500+bhp Impreza P1 and how I got here.
Discussion
Hi all. I thought I already had a readers ride thread on here but I can't find it so guess not and have been asked about it recently so knocked this up.
Lets start at the beginning. I'll try and do this in as near date order as I can but a few cars overlapped and I'm not sure on exact dates. Warning this is not a short post! Anyway....
Before driving on the road my Dad used to take me out off roading and bumbling around my Aunt's farm I learned to drive in his Vauxhall Monterey (Izusu Trooper in disguise).
This meant I was pretty competent when I turned 17 and got my provisional, and my first car. I think I was old before my time and even at 17 wasn't really a fan of hatchbacks so I got a Mazda 323 1.3LX saloon.
Lovely interior.
I bought it from a dealer about 80 miles from home near my Aunts place.
When my driving instuctor (even though I could drive I had a few lessons to learn the procedures to pass the test) came to pick me up he noticed the car and remembered it! It used to be the loan car (oh god) for the dealership that I had just started working for, that my instructor used to work at. Felt kinda cool thast I had brought it home.
Had years of fun with it. It really taught me how to be fast and smooth. With 75bhp it was important to conserve momentum but you couldn't just bung it into corners or the back end would come round without even lifting off.
Had great fun on a serious hoon with my best mate in his 1275 Mini, pretty close duel but when we finished I parked up and left mine and his expired, steam pissing everywhere lol.
Bought for £1300, sold it to my best mate when he was in need for £250.
At the time my Mum was driving, thanks to my older bro having a history of them, an Impreza STI version 2 (pictured here with my brothers Boxter S)
The replacement for the Mazda was a BMW E30 325i Sport Mtech 2
Had this for about 5 years of abuse and apart from an idle control valve and a bit of welding it was spot on. Amazing grip in the dry, total liability in the wet
The only car I have ever spun at the Nurburgring (in the pissing rain, luckily kept it on the black stuff)
As I said, a bit of welding required!
Liability
Managed to eat a bird, on a trackday at Castle Combe crossing the start line at probably 90mph or so it flew across
On a Spa / Nurb trip
Got told off for getting smokey out of the hairpin on a Colerne airfield day as I was pulling up the surface.
Despite being 20 years old it still had most of its 170bhp
I was young, it was rwd, I had to
My Mum wanted out of the STI so I took it on while she got a Vectra
Did a few basic mods , wheels , Prodrive/ Alcon brakes, little bit of power and a big gay wing which probably hindered more than it helped and this was on shared duties for road and track work
Had so much fun and so many great experiences with this car, again amazingly reliable.
Lap around Castle Combe chasing a modded Elise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_xeFwjiVig
It did like to chew tyres
Nice neutral handling at Anglesey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM37v-VouQY
Where I also had my first ever spin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppmh9ng0C5k
Car was fine but blummin filthy after that
Also came to my first PH meet in it, actual Pistonfest all those years ago.
Had plenty of grip when required. It managed to get up the local snowy hills with no problems. A guy in a Defender told me I wouldn't make it as he had tried and slid back down. Drove up no problems. Mild heart attack was had when I took this pic as I got out of the car on the slope and watched the car start to slowly slide down!! Luckily it stopped by itself about 2ft short of the grass bank.
My Dad moved on from the Monterey to a Subaru Legacy 3.0. Which of course I dragged off to the Nurburgring
Where I had a memorable lap chasing down a Gallardo in the rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3OAQLwjPnE
The auto gearbox let it down a bit as it had really long ratios and a good chunk of the track was either too fast for 2nd but really to slow for 3rd but otherwise it coped brilliantly for a standard car. Dry lap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ig3GKIz_9k&t=...
and good satnav
My mum also moved on from the Vectra, thank Christ and into a Corolla TSport. For those who dont know its a bit like a Civic type R but with a wobbly chassis 190bhp 8,200rpm, same engine as an Elise / Exige.
STI with my Dad's Legacy, Mum's Corolla and brothers Elise 111R
Getting my hotish hatch itch scratched I borrowed it a fair bit and had a lot of fun surprising people who had no idea what it was.
Took it to a rung what ya brung at Santa Pod one Mother's Day. Being the proper bloke, I returned it to her that evening with a bunch of flowers from a petrol station and a card with the time slips in
It did ok and once off the line made up ground on an EP3 and Clio 182, didnt beat this impreza though even though I had him off the line.
