RE: SOTW: Subaru Impreza Turbo

[urquattro]

Excellent shed, I would buy this, mechanics look to have been well cared for, tidy up the body, say £300 and just use and enjoy it, a real practical proposition in my view.

[will261058]

Only Scoob I have ever driven was one of those and it was a hoot!

[idiotboy]

I absolutely love this! Plenty of space in the back for all the performance parts you could dare pick up from Japperformanceparts on the cheap.

Perfect for putting some bikes in the back and going for a weekend away.

This is so good I actually created this account to comment.

[Motorrad]

bicycleshorts said:

This can apply to UK cars as well. Perhaps even more so since they cost less to insure.

ETA: I also wouldn't call 4000rpm 'ragging the crap out of' a car.

Edited by bicycleshorts on Friday 10th February 13:22

There was something wrong with your UK spec Turbo 2000 (of course you didn't have on did you )if it was returning the figures you claim. Also in 96 spec model just under 3K revs was 69mph on a GPS.

I owned my car when it was nearly new. Not after some chav tosser had abused and modified the crap out of it (that said this wker chipped and put a performance exhaust on it and it still did high 20's on a run)

Edited by Motorrad on Friday 10th February 14:01

[bicycleshorts]

Motorrad said:

There was something wrong with your UK spec Turbo 2000 (of course you didn't have on did you )if it was returning the figures you claim.

I've not claimed to?! Everything I've said has been about the WRX. The "can apply to UK cars as well" referred to this (and was directly quoted as such):

Motorrad said:

People who ragged the crap out of japanese imports which potentially have vastly different gearing, mapping and levels of tune.

Lastly, I wasn't doing 69mph. I've stated 3 times now that being off boost would help MPG.

Motorrad said:

Also in 96 spec model just under 3K revs was 69mph on a GPS.

bicycleshorts said:

I was doing more than that by GPS. On boost, pulling about 4000 rpm. Hence more fuel was used

[M666 EVO]

SHED = TGTBT (too good to be true)

Lovely SHED if it last the winter, no reason why it shouldn't though I guess

[grosserbaby]

My father had 2, the first a full farmer spec early one with seats made of cloth caps and a fisher price dashboard he even got a discount this being Yorkshire, In the mid 90's we did a run to my uncles house just near Vichy France using the Tunnel in his M plate wagon, 800 miles approx in under 11 Hours including the crossing and all leak, eat and fill up (very frequent) stops, trundling through the UK but as it was before the French discovered a love for speed taxation always at 3 figures or more on the continent. MPG was 17 for the whole trip.

I can remember I was nipping the seat cushions at one point on the the Periferique at about 3 in the am when I hit a strangely wet patch on a bend tightening left at about 120,held my nerve on the loud pedal but it was the car that let me off on that one and not down to my driving skill, the old man just opened one eye and commented "bit fast into that one eh lad" . Rice rockets not being the French thing at that time I had some fun with a 911 on the way back, the look on his face when he couldn't pull away from this odd looking hatchback thing.

For me an unmolested original Imprezza is still a hero car. Good shed for me it is then!

Edited by grosserbaby on Friday 10th February 14:55

[ScoobieWRX]

The humble Subaru boxer engine has been in use since the 60's so the fact that current iterations of Subaru still use that basic boxer engine design/layout is testament to great design.

This SOTW looks much better than the last Subaru for sure. At least it looks like it's been looked after. The fact it had an API rebuild is also a big plus.

97/98 cars are now very easy to remap in either MAF or MAFless configuration using the ESL solution so mods won't be a worry.

For a bag of sand or maybe a bit less, this looks a steal. A mate of mine will be interested in this so long as he's still got the dosh and not spent it on a rather large plasma TV. He is looking for a runaround/project scoobywagon and this definitely fits the bill.

If i had the spare grand i'd have this tomorrow!!

[soad]

JM said:

That's a nice looking shed.

Aye, isn't it just

[s m]

grosserbaby said:

My father had 2, the first a full farmer spec early one with seats made of cloth caps and a fisher price dashboard he even got a discount this being Yorkshire, In the mid 90's we did a run to my uncles house just near Vichy France using the Tunnel in his M plate wagon, 800 miles approx in under 11 Hours including the crossing and all leak, eat and fill up (very frequent) stops, trundling through the UK but as it was before the French discovered a love for speed taxation always at 3 figures or more on the continent. MPG was 17 for the whole trip.

