Wow, two VR-4 owners here! I never thought I'd meet any others!
A guy I worked with at a composites shop while I was in college had one of the first VR-4 brought into the US. He was a good 20 years older than I, and he claimed to be an ex-rally racer. IIRC, his s/n was less than 100. His baby was a metallic gray that reminds me of the newer color-shifting paints. He spent more on upgrades than he paid for the car!
The upgrades included all-new ported and polished heads, lightweight pistons, more agressive camshaft, larger turbo (A hybrid, -Garrett T4 type I think), APEXi turbo controller, stand-alone laptop fuel management, turbo timer (runs the car to cool off the turbo after you get out), all braided stainless lines, all Al parts under the hood were red-anodized, lightened flywheel, beefier clutch, adjustable Koni shocks/struts, BBS wheels, BF Goodrich rubber, and many others I don't know the details of plus others I probably didn't even know about.
His VR-4 introduced me to the world of turbo 4wd cars. All I can say is that flawlessly power-sliding through a 90 degree left hand turn at almost 80 miles an hour off of a state highway in Northern Arizona was a rush I'll remember for a long time. I thought I was going to die at first, then when I realized that he had done this too many times before, my fear turned into exitement! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif <-- Me after that...
There is also something just too cool about lighting up all four wheels at 70 mph! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I currently lust after the WRX STi, but I'll probably never have the privilege of owning one now that I have a 3 month old daugther (plus I can't afford a $30K toy). If I could have anything, I would get an R34 Skyline GT-R. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/drool.gif