V5 Impreza Type R and the journey
Discussion
Hi PH!, been a long time lurker here but have finally acquired something I feel worth posting about.
I’m going to do my best to keep this thread updates as I go along, even if it is just to help me keep track of things. For any of you out there that enjoy reading these posts I’ll add a few details about how I finally managed to get my dream car, my journey along the way and how it goes in general, well I actually have a few dream cars but we’ll have to see what I can make of life.
PREVIOUS CARS:
Mk2 Renault Clio 1.2 (pre facelift)
This was my first car, my parents had very kindly saved me £3,500 for my 18th birthday, but I was determined to get on the road as quickly as possible, and went and blew it on the first years insurance on a car worth £500, but my god it was worth every penny, for the first time in my life I felt truly free to go & do whatever I wanted!
Sadly it was written off by another driver who decided that she didn’t want to look before pulling out onto the road, putting an end to the little Clio. But she accepted full responsibility and a claim was paid out, Sadly this is the only picture I have of it:
Mk2 Renault Clio 1.2 (facelift)
So leading onto my next Clio, insurance money in my pocket I went out and brought another little Clio, slightly newer than the previous one and in my opinion a lot better. The interior whilst still pretty dire, but overall IMHO was a much better car.
Mk6 Ford Fiesta Zetec-S 1.6
This is still my second favourite car to date, but in hindsight it was a right mess and totally the wrong choice to make. But at the time heart won over head, but it was a lesson to be learnt.
Mk4 VW Polo 1.0 (3 cylinder – pre facelift)
2007 Citroen C2 Code 1.6
This one actually arrived whilst I had the Astra but I still have the Astra as a daily, so I felt this one would be better placed here.
I brought this car cheap from a friend and I thought I could make a quick turn over on it, ooh how wrong I was. I think I travelled less than 100 miles in its 10-12 months of my owner ship (quick turnover aye?) the car was niggled with problems the main one being the ESP light coming on, and it being bloody hard to fix cheaply! No photo's of this one, so here is a generic one from the web:
Mk4 Vauxhall Astra Sri 1.6
My current daily, this has served me well and hasn’t really caused many problems besides drinking a lot of oil, a few scuffs and a dodgy door. The car was actually owner by a family member of mine, so I got the car for next to nothing, and better yet it owes me nothing! This was exactly what I needed to allow me to save for my next purchase, my dream car!!
Here she is, in need of a little TLC ( okay a lot of TLC! ):
NOW THE GOOD BIT !
If anyone has managed to get this far have a pint on me!
Sadly it’s no MX5 or remapped 335d, but where my other cars didn’t have enough torque to rip the skin off a pudding, this one rips the flesh from your face! So here it is my (V5) JDM Subaru Impreza WRX STI TYPE R.
I’d known for years that at some point in my life I had to have a Subaru, so at the age of 17 like most typical teenagers I spend ages looking for insurance on cars that I simply couldn’t dream of. After about a year of research I had my heart set on a P1, but I went to view one and it didn’t quite live up to expectations (never meet your hero’s aye!) but as it turned out it was a good thing, as about a week or two later my neighbour had my (new to me) car sat on his drive, lots more research later and as it turned out I don’t think I could have found a better one had I tried! Two years later and it was mine!
So as most advise teenagers with insurance ‘go for the less unusual cars that aren’t driven by youngsters’ obviously this isn’t the case with Subaru’s due to their image. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the best impreza’s ever made (again IMHO) wasn’t a lot more to insure than a WRX model, now I’m not saying I didn’t pay for the privilege but I am so glad I did !!
So that’s enough rambling for now, let’s move onto the car itself:
BUILT: 31/12/1999
REGISTERED: 01/03/2000
CURRENT MILEAGE: 68,500+
So the car was brought brand new & unregister, it then spent the first 3 months of its life in a shipping container making its way to the UK. This is extremely rare with imports and is great as it means that I have all the service history from new.
HISTORY / MODS
The car has a great service history and some sensible modifications, this includes the following:
Full engine rebuilt at Scooby clinic at 55,000 miles (invoice for over £4,500!!)