That mpg figure is pretty much on the money for the Autocar average on their 1994 road test

[VolvoT5]

Nice shed, I prefer the estate to the saloons.
Not sure I would buy one myself though.... insurance would be eye watering in my area (even with 5yr NCB), running costs and fuel costs also sound quite significant. Finally, 160k + £1000 asking price can't be a good combination.

[hothatches]

ScoobieWRX said:

remap in either MAF or MAFless configuration using the ESL solution so mods won't be a worry.

Thanks for the interesting post. Could you explain the above for the uninitiated please?

[Goodfella 555]

VolvoT5 said:

Nice shed, I prefer the estate to the saloons.
Not sure I would buy one myself though.... insurance would be eye watering in my area (even with 5yr NCB), running costs and fuel costs also sound quite significant. Finally, 160k + £1000 asking price can't be a good combination.

You might be surprised, many moons ago i was a bit shy of cash and took a punt on a diesel mondeo verona (ouch) with 173k on it, it never let me down once, a couple of years later i bought a mondeo ghia X 100k plenty of history etc and it was an awful misfiring dog i traded it in pretty quick. Plus at a grand if anything over £150 needs replacing you just get rid and buy another shed, such is the beauty of shed ownership...

[ZesPak]

TEKNOPUG said:

bicycleshorts said:

It depends what speed you cruise at. The key to good MPG is to keep it off boost which is around 55-60mph in 5th. Highest I got was 25mpg but that included quite a few 3rd gear overtakes.

If you cruise at 70-80mph (on private land), you'll get around 17mpg

That’s comically dreadful for only 260bhp

it is, isn't it.

But, as a cheap fun car, I think this is quite good I'd take this any day over a £1000 328i.

[Tin Hat]

I had one of these, then an Evo. They both like a drink, in my experience the fuel consumption can vary from 10 mpg on a track to 30 mpg on a leisurely run.

They offer devastating power and grip for the money, if you are going to agonise over fuel consumption, I'd buy something else......

[ScoobieWRX]

hothatches said:

ScoobieWRX said:

remap in either MAF or MAFless configuration using the ESL solution so mods won't be a worry.

Thanks for the interesting post. Could you explain the above for the uninitiated please?

Up until recently you couldn't remap 97/98 cars. Now you can using the same solution that is used for 92-96 cars.

An ESL daughterboard is fitted to your ECU motherboard via the expansion port on the PCB. This allows the tuner, via a cable and laptop, to real-time on-the-fly remap your ECU. Changes are made and written to the ECU while on the move and work straight away. The daughterboard remains installed in your ECU.

You can tune the car either with MAF sensor or MAFless (without) mode depending on what your requirements or levels of modification are.

[nicfaz]

I had a red, 5dr W-reg one of these. Absolutely cracking car. I got a real-world 22MPG in mixed use, it would get into the high 20s on the motorway but thrashing it (and they beg to be thrashed) caused that to tumble. Mind you, W-reg and later got a slightly more powerful engine (215bhp from memory) and that might have had improved economy from the one in the ad.

If memory serves they are ~1300kg, so 165ish bhp/tonne not 200. However, they are not torque limited in the lower gears and have full traction at almost all times (today's weather being an exception) so that power goes a long way. As a previous poster said, if you have the cojones to drop the clutch at 4000rpm then nothing much can live with you.

They do understeer a bit but you can drive round it, then it's about being brave and keeping your foot in if things get hairy. If you do that, they'll generally see you right. And the noise is the one of the top 3 sounds cars make if you have the right zorst on it. Cracking shed.

[KB_S1]

My 2000 W reg wagon gets about 27mpg on average.
Have seen it drop to 18mpg on a PH run and up to 31mpg on a long work trip.

For the money they are great. A bit rattly and rough in some ways but the chassis, drivetrain and control positioning is so much better than most new cars.

[Motorrad]

I cant quote bicycleboy or whatever his name is but my point remains hes talking about a different car so probably best to ignore his comments mpg.

[KB_S1]

Motorrad said:

I cant quote bicycleboy or whatever his name is but my point remains hes talking about a different car so probably best to ignore his comments mpg.

I actually meant to point out my numbers were for a UK car.