This Mad-Max Inspired Subaru Forester Has A Turbo, A Supercharger, And A V8 For Good Measure

Rules suck sometimes, and what’s worse is that people create unwritten rules to go on top of the official ones. What kind of car build does one get when all the rules get thrown out, though? It’s something like this 2005 Subaru Forester XT. This was already a potent car when new but the owner decided it was far from finished. Now, it’s an absolute monster.

Those in the Subaru community know that the Forester XT is the one you want from 2005. From the factory, it arrived with the same drivetrain as you’d find in the WRX STi, though slightly detuned. That made sense as this was basically a normal Impreza with a lift and a reskinned body to accommodate more stuff.

Owners will often modify these cars the same way one would a WRX or an STi, but Dan Dozi went the extra mile, stopped for a bagel, then went about 20 miles past the extra mile. This Forester features a turbocharger, a supercharger, all tied to an LS V8 from Chevrolet. He calls it the Dystopian Feelings Destroyer.

Under the sheet metal, you’ll find a built 4L80 gearbox to handle what Dozi says is “1000ish at the wheels at full send.” This Subaru also features a built Ford 8.8 rear end to put that power to the ground through the rear wheels only. That’s right, this is basically a Forester donut machine that also happens to be good at drag racing.

The LS V8 leverages an 88mm turbocharger and then an LSA supercharger to make the power it does. Making that actually work properly was one of the biggest challenges Dozi tells The Autopian.

“I gained a lot of experience over the years building turbocharged and supercharged cars, but never fooled with a turbo and a supercharger on the same engine. A challenge, for example, is that the resultant manifold pressure is not A+B=C; there’s a multiplication factor, which makes it tricky to keep said pressure in check. Not a huge deal on a diesel, but kind of a big deal on a gasoline engine. A custom overdriven supercharger pulley was made for me by Metco, which keeps the entire system much happier. Adding between-stage intercooling was also challenging–and if I’m being honest–probably not necessary at these levels. But it looks super rad!”

To his credit, he’s not the only person who has struggled to get the boost calculation correct. There are several different threads about it across the web. People do this sort of thing to all manner of different cars. Here’s a video going in depth about how to calculate the correct pressure on something like a MINI Cooper S four-cylinder engine.

Despite that consideration, Dozi says that not everything was a huge challenge. In fact, one aspect of the build he expected to struggle with turned out to be straightforward.

“The part that should have been the hardest was the rear axle setup. However, it was astoundingly simple due to the system my good friend Ryan Moore developed for his own RWD Subaru project. It’s a wondrous amalgamation of parts from Ford, Chrysler and Cal-Tracs–all designed to bolt into a Subaru! Solid axle, leaf springs, traction bars; old school drag style stuff that is proven to hook up and hold up. It has worked flawlessly since the surprisingly easy install. “

Why did he choose the parts he did for this wild build? Well, the answer is twofold. First, let’s discuss the parts themselves. Dozi tells us

Some of the choices like the above-mentioned rear axle were simple; stuff needs to not break when you put quad-digit power to it. But truthfully, for many of the part choices, I took the “function follows form” approach. It was built to elicit an emotional response, not win drag races. Hence the dual R2D2 BOVs, titanium pie piece wastegate trumpet, bōsōzoku-style transmission cooler, etc. It’s all functional, of course, but done so as to ensure a cogent élan.

On top of that, and it is likely already a bit obvious, this is a Mad Max-style build.

The original movies are cool, as is the Pursuit Special. But man, Fury Road! That’s a visual smorgasbord to a car designer. So I set out to create something that wouldn’t look out of place in the movie. @AnnieGraves.Creates(IG) and JeffZoetVisuals(IG) (costume designer/model, Photographer/post-production, respectively) set out with the same initiative and did a remarkable job at conveying the project’s design aesthetic.

He says that despite its extreme nature, the car still has a full interior and that while it’s already streetable, a few changes could make it even better for daily driving. Perhaps the wildest part of this whole situation is that Dozi is now selling it. Available over on Facebook Marketplace, Dozi is asking $28,000. That’s objectively a ton for a 2005 Subaru Forester. On the other hand, it’s not just the only one of its kind, but it’s one of the very few that would look totally appropriate in a Mad Max film.

Image Credits: Dan Dozi/Jeff Zoet Visuals