Race bearings & other internal engine mods
FPS racing clutch fitted
Hayward & Scott, 3” stainless steel straight through exhaust
APEXI FC COMMANDER, mapped by JGM for Shell V-POWER
Treated rear arches (will need treating again at some point, as they have started to bubble)
Re-sprayed bumper & bonnet
Genuine forged BBS alloys
Alpine head unit, with Bluetooth, AUX and a CD player
Pioneer speakers (these may be a factory option)
Scorpion alarm & immobiliser
Also recently it has had its brake callipers refurbished, new pads and skimmed disks. Ideally I want to get a BBK – 330mm 6 pot AP’s would be ideal, which in theory should fit under the BBS alloys, but I will have to do some saving first. The standard brakes on this car are okay, but just okay really, they do stop well but I think with a car that accelerates as fast as this one, it would be nice to have equal braking performance.
Other than the Alpine unit the interior is exactly how it left the factory. Now people complain about Jap interiors but to be honest I’m more than happy with mine, I’m not really into smart phones or gadgets much, so what it has is exactly what I need! It even has electric mirrors (adjustable and folding) something I’ve never had before.
JDM DIFFERENCES:
DCCD
No ABS
Stiffer suspension
I.C. water spray
Short ratio gear box
Equal length headers (you lose that classic impreza wobble wobble, but is better for performance)
Twin scroll turbo etc. ( been advised this is not the case, and only starts on later cars)
Bigger brakes as standard
I purchased the car on 67,511 miles, and in a little under 3 months have racked up over 1,000 miles in it. To be honest I dare look at how much that has cost in petrol, but no-one buys these cars for their MPG, to me it’s much more ‘smiles per miles’ and trust me when I say I haven’t stopped smiling!
The way this car drives is absolutely bonkers, keep the rev's below 3k and it drives like any other normal car, but as soon the turbo has spooled it is absolutely insane! progress is effortless and the way it pulls from a standstill all the way up to triple figures is just mind boggling, anyway ill let the picture speak for themselves :
that's it for tonight, thanks Folks !
I’m going to do my best to keep this thread updates as I go along, even if it is just to help me keep track of things. For any of you out there that enjoy reading these posts I’ll add a few details about how I finally managed to get my dream car, my journey along the way and how it goes in general, well I actually have a few dream cars but we’ll have to see what I can make of life.
PREVIOUS CARS:
Mk2 Renault Clio 1.2 (pre facelift)
This was my first car, my parents had very kindly saved me £3,500 for my 18th birthday, but I was determined to get on the road as quickly as possible, and went and blew it on the first years insurance on a car worth £500, but my god it was worth every penny, for the first time in my life I felt truly free to go & do whatever I wanted!
Sadly it was written off by another driver who decided that she didn’t want to look before pulling out onto the road, putting an end to the little Clio. But she accepted full responsibility and a claim was paid out, Sadly this is the only picture I have of it:
Mk2 Renault Clio 1.2 (facelift)
So leading onto my next Clio, insurance money in my pocket I went out and brought another little Clio, slightly newer than the previous one and in my opinion a lot better. The interior whilst still pretty dire, but overall IMHO was a much better car.
Mk6 Ford Fiesta Zetec-S 1.6
This is still my second favourite car to date, but in hindsight it was a right mess and totally the wrong choice to make. But at the time heart won over head, but it was a lesson to be learnt.
Mk4 VW Polo 1.0 (3 cylinder – pre facelift)
2007 Citroen C2 Code 1.6
This one actually arrived whilst I had the Astra but I still have the Astra as a daily, so I felt this one would be better placed here.
I brought this car cheap from a friend and I thought I could make a quick turn over on it, ooh how wrong I was. I think I travelled less than 100 miles in its 10-12 months of my owner ship (quick turnover aye?) the car was niggled with problems the main one being the ESP light coming on, and it being bloody hard to fix cheaply! No photo's of this one, so here is a generic one from the web:
Mk4 Vauxhall Astra Sri 1.6
My current daily, this has served me well and hasn’t really caused many problems besides drinking a lot of oil, a few scuffs and a dodgy door. The car was actually owner by a family member of mine, so I got the car for next to nothing, and better yet it owes me nothing! This was exactly what I needed to allow me to save for my next purchase, my dream car!!
Here she is, in need of a little TLC ( okay a lot of TLC! ):
NOW THE GOOD BIT !
If anyone has managed to get this far have a pint on me!
Sadly it’s no MX5 or remapped 335d, but where my other cars didn’t have enough torque to rip the skin off a pudding, this one rips the flesh from your face! So here it is my (V5) JDM Subaru Impreza WRX STI TYPE R.
I’d known for years that at some point in my life I had to have a Subaru, so at the age of 17 like most typical teenagers I spend ages looking for insurance on cars that I simply couldn’t dream of. After about a year of research I had my heart set on a P1, but I went to view one and it didn’t quite live up to expectations (never meet your hero’s aye!) but as it turned out it was a good thing, as about a week or two later my neighbour had my (new to me) car sat on his drive, lots more research later and as it turned out I don’t think I could have found a better one had I tried! Two years later and it was mine!