Of course that went off to the Nurburgring too and did fine.
I was now on the hunt for a new car. I was working at a Lotus dealer and this came in as part ex
Very tempted but I decided since I was getting to drive them at work it was silly to buy my own.
Now we introduce the headline act of this thread. After a week long test drive in the P1 and a quick go in a UK spec 22B I went for the P1, it was half the price of the 22B and I didnt like the clutch in the 22B. Annoyingly the 22B is worth 4 times as much now
This is how it was when bought. Standard engine except for a Magnex backbox and decatted and Brembo brakes off a newage STI.
Meeting the older brother
My mate wanted rid of the Mazda so I bought it back for £20 had it for about another year but couldn't really justify it as a 4th car at that point so sold it for £50 (no tax or MOT and weak clutch) to a guy who turned it into a banger racer so at least it went out in style 
Here she is on the day she left with my now wife's first car. The size difference!
The Swift was actually a pretty decent daily driver, not much power but great chassis and was our only regular car for a year when we first moved in together as we only had the one parking space, I had to leave mine at my parents
Anyway back to the P1. The intention was to have the P1 as a good daily and turn the STI into a track car. Obviously it didnt take long for me to take the P1 on track
First time on track with it was at Rallyday at Castle Combe. Found it was a bit more pointy than the STI and would actually power oversteer in the wet. Nearly got taken out by some massive bell in a Bowler though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E30wlTr9o94
Then went back to having fun. The 205 in front of me went on to use a pic from that session in his for sale ad on here with me in the background lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkGABamrCYM
Of course I made a nob of myself in the afternoon should have kept my foot in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yzXK4oA9Ds
Good time overall though.
Its second track outing wasnt quite as successful. Same track and I was taking a mate out for a session. Did a gentle war up lap, then first fast lap it shat its bottom end. Thank you Subaru for the very generous warranty
I was already signed up to do an event with it, a charity rally, 2500 miles around western Continental Europe. Got the P1 back from Subaru rebuilt with 2 days to spare and a couple of bottles of oil and a filter in the boot.
At the start of the trip (note PH Sticker in window)
So gentle runing in through France and Switzerland then I managed to convice a Citroen garage in Germany to do the oil change for me.
Next day was lapping the Nurburgring
I took out 3 of the other lads on the tour for a lap, not even going too quickly but it was enough for them. (one of them doing the commentary, some bad language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgPH6y58370
Trip sucessfully completed it settled back into daily life. Including a bit of hanging around in car parks in the evenings.
It looks a bit Fast & Furious but my friends Neon SRT-4 was actually pretty rapid and sounded ace. Think it was about 270bhp. In a straight line it was a dead heat with the P1. He was a US Air Force guy serving at the local base.
Many unmentionable adventures ensued.
The plan to turn the STI into a dedicated track car was not going brilliantly. I had spent a bit of money on it but was just not getting the results I was after so made the hard decision to pull the plug with the plan to spend the cash from the sale making the P1 a bit more interesting.
Sold the STI to a friend. On the day he picked it up we headed off and did a trackday at Castle Combe. Him in the STI and me in my E30. Annoyingly we had to spend the first couple house in the morning pulling the plugs on the STI as for the only time in its life it managed to flood itself starting in the morning! Obviously didnt want to leave.
Both cars performed fautlessly all day after that.
Before any work on the P1 started it had another trip into Europe. For a Subaru club roadtrip and trackdays at Spa and the Nurburgring.
Taking it steady around Germany
Managed to split the cat open at Spa so had a bit of a noisy drive home, and before I got that replaced I did another run what ya brung at Santa Pod. Running a 13.9 1/4 a bit broken and with a gentle launch.
Time for the first round of mods to start.
Wanting to have some success with this one I spoke to local, internationally renowned Subaru guru Bob Rawle. I told him roughly where I wanted the car to be and he gave me a spec list. I bought it and me and my mate fitted everything.
Slightly nervous taking the grinder / cutter to a few bits
Showing her new front mount off with the E30
Only a few basic mods, front mount, bigger turbo, induction kit, fuel pump and injectors, full exhaust and remap. End result was 402bhp / 365lbft
Also took the opportunity to update the livery as the original stuff had faded. Number 88 on the side is because mine is 88/1000
This was underneath Waterloo Station on a fun night out and about around London.
