Scooby Si's MY98

[Scooby Si]

Evening All...


Thought it was about time I put a thread up on my car. I’ll apologise now if it turns in to a bit of a ramble but hey... J

I bought the car in Febuary 2004 after seeing an advert on the SIDC. It started life as an MY98 Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000. A UK car originally sold by Bell and Colvill.
The day I collected it it looked like this....






The car came with the PPP from Prodrive. Apart from a change of head unit that had come from my last car, a set of Crystal Indicators and matching side repeaters, that's how it stayed for nearly a year.

In early 2005, after alot of searching for something I liked, I finally sorted out a set of rims and a shiney new set of Ultralite ES941s (as they were known at the time!) were ordered. I think they really changed the look of the car.





Next up it was time for a new exhaust. I decided on a Turbo back Ninja System, at the time it was just what I was after with a nice increase in the flat four burble and a nice roar on hard accleration without being to loud or droany.



I fitted a Green Panel filter around about the same time. After that it was about time for the first trip to the rolling road. To cut a long story short I was very disappointed with the results...

Just 225bhp/223lbft left me feeling pretty crap and in search of the missing ponies. Fortunately another trip to see Dave and Mikey at Gatwick Subaru found a badly fitted pill in one of the boost pipes, a split vacum hose and a leaking induction pipe. Needless to say it felt like a different car after that with boost rising from 0.9 bar to just short of 1.2bar.

Next up was my first trip to see Charlie at SSR were the car made a slightly more respectable 238.5bhp/250lbft which wasn't bad for a UK car that started life with a 'quoted' 208bhp/215lbft.

With a change of Job came commuting by train. This meant the car could be come a bit more of a toy so obviously a new (louder [IMG]file:///C:/Users/sclarke/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]) exhaust was called for. When a mate was selling a TSL Typhoon the opportunity seemed to good to miss so the deal was done.

The next job on the list was tints closely followed by a modified P1 spoiler! I also found myself a nice set of 99 spec Crystal Headlights that matched the indicators and side repeaters nicely.

[Scooby Si]

I was happy like that for a while but soon the need for a bit more power got the better of me....

I searched about for a while to find the recommended route for the sort of power I was after. I decided on a VF35. This was joined by an STI 8 TMIC, 550cc injectors, 3 port boost solenoid and a Apexi PFC. It was then off to see Simon @ Jolly Green Monster for a remap. The change to the car was awesome. This was backed up by my next trip to see Charlie where the car made 289bhp/270lbft. I was pleased with the results but thought there was a chance it should have gone a bit better. Simon agreed so it was back on the rollers for a tweak to the map. This saw power up to 294bhp and torque jumped to 291lbft. Much better on the torque front but still not quite where we wanted the power. This was put down to boost tailing off very slightly more than it should at higher rpm, so the search was on to findout why.
This extra power required an upgrade to the brakes. This came in the way of some 99 Spec 4 pot calipers, Mintex Extreme Pads and new grooved discs from Godspeed.






While I was looking for the missing few ponies I thought I'd just finish of the looks of the car so a new front splitter was added and after a failed wheel refurb some new rims.






A few months later I managed to find time to go back to the rollers again (having tidied up a few things (Like replacing turbo gaskets etc) for Simon to take another look at the map. It did 312.9bhp / 313lbft.

Soon after that I finally found a set of Crystal Fog Lights to finish off the look of the front of the car a few months ago. I couldn't believe the difference they have made to how the car looks.

The chance to get hold of a Roger Clark fettled Blitz Nur Spec R 3" Turbo Back exhaust was to good an opportunity to turn down so yet again the exhaust was changed... Only the 4th one I've had on the car... But I think I'm happy now!

So with the power, stopping and styling just about sorted it was time to turn my attention back to the handling again... This was pretty much the first thing that had been looked at on the car but since then everything else had moved on a bit so it was about time for an upgrade.

The first job was to fit a set of Whiteline solid droplinks to replace the soggy plastic items Subaru see fit to install. These were joined by a Whiteline 22mm ARB to stiffen up the rear end... All I can say is WOW, what a difference!! I'd been starting to think my old Prodrive Shocks/Springs were starting to get a bit tired! (As it happens they were but I'll get to that in a minute!) To cut a long story short while I was deciding which dirrection to go I came across a Coilover setup from BC Racing. They were getting rave reviews from lots of Impreza owners including a mate of mine. I got him to take me out for a ride and to say I liked them would be an understatement! As luck would have it, on the night I got back from our little test drive a guy on Scoobynet had started a thread to arrange a group buy on the very kit I was now looking for! Obviously my name was added straight away and after a few chats with Bren at Apex my order was placed and the wait was on for the slow boat from Japan!....

