At $17,999, Is This Subaru Legacy GT Spec.B A Sleeper You Won't Sleep On?

We all love loud, ostentatious, flashy cars, but for today’s Nice Price or No Dice we’re taking a different approach. This Subaru Legacy GT Spec.B is sleek, understated, and quiet — until you step on the gas.

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Last week’s Jaguar XKR prompted plenty of discussion around its reliability, but that wasn’t enough to deter 57 percent of you from saying you’d drop $18,950 to hear that supercharged V8 purr. That certifies it as a Nice Price win, but will our next forced-induction offering fare as well?

At first glance, this Spec.B looks like any other fourth-generation Legacy GT — at least, until you notice the massive front-mount intercooler sitting beneath the grille. Don’t go thinking this is some impractical, showy mod, though. The rest of the engine has the parts list to necessitate that airflow.

A “built” engine sits under that hood (though there’s no word as to whether that means a closed-deck block), with upgraded rods, pistons, head studs, cams, valve springs — the works. It’s all necessary, however, to handle the power of this Legacy’s Garrett 3582 turbocharger. That turbo is known for making some seriously impressive numbers on the EJ25 platform — 700 wheel horsepower isn’t impossible — and here produces a claimed 483 to the wheels in this meth-injected build. Perhaps the difference can be attributed to a lack of ethanol in the fuel, since no flex-fuel kit is mentioned on the mod list.

Of course, that all sounds like a recipe for a Subie that runs fast without ever running well. This example, however, seems to be truly built correctly. There’s a level of attention to detail that can only come from someone who’s really researched the platform. Torque Solution mounts hold the engine in place, and an IAG air-oil separator tries its best to stop the engine from drinking all its fuel, but the true indicator of quality comes in the interior.

This Legacy GT Spec.B has a double-DIN radio. In most cars, that’s no big deal — just an aftermarket radio swap — but 2009 is new enough that cars weren’t really built to accept new head units. This dark trim piece has to be ordered from Japan, for three-figure prices, just to throw a new radio in. You don’t do that if you’re slapping together a build for kicks.