Shortly after gave it a proper shakedown on a very damp trackday at Hullavington Airfield with my mate in his 2.0 Corsa and another mate with his 300bhp Ibiza Cupra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0TzD6y8ZRA
Performed faultlessly
It was about this time that me and the woman bought our first house together, and got a dog. It came from a breeder who pretty much had Silverstone in his back garden and a 911 Turbo. Dog grew quite quickly and after a few months was too tall to be on the back seat of my E30 so I reluctantly let it go and bought myself a nice sensible daily dog wagon.
Subaru Legacy 3.0R Spec B manual. Compared to my Dad's old auto this thing was great, the gearbox totally transforms it.
The P1 was enjoying lots of use now going to various meets...
PH Cheddar, bit of spot the Scoob for you
PH Tall Ships
PH Mini Factory
My Dad had replaced his Legacy with a Forester 2.5XTEn with PPP on it so about 260bhp. This thing was brilliant fun, bit crap over 100mph but ace 0-80 and pretty handy on back roads.
Obviously it was taken to the Ring
Someone obviously didnt think anyone would be so mental and one day my Dad came back to the car in a Co-op car park to find someone had written this on the back "The Ring in this?"
I went for a distance record in it one day and told myself I could do Swindon to Doncaster and back on one tank. It hit the bottom of the gauge with about 40 miles left to home so I took some brave pills and carried on. Made it to the petrol station nearest home with the gauge here. The amount I put in it exceeded the fuel tank capacity so I must have only had left some of what was in the filler neck! nearly 340 miles on a tank though.
P1 continued to perform faultlessly in all weathers, showing off its hill climbing ability again it managed to get me up one of the larger ones in the area to get to a clients site, we had to abandon my associates car on the way as it just couldnt climb.
Got used as the slightly unconventional car for carrying the bridesmaids at my other halfs sister's wedding
Got invited along to Silverstone by Racelogic to try out their new VBox. We got one run going slow to try out the new features and then one fast run just for a laugh. Was quite happy that it was only just behind (about half a sec) a race caterham and R35 GTR despite me having a passenger and load in the boot and them having a much bigger run up into the course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpaRmoAdrBY
And another ring trip, didnt get any clear laps for a decent time unfortunately
There was another change of daily driver. The Legacy was replaced by Billy a Dodge Ram 1500 SLT 5.7 V8. I really wanted an SRT10 but they were out of budget. I loved this thing. It was so roomy and comfortable, dog loved it too, that whole massive back sofa to herself. It did about 11-13mpg in normal use so when the tax on the P1 ran out I took it off the road for a bit to ease the finances.
So practical around town
Being used as tow car and race truck for my mates now much upgraded Corsa (build thread on here somewhere) it had over 550bhp!
Would have been much more practical if they did a shorty version
Drifting it around in the snow was hillarious especially with a mate on a sledge hooked up to the tow bar
So with the P1 off the road driving thrills had to be found elsewhere. The other half had sold the Swift to her little sister (who still has it, coming up to its 10th birthday in July, now battered by car park dings )and bought the car she had always wanted a blue Mini R53
Here on a South Wales road trip. This thing is fun but a bit of a liability on back roads, the standard suspension and solid run flats make it really bouncy.
As much as I didnt want it to, for practical reasons Billy had to go
I sold him to a dealer in Germany who flew over to drive him back. Must have had a decent profit margin on it as getting it back to Germany would have set him back nearly £500!
I tried the usual pickup suspects like L200, Navara, Rodeo but after the Ram they were all garbage so had to change tack. Stepping into Billy's massive boots was Arfur the Audi Allroad 2.5TDI. This was my biggest fail car wise.
It was a nice place to be and a nice comfortable daily driver but the dealer I got it from made the buying experience rubbish and set me off on the wrong foot with it. It lasted all of 3 months before suddenly cutting out on me one morning. AA guy came and diagnosed cam belt snapped. Had it recovered to my mates workshop for storage while I figured out what to do with it. Figured it was going to be best to sell it as is or part it out as putting a new engine in was going to be expensive. I offered it to a local VW/Audi breaker for what I thought was a reasonable price but he laughed at me and said he could get a working one for that. So I decided to break it myself . It was at this point, looking at pics of the engine to see what was worth taking off it that I realised it wasn't the cam belt that had snapped but the belt for the diesel pump! So it was me laughing now not the breaker, he would have tripled his money!
