Crawford Performance

We don't believe in long build lists for the sake of quantity and bragging rights. Rather, we have spent 22 years on and off the race track pushing Subaru's to their limits to test which components can take the abuse, and which ones cannot. You will not find one component in our product line that does not offer proven performance or improved reliability. Don't see a product that Joe-Blows online swear you need? Check out our FAQ (coming soon) to discover why not. Subaru's Genuine OEM parts are built to last, and we avoid modifying any component that cuts down on reliability and longevity.

The founder of Crawford Performance, Quirt Crawford, leads the team's Research and Development department. Quirt comes from a family of gear heads. His father and grandfather before him raced, and he grew up with tools in hand. Along with a rich racing history of his own in the off-road world, he has worked on 2 factory-backed race programs; leading a third. From holding the title of Crew Chief on Ford Saleen’s race program with Tim Allen, to building and operating Nissan NPTI’s Dyno, Quirt was destined to lead his own factory program with Subaru of America. With their support, he created the world’s fastest Subaru Impreza in 2008, and built the legendary Gymkhana One and Two cars for Ken Block. This set the standard for Subaru Performance, and Crawford Performance continues to lead with reliable and record-breaking results.

Crawford Performance is the only aftermarket parts manufacturer to ever be factory-backed by Subaru of America

Crawford Performance has been backed by two factory motorsports programs:

Although racing is rich in the history of our team’s leaders, our focus has shifted to components designed and engineered for any vehicle owner: racer or not; Subaru or not. Testing in the highest of extremes from the race track has allowed us to perfect the designs of components that will reduce oil consumption, increase the life and the health of your engine, and even increase fuel mileage. Our performance parts are limited but still available, so please do not hesitate to inquire.

See our new shop on Garage Tours with Chris Forsberg: https://youtu.be/BcR5xaOFXX8

More About Mr. Crawford

Quirt Crawford, our founder and lead engineer, started his involvement in the racing world the moment he could pick up his first wrench. His father and father before him were both car enthusiasts, and as we all know, racing starts in our blood. Both Quirt and his brother Monte learned from watching their father, and ended up racing as adolescents. From class 10 in the Baja 1000, to go-karts, to running the dyno for the NPTI GTP team, Quirt's wealth of knowledge has come from a lifetime of experience. He was even the crew chief for Tim Allen's Saleen Racing team. Comedy.

Crawford Performance is a company that has evolved since the early 90's, starting off as 'Quirt's Turbos' which designed and tuned turbo kits for VW. Quirt alongside San Diego's own VW Paradise set the record for the world's fastest 4-cylinder dragster.

A few years later, someone brought Quirt a sandrail with a Subaru engine. Since it was similar to a VW configuration, the customer was hoping he could give it his best shot. Quirt is always up for a challenge and an opportunity to build on his knowledge, so he took on this new project. He was blown away at the motors' composition and it's potential for power, and from that point on, he was hooked. From this spark, he started a company called Leading Edge, which specialized in building turn-key motor/turbo packages for off-road vehicles such as sandrails. They then teamed up with a leading chassis manufacturer, Funco, and together they put out hundreds of turn-key sandrails.. some of which are still shredding the dunes today! Quirt couldn't stop there though, he was itching to test one of these packages in a street car to see how it could do on tarmac. In the late 90's, he started R&Ding his very first Subaru; a 1993 Legacy (turbo model, of course). Since there wasn't really a tuning market for these cars yet, he had no way to tune the car other than a standalone ECU. Although it took re-wiring the entire engine harness, he set up a MoTeC. That poor little car saw dozens of motors, about 8 transmissions, and plenty of grins. Quirt even went as far as duning the car up Oldsmobile Hill in Glamis, CA. The car had enough torque that he just let a bit of air out of the tires and was able to beat V8 sandrails down the sand drags harnessing his 2.8L monster motor.

When the WRX came out in 2002, he finally had a car with a strong enough platform to build and competitively race on tarmac with. Around the same time, Quirt decided to completely move on from the off-road market in to the street market, and effectively closed the doors on Leading Edge. In 2002, Crawford Performance was established, and there the fun really began.

Although the WRX was a great place to start, the STi blew it out of the water when it was released in 2004 with it's improved drivetrain and chassis modifications. With this improved platform and Quirts extensive R&D on the motor and turbo, teams that were powered by Crawford began taking home trophy after trophy and set record after record. This gained the attention of one of Subaru's Rally drivers: Ken Block. He was looking for the right experts to turn one of his rally cars in to a 'Gymkhana' car. A good way to describe Gymkhana is a series of events/obstacles to test the diversity of a vehicle. In this case, tarmac diversity. A car that could go fast in a straight line, around a corner, and even accelerate while in a drift. He needed ultimate control, paired with power at every point of the curve. Together, Ken Block and Crawford gave you Gymkhana Practice (1), and Gymkhana Two: The Infomercial.. two viral videos that changed the world's perception of Subaru in the performance world. Following these projects, Subaru of America reached out to Crawford Performance in 2007 to build them the fastest new-age STi in the world.. and that they did. We call her "Tony the Tiger", our orange time-attack champion, driven by none other than Eiji (Tarzan) Yamada. In it's glory, she put out 850 HP/TQ, and still remains in our Ontario, CA facility for all to see.

Here we are nearly a decade later, when Subaru surprised all of us with a brand new engine: the FA20. The second Quirt got his hands on his first BRZ in 2012, the engine came out and apart so he could tackle his next challenge. Upon first inspection, this motor was entirely different than the EJ. Since it came stock with an NA setup (non-turbo), compression was pretty high. Quirts expertise and background is with forced induction (turbo) setups, so his first goal was to figure out to make this motor strong enough for the kind of power that he planned on making with a custom turbo kit. Crawford was the first to complete and successfully run a turbo on the BRZ/FRS/GT86, as well as the first company to offer a built FA Turbo block. Subaru impressed Quirt yet again with its new powerhouse, and 3 years later, it continues to prove it's worth.