So as most advise teenagers with insurance ‘go for the less unusual cars that aren’t driven by youngsters’ obviously this isn’t the case with Subaru’s due to their image. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the best impreza’s ever made (again IMHO) wasn’t a lot more to insure than a WRX model, now I’m not saying I didn’t pay for the privilege but I am so glad I did !!
So that’s enough rambling for now, let’s move onto the car itself:
BUILT: 31/12/1999
REGISTERED: 01/03/2000
CURRENT MILEAGE: 68,500+
So the car was brought brand new & unregister, it then spent the first 3 months of its life in a shipping container making its way to the UK. This is extremely rare with imports and is great as it means that I have all the service history from new.
HISTORY / MODS
The car has a great service history and some sensible modifications, this includes the following:
Full engine rebuilt at Scooby clinic at 55,000 miles (invoice for over £4,500!!)
Race bearings & other internal engine mods
FPS racing clutch fitted
Hayward & Scott, 3” stainless steel straight through exhaust
APEXI FC COMMANDER, mapped by JGM for Shell V-POWER
Treated rear arches (will need treating again at some point, as they have started to bubble)
Re-sprayed bumper & bonnet
Genuine forged BBS alloys
Alpine head unit, with Bluetooth, AUX and a CD player
Pioneer speakers (these may be a factory option)
Scorpion alarm & immobiliser
Also recently it has had its brake callipers refurbished, new pads and skimmed disks. Ideally I want to get a BBK – 330mm 6 pot AP’s would be ideal, which in theory should fit under the BBS alloys, but I will have to do some saving first. The standard brakes on this car are okay, but just okay really, they do stop well but I think with a car that accelerates as fast as this one, it would be nice to have equal braking performance.
Other than the Alpine unit the interior is exactly how it left the factory. Now people complain about Jap interiors but to be honest I’m more than happy with mine, I’m not really into smart phones or gadgets much, so what it has is exactly what I need! It even has electric mirrors (adjustable and folding) something I’ve never had before.
JDM DIFFERENCES:
DCCD
No ABS
Stiffer suspension
I.C. water spray
Short ratio gear box
Equal length headers (you lose that classic impreza wobble wobble, but is better for performance)
Twin scroll turbo etc. ( been advised this is not the case, and only starts on later cars)
Bigger brakes as standard
I purchased the car on 67,511 miles, and in a little under 3 months have racked up over 1,000 miles in it. To be honest I dare look at how much that has cost in petrol, but no-one buys these cars for their MPG, to me it’s much more ‘smiles per miles’ and trust me when I say I haven’t stopped smiling!
The way this car drives is absolutely bonkers, keep the rev's below 3k and it drives like any other normal car, but as soon the turbo has spooled it is absolutely insane! progress is effortless and the way it pulls from a standstill all the way up to triple figures is just mind boggling, anyway ill let the picture speak for themselves :
that's it for tonight, thanks Folks !
Edited by APHarris on Thursday 26th March 22:34
Edited by APHarris on Thursday 22 October 12:22
Stoatman said:
Nice, I hate Jap rear arches !.
Hss the whole rear half of the car been resprayed ?
yeah, I'm pretty sure when the arches were treated previously they must have had a blow over, looks a lot more noticeable in the photo.Hss the whole rear half of the car been resprayed ?
I do plan on giving it a full re-spray at some point, but it's not very high up in the priority list
95Aero said:
Drove a friend's white 3 door type R a couple of years back, all I can say is we had the speedo round to zero!
And acceleration both off the line and top-end was brutal. Enjoy.
well i have a reliable source that claims it pulls all the way to 160 with more to give, so i dont doubt that for a second !And acceleration both off the line and top-end was brutal. Enjoy.
cheers man, its my first propper car & i'm loving it !
Baryonyx said:
Stoatman said:
Nice, I hate Jap rear arches !.
Hss the whole rear half of the car been resprayed ?
It does look like fifty shades of grey in that last photo. Great cars though.Hss the whole rear half of the car been resprayed ?
That is a stunning Impreza! I had a look at an UK STi newage impreza 6 months ago to run as a daily but couldnt find a tidy one within budget. Ended up with a E46 M3 instead which is 'Ok' but not very exiting.
