Built Like a Brick House: Sydney’s Widebody WRX

There’s the people you meet once and you’ll never forget, and there’s the people you might see every day and never know. The same can be said about cars. I like to think that every car has a presence, a personality so to speak, however lack luster or intriguing they might be, it exists. Out of the hundreds of thousands of cars out there only a few have that intangible character, that demeanor, THAT form that leaves a lasting impression in our memory.

Now from the side this may look like your average wingless Subaru, but if you happen to catch it in your rear view Hendra Parulin’s “bug eye” WRX takes on a whole new dimension!

Even before Hendra ever decided to go wide body our friends at THE-LOWDOWN.com were drawn to this car when they spotted it out on the roads of Sydney, Australia. Sporting a different set of SSR wheels at the time, it’s original black paint, and a much less cut physique. Most wouldn’t even recognize the car today if it weren’t for its license plates.

Hendra purchased the car back in 2006, and it wasn’t until roughly two years after purchasing the WRX that he got the modding bug (get it? haha). He says… “At the time it was only a looks thing, in terms of stance with the SSR’s, it wasn’t until last year that I began to make the relatively big changes.” Since then he has been assembling this beast piece by piece, each part some how tying into the next, with each of them serving a purpose.

Hendra said he just wanted something different and although he didn’t initially go the widebody route for performance reasons, he knew the wider arches would be better suited with a different style of wheels. It was thanks to popular tuning house, Autotechnik, that the once aggressive SSR Professors were replaced with the now wider, sportier, 18 x10.5 AME TM-02′s. Whilst they are quite a popular wheel, Hendra hadn’t seen many around in Sydney and came to the conclusion that these would look better on the wide-body as opposed to a deep dish style like the SSR’s.

To compliment the aggressive lines of the wide body Hendra added a Voltex rear diffuser… wait till you see it all head on!

And this my friends is why Hendra’s WRX is “Built Like a Brick House”. It may not have the smoothest lines, but like one of those guys who’s neck somehow disappears between their shoulders and those big humps on either side of their head, I wouldn’t mess with it.

In a time where the trend has become undersized/stretched all season tires, and excessive amounts of negative camber (I myself am guilty), Hendra has redefined the term “Aggressive Stance” with both function & form!

No rivet on over fenders or half assed do it yourself fender pulls, this custom wide body kit by J Racing Australia really accentuates the original lines of the Impreza and gives the car and unforgettable presence.

Although the bay may not be shaved or tucked it’s fully functional and I couldn’t imagine this car any other way. Dressed with a handfull of ARC parts and other JDM tidbits Hendra hasn’t ignored the bay but rather dressed it up a little.

And lastly we finish out Hendra’s well rounded build with a shot of his clean OEM+ interior sporting the signature Defi gauges, a pair of Bride seats, and quick release wheel.

After undergoing such drastic changes over the past year you might think Hendra is done with this car, moving onto the next project, hell… broke. However, when we asked if he had any other future plans for the car, he said yes!

“In the future I plan on getting the engine done, pistons, cams etc. Better suspension will probably follow shortly after, I’m also thinking about changing the colour again.”

We would like to thank Hendra for the opportunity to feature his one of a kind WRX and wish him the best of luck with his future endeavors, and we would also like to thank Jason and the guys at THE-LOWDOWN.com for sharing their amazing photos with us! This is hopefully the first of many features from down under!