Why use 1st gen parts on 2nd gen?

[Danslides]

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[soundman98]

I think a lot of it comes down to reviews and experience. 1st gen parts are now well documented.

No one wants their $1,000 to be the guinea pig.

[PulsarBeeerz]

They fit and work so why wait?

[Brz-123]

You are imagining people will spend the millions to research on the new engine when it's a rebored gen 1 engine. How much extra gain do you expect with perfecting for Gen 2 when differences are minimal? For most aftermarket the return is not worth the effort. So stick the Gen 1s on and get 95% of the gains.
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[tobin]

Because people are impatient.

[Falken86]

Cost affective if you have the parts already. Even some companies are claiming there parts are compatible. I would guess due to the pandemic new parts are taking longer than normal to be released to the public.

[CincyJohn]

Originally Posted by Danslides

Flame suit on. Just a question meant to spark debate - that’s all and nothing more.

While I understand that some parts fit and work, why are some people throwing on 1st gen parts that are not designed for this chassis and engine? Example 1. Throwing 1st gen headers on the 2nd gen car. I can’t imagine 1st gen headers out performing headers designed for the 2nd gen changes.

Maybe I’m just getting old now but it doesn’t make sense to me?

…at the same time, if I came from a 1st gen and had the parts laying around, I would probably install them just because I had them…. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase them.

Thoughts?

I think your post entirely misses the point. You can’t lump all 1st gen parts in a basket and make a statement like this. The question will always be WHAT first gen part are you talking about and what are you trying to achieve by adding it/changing it out.

1st gen headers are a great example though. Most people who changed their headers on 1st gen (myself included) did so to help reduce the torque dip and get overall more hp/torque when combined with a tune. While some aftermarket headers were better designed/better flowing, the PRIMARY benefit to changing the headers was eliminating the cats or replacing them with high flow cats. Indeed, when combined with a tune, the OEM headers with cats removed, performed as well or better than many aftermarket headers.

Soooo to answer your fairly naive question as to headers alone, the reason you would use 1st gen aftermarket headers on a second gen is for the same reasons. Right now, without a tuning solution, I am not even going to the trouble of installing my catless JDL UELs as people who have done it so far have realized little gains by simply changing to catless headers and, in one instance, negative gains by switching to EL catless headers. This is not that surprising, and is not that much different than what happened with gen 1, since the ECU programming isn’t designed to take advantage of the extra flow it can take advantage of.

In any event, I fully expect that once a tuning solution is offered, both gen1 EL and UEL catless headers will perform very well on gen2 (don’t let anyone fool you - some are made better, have slightly better air management, have better materials and better welds, but they all are pretty much the same “design” and it is cat removal/replacement that is key).

Of course, you can go through the same exercise for pretty much every performance part. There will/may be examples where the 1st gen part isn’t needed, the replacement isn’t as good as the 2nd gen OEM, or a 1st gen part doesn’t fit or work - but that remains to be seen.

Finally, to address the slightly condescending nature of your post, I would simply answer your question this way - Why? For the same reasons the Toyota/Subaru engineers decided to do so for a majority of the car.

BTW - I see the OP has deleted his post but I don't think it was necessary. He was asking a somewhat relevant question that others may have been interested in and he specifically noted it was to spark debate and he expected to get flamed. I don't think anybody went out of their way to flame him (I don't believe I did) and the only part of his post that was even arguably a dig on first gen was the general "idea" that using "1st gen parts" on the 2nd gen was somehow "less-than." Obviously, parts are parts for these cars whether they be 1st gen OEM, 2nd gen OEM, 1st gen aftermarket, or 2nd gen aftermarket. The only point in replacing a part is for some "gain" - whether it be aesthetic or performance - or if it breaks. At that point in time, the part needs to be examined for what it is, what it needs to do, what it costs, and whether it actually even fits/works. This needs to be done on a part-by-part, manufacturer-by-manufacturer basis.