Morgan,
Your videos are very similar to the tough sections of the trails I am doing now with my '84...I just need lower gearing to push my 205/75R14 MT's. I just hate to continue putting a lot of effort into the mechanicals of my '84 when the body is close to literally cracking in half from rust. (And all the '80-'84 wagons around here are that rusted.)
If I put a dual range tranny and a lift on the Impreza, do you think it could ever hang with the older models? Unfortunately, I have read that the EJ18 has peak torque at a much higher RPM. But wouldn't it be great to have that smooth, solid, quiet Impreza unibody as a platform to build on?
What we all really need is a way to put 4.44 diffs in the old EA dual range 5 speed and then beefier axles to take the abuse.
Thanks for the feedback.