In true VIP style, the interior is where the rest of the heavy lifting took place. Out went the stock rear seats, replaced by two Impreza buckets. Then Clear Star got busy covering all tush-supporting areas, plus door panels, inside the trunklid, and even a section that goes over the engine (hope it's heat-resistant), with a synthetic leather-like fabric colored Togarashi Red (togarashi is dried and flaked red chili pepper, incidentally). Add some contrasting black, the extensive diamond stitching, black privacy curtains for the door windows, and the car looks more like the world's most expensive luxury production cars than a humble mid-size sedan that ordinarily would compete with the Mazda6, Toyota Camry, and Honda Accord.
In common with the best in luxury, this Legacy's cabin is all about the rear quarters (how often does that sentence crop up?) The two lucky occupants here are separated by a console that houses a refrigerated beverage holder, plus an acrylic storage pod with motorized open-and-close action. The pod was designed to resemble the pneumatic tubes of drive-through banking.
Each has their own Myron & Davis display screen set into the headrests of the front seats, so they can watch DVDs courtesy of a JVC KD-AVX77 head unit that can also play CDs and good old radio, has a touchscreen, and is Bluetooth enabled and compatible with iPods and iPhones-kind of expected these days, but still good to know.
Sending the JBL GTO628 6.5-inch speakers, GTO608C 6.5-inch speakers, GT5-402 four-inch speaker, and two GT5-10 dual voice coil 10-inch subwoofers shaking are a couple of JBL amplifiers. One is a GT5-A604, four-channel model for the highs, the other is a GT5-A3001 for the lows. We're told it sounds freaking awesome. A custom-made "carputer" (running the ubiquitous Windows) manages all infotainment functions.
The trunklid is a great thing to be under when it's raining. There are two umbrellas attached to its inside. Also in the trunk are a couple of acrylic panes providing a glimpse into the wonderful world of air suspension.
Just to make the general air of luxury even more rarefied, there's bespoke interior lighting, illuminated tread plates on the sills, and a light-sensitive rear-view mirror. And in the interest of full disclosure, the drivetrain is virtually stock, with only an SPT billet oil cap and billet battery holder, along with the aforementioned Mishimoto cooling equipment joining the 265-hp, 2.5-liter flat four engine under the hood. The six-speed manual transmission employs a few STI parts-pedals, a short-throw shift lever, and a shift knob fashioned from Duracon.
Now here's the big shock: the whole build took one month. Work began in October of 2009 and was completed for the SEMA show, which opened the following November. According to Lukas and Goh, some parts took longer than expected to come from Japan, so there were some long stints put in as the deadline loomed. One thing the pair learned during the course of this venture is that "it is possible to utilize the creativity of smaller local shops on a high-profile project. It injects a certain style that we might not have achieved otherwise, if we had built the car using only our ideas within the company-an extra dose of East Coast flair." There they go, looking to the East again.