits to consumers for more than a decade, and over the past few years, it's finally offered up its wares to those of us in the States. In particular, the Subaru WRX has been the mainstay of its success, so it didn't take long to begin developing new suspension components to make the new Subie stick.

While most of its products aren't on its website yet, we were told that a new coilover setup, sway bars and other suspension components were being concocted as you read this. The 'Rex in the above photo was built by Vivid Racing, AFI and Agency Power, and although the majority of the mods were more dress-up, there were a few pieces of note. One facet of the new WRX's engine hampering tuners is the plastic intake manifold beneath the top-mount intercooler. AFI ditched that particular setup, instead running pipes to a front-mount, installing a GT35R turbo and a custom aluminum intake manifold. No word on when AFI will be offering the manifold up for sale, but we'd suspect sometime soon.

As for Cusco, the one piece of kit that bowled us over was their new Pro Adjust LSD. Rather than swapping out the plates to adjust tractability, you simply move a few "cam chips" that can change the LSD from 1-way, 1.5-way or 2-way. Cam angles are adjustable in increments between 0- to 65-degrees by simply pulling off the cover, removing a locking washer and changing out the chips to the desired degree. Sales began in the spring of this year and the Pro Adjust LSD is currently available for a number of vehicles, including Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and, naturally, Subaru.