The first mod you should spend money on in my opinion is getting rid of the ditch finder Federal tryes. They are absolutely dire in terms of grip (I had them on an MX5 five years ago) and take away from what looks to be a well looked after car. I wouldnt bother with a BBK, get some Yokohama AD08R tyres and a set of padgid pads and the car will be transformed
The first mod you should spend money on in my opinion is getting rid of the ditch finder Federal tryes. They are absolutely dire in terms of grip (I had them on an MX5 five years ago) and take away from what looks to be a well looked after car. I wouldnt bother with a BBK, get some Yokohama AD08R tyres and a set of padgid pads and the car will be transformed
I also had a V5 Type R several years ago, loved it although I found the handling pretty frightening in the wet especially with the diff dial wound right back! It came with a huge host of mods, the best being wider front wings which I have never seen before or since, not 22b wide just a bit fatter.
Mine ended up running about 340bhp and was an absolute weapon on a back road, so much so that my mate couldn't keep up on his Ferrari F430 so bought the Scoob off me as another toy!
Keep on top of the rear arch rust by the way, it rots from the inside out and its really difficult to fix once it goes too far.
Mine ended up running about 340bhp and was an absolute weapon on a back road, so much so that my mate couldn't keep up on his Ferrari F430 so bought the Scoob off me as another toy!
Keep on top of the rear arch rust by the way, it rots from the inside out and its really difficult to fix once it goes too far.
hughcam said:
That is a stunning Impreza! I had a look at an UK STi newage impreza 6 months ago to run as a daily but couldnt find a tidy one within budget. Ended up with a E46 M3 instead which is 'Ok' but not very exiting.
The first mod you should spend money on in my opinion is getting rid of the ditch finder Federal tryes. They are absolutely dire in terms of grip (I had them on an MX5 five years ago) and take away from what looks to be a well looked after car. I wouldnt bother with a BBK, get some Yokohama AD08R tyres and a set of padgid pads and the car will be transformed
funny you should say that, my neighbour who i brought the car from also has en E46 M3 which he prefered so sold me the impreza as it got no use ! ( he did less than 2,000 miles in 2 years of his ownership)The first mod you should spend money on in my opinion is getting rid of the ditch finder Federal tryes. They are absolutely dire in terms of grip (I had them on an MX5 five years ago) and take away from what looks to be a well looked after car. I wouldnt bother with a BBK, get some Yokohama AD08R tyres and a set of padgid pads and the car will be transformed
totally agree tbh ! they seem okay in the dry, but as soon it gets the slightest bit damp / greasy they have a habit of kicking out, but they look brand new, so i'll get my use from them first before changing
and thanks for the advise will keep it in mind
Col 666 said:
I also had a V5 Type R several years ago, loved it although I found the handling pretty frightening in the wet especially with the diff dial wound right back! It came with a huge host of mods, the best being wider front wings which I have never seen before or since, not 22b wide just a bit fatter.
Mine ended up running about 340bhp and was an absolute weapon on a back road, so much so that my mate couldn't keep up on his Ferrari F430 so bought the Scoob off me as another toy!
Keep on top of the rear arch rust by the way, it rots from the inside out and its really difficult to fix once it goes too far.
that is absolutley beautiful ! i've heard 330-340 is the sweet spot for classics, i really like the idea of arch spats, but want to keep it original tbhMine ended up running about 340bhp and was an absolute weapon on a back road, so much so that my mate couldn't keep up on his Ferrari F430 so bought the Scoob off me as another toy!
Keep on top of the rear arch rust by the way, it rots from the inside out and its really difficult to fix once it goes too far.
in the dry you really have to push on to even unstick the car, totally agree i leave the DCCD forward when it is wet, for now anyway
and strange that, my neighbour told me a similar story when i brought it! but him driving and a F430 following down b roads, couldn't keep up below a tonne.
and yeah i've done abit of reading up on them, its priority no.1 atm (beside enjoying it )
Love 2 door scoobies, would definitely like to own one eventually.
I don't know much about Scooby engines though apart from apparently the 2.5's have a few failures but I assume the EJ207 in the Type R is turbocharged still?
And are these called a different name in Japan or I assume they're just rare as I haven't seen any for sale on the various import sites so far?
I don't know much about Scooby engines though apart from apparently the 2.5's have a few failures but I assume the EJ207 in the Type R is turbocharged still?
And are these called a different name in Japan or I assume they're just rare as I haven't seen any for sale on the various import sites so far?
