SportShift WRX saloon, automatic newage

[riiidaa]

SportShift WRX saloon

After a 4 year hunt, I found one already in the UK that was the right colour and not in Aberdeen.



These are unicorn rare, I'm not a fan of bugs but the only ever example I've seen in blob form was on http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforu...tiptronic.html in KL

So, with this factory made SportShift JDM WRX saloon coming up for sale late last year (and only months after buying a wagon variant to cannibalise) I decided that at £3500 the bought not built approach would be a better prospect.

It was originally listed for £4700 on Autotrader but kept getting reduced until it fell to the magic number whereby cannibalising the SportShift Wagon into a blob saloon shell would have cost more than owning both, so my brother-in-law kindly collected it for me on Nov 5th from Hertfordshire on his way home from work.



First mods were organised asap

Get my plate off retention and swap wheels over from the bug wagon...

Bought an STi rear bench and door cards for it off a breaker on s/net (need a hand to fit if anyone would be so kind)






Then bought a turbo-back exhaust system off StoneJedi for £300 and had Slowboy racing do an oil change and fit it ready for JGM to map it at SRR on Feb 5th, the oem pipe was so normal car sounding it could have been a mondeo firing up if you shut your eyes.

Certainly sounds more SUBARU now it has an Afterburner Vortex and Prodrive Performance cat fitted.





Remapping of my SportShift automatic Subaru Impreza, a 2001 JDM WRX remapped by JGM at Surrey Rolling Road on Feb 5th 2014 when it was still in Surrey.

Remap footage


Modifications:
Decat up-pipe
4" angled vortex afterburner tailpipe with 2.5" straight through centre and Prodrive performance cat
STi intercooler (Purchased from and fitted by Moley )


The calculations for transmission loss are set up for manuals on the rollers and the transmission loss maths for autos are different, so although the graphs of truth show 265.3 hp both Charlie and Simon estimate it's actually putting out 280 since remap, maybe this is why the yanks favour whp readings?

JGM http://www.jollygreenmonster.com/
SRR http://www.surreyrollingroad.co.uk/

[Scruff]

Dude, this things cool! I've never even heard of one.

[riiidaa]

thanks mate, yes proper rare. I have two auto wagons to sell now - and they although are a degree less rare are still pretty hard to find.

[ralliart didz]

nice 1 riiidaa, I think the bugeyes look great.

[riiidaa]

Once a wagon is sold, I'll have funds to facelift it.

[thepieman]

great rare find there, we looked for one a few years back but none about at the time

great to see the plate sitting on a nice back ground again

[riiidaa]

sold one of the wagons, so this got a new present this weekend, STi spoiler / bootlid.



Will debadge it though, in due course

[riiidaa]

Supplied and fitted by 'Anger' too

[Mortster]

Nice one , whats next?

[riiidaa]

Well I guess I need the uprated boot torsion bars so the boot if open doesn't try and decapitate anyone with the slightest breeze

I have the funds to acquire blob conversion parts for the front end

I also much prefer blob rear bumper and so will update the tail lights

Oh and blob side skirts probably

[Hongkongfooi]

Is it just auto or tiptronic?

[riiidaa]

SportShift = tiptronic

[riiidaa]

Originally Posted by Hongkongfooi

Is it just auto or tiptronic?

[riiidaa]

Sorted out the cloudy lamps yesterday with a restoration kit.

[thepieman]

amazing how just brightening up the lights makes a huge difference to how a car looks..........

looking nice and fresh now, good work

[riiidaa]

Thanks Ron

[scotty]

Good job you done there riidaa .

[riiidaa]

So today arrived these bits I bought off a breaker last week:

the blob rear bumper £80
the blob tail lights £100
the blob sti under tray £60
Sti boot springs £20

Not unwrapped them yet

[riiidaa]

Cambelt service done inc pulleys tensioner etc etc

Oil changed

[riiidaa]

Originally Posted by riiidaa

So today arrived these bits I bought off a breaker last week:

the blob rear bumper £80
the blob tail lights £100
the blob sti under tray £60
Sti boot springs £20

Not unwrapped them yet

So this package finally got opened yesterday, it was extremely well packaged up by MB Developments.

Then with much thanks to TGovins and my Dad the rear end transformation finally got done, spurred on by losing a rear number plate while I was on shift earlier in the week. We had only used minimal number plate tape on my first plate because the bumper change was not meant to have been put off so long, such is life.





Thanks again mate, very pleased.

Just need to get someone to wire up the rear fog, and de-badge it now and the back is done.

[Steve_PPP]

Nice one mate

The blob rear lights really lift the back of the bug don't they

[Bytes]

Yep, looking good

[oldskool]

Looks great ,, do the sti boot springs make a lot of difference ?

[riiidaa]

Originally Posted by oldskool

Looks great ,, do the sti boot springs make a lot of difference ?

Having done the job on my Classic, yes. Still got to do it on this one.

Yup, the blob tail lights and rounded rear bumper I really prefer Steve_PPP.

[riiidaa]

Yesterday another shipment from MB Developments arrived, putting money where my mouth had been, operation blob not far off now hopefully


Today my Dad and Uncle Wilf unwrapped the pallet load of goodies


This is how well stuff is wrapped

[Steve_PPP]

Nice one, looking forward to seeing how this moves forward

[riiidaa]

need wings to get on with it

[riiidaa]

Years ago, in anticipation of one day finding / importing a SportShift bug, I bought this Chargespeed bug to blob adaptor kit via ABW

http://www.chargespeed.com/english/gdb_ab_cd-e1.htm



I only pulled it out of the shed on Sunday, so with the rear end already done with no issue as far as I can tell, the rear adaptors are surplus to requirements, perhaps they'd have been of use if cutting in to a bug bumper but I sold mine after fitting the more rounded rear bumper from a blob.

Not sure whether I'll end up buying a blob slam panel or just chop mine to make use of the front adaptors, maybe I'll try the chargespeed way first and then decide after. Because either way the existing slam panel will be facing a session with a grinder.

[riiidaa]

Well, here's my blob conversion write-up http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...ad.php?t=19039

and end result








Before and Afters

[riiidaa]

Finally sorted my brakes, upgraded the fronts to four pots* in a funky colour thanks to A.J. Turners of croydon.
*Auto WRX's do come with crap brakes as standard...



Just replaced pads and discs on rear, because I couldn't put it off any longer.

[Rdlangy1]

Sweet

[Abz_17]

Very nice