So after 7 weeks on a boat....

[Scooby Si]

As I mentioned a bit earlier, it seems it was about time (or even a bit late!!) for an upgrade. When I got the first strut out it has seen better days...








... Slightly passed their sell-by date I think!

I was a pleasantly surprised by how easy they were to fit. The only real problem was the front ride height when I first fitted them....




It was a simple enough job to set them a little higher and I'm now really pleased with how its sitting.





So.... After the last few ‘tweaks’ as mentioned in my thread the other day...

Been tinkering again!

It has always been in the back of my mind that the car wasn't quite where the majority of the spec suggested it should be.

We had always wondered whether the standard airbox was just slightly strangling the top end so I've finally given in and swapped the airbox and panel filter for a K&N Induction Kit. I'd also spoken to people about the possibility that not having the bonnet scoop sealed to the larger TMIC I was running may have been affecting the intake temps at higher RPM and when the chance to get hold of an HKS Front Mount came along I couldnt say no...

So on Saturday a few weeks ago myself and Mr T (Cheers again for the help mate!) removed most of the front of my car, fitted the front mount and then cut away large chunks of my bumper so we could re-fit it!

So after all that and nearly a year since last going on the rollers with Simon and Charlie it was back over to Chobham yesterday.

My spec list now reads something like this!!

MY98 UK Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000

2.0L Turbo AWD

Apexi Power FC - with Custom Remap
VF35
HKS FMIC
Forge Recirc DV
Walbro 255 Fuel Pump
550cc Injectors
K&N Induction Kit
Hayward and Scott Wide Neck Downpipe
Roger Clark Motorsport Modified Blitz Nur Spec R
Excedy Fast Road Clutch
Shortshift kit

Front - V5 4-Pot Brakes with Godspeed Discs and Mintex Extreme Pads
Rear - Godspeed Discs and Pads

BC Racing Coilovers
Whiteline Steel Droplinks - Front and Rear
Whiteline Rear ARB
Prodrive Fastroad Geo Setup

18" Finichi Monza Sports/Yoki Parada Spec II 215/35/18
Tints
Modified P1 Rear Spoiler
V4 STI Front Splitter
Custom Lower Lip Spoiler
V5 Front Grill
V6 Crystal Headlights
Crystal Side repeaters
Crystal Front Indicators
Crystal Front Sidelights
Crystal Front Foglights
Tinted Rear Lights
Colour coded Side Skirts and wing mirrors
Prodrive gear knob

One touch Tilt/Slide Sunroof
Full Leather

Full Custom Install



Thanks for reading my random waffle!!


Cheers
Si

[DukeBoy]

Looking very nice Si

[Steve_PPP]

good write up mate

[Lucky]

Very nice mate, and good figures too.

Lubbly jubbly mate

[WRX_Paul]

That was a good read, nice one mate

[Chunk]

Nice one mate


Sitting perfect now. All round good car

[Tyler]

Love it mate, real nice... What size are your wheels? are they 17"?

[Scooby Si]

18s mate

Cheers for the comment guys

[Matt23]

That was a very good write up Si, its nice to see what you have done to the car since will owned it back in 1998 mate and good to still see the old girl at a few meets too.

[666subaru]

Great write up mate and looking very good Simon, the best thing about these threads is that it gives you ideas what to do with your own car, for the last 2 months I have been reading and learning about the way to go with ours and if it is worth it, so now I know thanks to this and a few other threads, think I have decided.

[Scott.T]

How are you getting on with the BCcoilovers.
any knock/bangs.

How do they compare to your original Prodrive Bilsteins ?
Do you still have these shocks by the way ??

[Scooby Si]

No complaints really... Very easy to install/adjust.

Obviously they are slightly firmer ride than the Prodrive setup but not uncomftably so. You feel the bumps a little more but the car doesn't wollow about after each bump like it did on the old setup (but that could have been because my old shocks were knackered!) They went to the big parts bin in the sky pretty soon after they came off...