MrAverage said:
looks nice, i have a real hankering for a scooby but it does seem to be increasingly hard to get a good one. insurance is the killer for me (the reason i havn't bought one YET). keep at it, i look forward to new turbo's exhaust updates etc!
DO IT ! i promise you won't regret it !Insurance was a massive problem for me as well to be honest, especially being 20, pretty much every single person i spoke to; mainstream, specialist, brokers etc all just said a big fat nope not till your 25, or have some decent experience.
but as the saying goes 'its worth exactly what someone will pay for it' and although it is ALOT of money, after paying £3,500 for the first clio, i'm use to being ripped of by insurance companies
and i have a real hankering to mod the thing and make it 'mine' but as you said, its getting harder to find a good one, so debating keeping this one original & well maintainer, we shall see i guess
Samjeev said:
Love 2 door scoobies, would definitely like to own one eventually.
I don't know much about Scooby engines though apart from apparently the 2.5's have a few failures but I assume the EJ207 in the Type R is turbocharged still?
And are these called a different name in Japan or I assume they're just rare as I haven't seen any for sale on the various import sites so far?
Apparently its mainly the sti hathes or when the boost has been turned up that run into problems, supposedly Subaru have fixed the issue on the newer ones, but only what I've read. You can always get one that's had a rebuild with forged pistons or with pinned cylinder walls (I think) or have funds available for if it goes wrong.I don't know much about Scooby engines though apart from apparently the 2.5's have a few failures but I assume the EJ207 in the Type R is turbocharged still?
And are these called a different name in Japan or I assume they're just rare as I haven't seen any for sale on the various import sites so far?
Sorry if this sounds patronizing (not intended). Same name, models golike this:
Subaru impreza GX = non turbo
Subaru impreza WRX = WRX represents the turbo, and comes with better components
Subaru impreza WRX STI = bigger turbo, and tuned by STI (subaru technica international) so again even better components
But yes they're fairly rare
Edited by APHarris on Friday 27th March 18:50
APHarris said:
Apparently its mainly the sti hathes or when the boost has been turned up that run into problems, supposedly Subaru have fixed the issue on the newer ones, but only what I've read. You can always get one that's had a rebuild with forged pistons or with pinned cylinder walls (I think) or have funds available for if it goes wrong.
Sorry if this sounds patronizing (not intended). Same name, models golike this:
Subaru impreza GX = non turbo
Subaru impreza WRX = WRX represents the turbo, and comes with better components
Subaru impreza WRX STI = bigger turbo, and tuned by STI (subaru technica international) so again even better components
But yes they're fairly rare
I thought so Sorry if this sounds patronizing (not intended). Same name, models golike this:
Subaru impreza GX = non turbo
Subaru impreza WRX = WRX represents the turbo, and comes with better components
Subaru impreza WRX STI = bigger turbo, and tuned by STI (subaru technica international) so again even better components
But yes they're fairly rare
Edited by APHarris on Friday 27th March 18:50
I got a bit confused whether it was turbocharged or not as i've read a bit about the Impreza RS 2.5 that the yanks love to engine swap with an EJ25 as it is very similar to the Type R, 2 door + roof vent + bonnet vents but is NA as standard according to wikipediaLooks nice OP.
EJ20 is the UK engine with the TD turbos
EJ207 is the JDM engine with then twin scroll VF turbos (same power, less lag)
EJ2.5 is the newer engine fitted to UK hawkeyes onwards. More torque, higher tax, suffers from ringland failures. Most treat with forging/closed deck block.
From memory I think thats right.
EJ20 is the UK engine with the TD turbos
EJ207 is the JDM engine with then twin scroll VF turbos (same power, less lag)
EJ2.5 is the newer engine fitted to UK hawkeyes onwards. More torque, higher tax, suffers from ringland failures. Most treat with forging/closed deck block.
From memory I think thats right.
KarlMac said:
Looks nice OP.
EJ20 is the UK engine with the TD turbos
EJ207 is the JDM engine with then twin scroll VF turbos (same power, less lag)
EJ2.5 is the newer engine fitted to UK hawkeyes onwards. More torque, higher tax, suffers from ringland failures. Most treat with forging/closed deck block.
From memory I think thats right.
spot on KarlMac, much better example than mine, thanks EJ20 is the UK engine with the TD turbos
EJ207 is the JDM engine with then twin scroll VF turbos (same power, less lag)
EJ2.5 is the newer engine fitted to UK hawkeyes onwards. More torque, higher tax, suffers from ringland failures. Most treat with forging/closed deck block.
From memory I think thats right.
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