Unfortunately while I was doing all this I had sorted myself out a good lease on a new Skoda Octavia VRS diesel. My first brand new car.
So Arfur easily fixed and sold for a proper price life continued on with the Skoda, Olly.
This turned out to be a brilliant daily driver. Comfortable, modern, quick enough and surprisingly brilliant on a back road with a really exploitable supple chassis.
Even giving it utter death it still averaged above 30mpg and if driven gently would do 55-60mpg.
In the period between Arfur and Olly we had another Ring trip and as I still had the P1 off the road I borrowed my mums Corolla again.
I took my MTB and after closing one evening did my slowest lap ever. Really good to see the track this way, though I never realised how many willies were painted on the track!
Beautiful
Ring car and ring bike with their stickers
Me and my mate were sharing it on a Destination Nurburgring trackday where it didnt embarass itself, until the last lap when it started knocking
Here is a lap chasing a mate in his S2000. Surprisingly little straight line difference between them. I did have big understeer issues though in the standard car on average tyres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFgEXgLQsbc&t=...
The trip home was fun, not. I thought I would see how far I could get. Put a load of oil in and hoped for the best. Made it about 60 miles, back into Belgium but once on the motorway the increased revs were too much for it and it expired.
Thankfully the AA cover got me and the car home, though it took a while. I phoned them at 10.45 am and was finally recovered off the motorway at 15.35! More delays then a long trip back passing me between trucks and ferry and more trucks and I got home for 06.40 the next day.
Mother was quite understanding and we got her a new car sorted.
The Corolla was bought by a lad who worked with my mate and he rebuilt and supercharged it which was nice. I wanted to take it back to the Ring supercharged.
Back to enjoying the Skoda life.
Coming to PH meets, Morgan factory
Race transporter for the dog. We compete in a sport called canicross which is essentially cross counrty running as a team.
Wales road trip
Despite the arse kicking it still averaged over 40mpg for the whole trip and only needed one fuel top up.
Got engaged and in the wedding planning decided I wanted the P1 to be my wedding car. It was the car that took us on our first date and so many other places. So I wanted to turn up in it and take us away in it.
So we started with the recomissioning. The plan was just to give it a good old service and couple of small upgrades. This is where it all went to pot.
One upgrade was to fit a baffled sump. So dropped the pan off and found it wouldn't come out with the headers in place so went to take them off. One bolt was siezed. no matter what we tried we coouldn't budge it with the room we had to work in. So decided the engine was coming out for easier working and well while the engine is out, may aswell rebuild and strengthen it for future track use. Man logic in full swing and a healthy bank account mean I went a bit OTT.
So its was to become a fully built closed deck, forged, stroked (2.1) bigger turbo and conversion from the original 5 speed to 6 speed gearbox. After 3 years of 400bhp abuse the original gearbox was a bit fragile anyway. AP Racing 6 pots and a few chassis tweaks.
Oh and taking the livery off.
Work trundled on slowly.
I started collecting little bits like original wheel caps, new pedal rubbers ( as my clutch one was torn), I got the wheels refurbed and painted back to the original anthracite.
Matt at RCM was building my short motor and my mate/ Best Man was building the top end and everything else. So I entertained myself with making things pretty.
Repainted the inlet that was looking a bit past its best
ta da
Since the heat wrap on my manifold and up pipe was years old and falling apart I cracked all that off and the exhaust bits had a trip to Zircotec
Here is the original short motor, fully opendeck
and the new fully forged, stroked, closed deck one
All coming together
Also had some parts, mounts, header tank, intercooler pipes painted crackle black, I still need to change a few of the silicone pipe joiners from blue to black.
Getting nearer the wedding and off on my stag do. Just me and my best man and ushers doing a 2 day driving tour of Wales with a bit of activities thrown in.
I had wanted to take the P1 but the build was a bit behind schedule so I blagged my Dad's E63 (which hasnt been on a Ring trip yet! must fix that). My Best man pinched his other half's week old Mini Cooper S Works, one of my ushers thought the weather was too crap to bring his S2000 so came in his commuting 3 series and the other usher's project car was broken so he jumped in with me.
Good time was had by all. The E63 used a bit more fuel than the VRS but I though an avarage of 18.6mpg wasn't too bad considering how we had been driving.
I was quite impressed with how well the big Merc managed on smaller roads, only a few moments where tighter bits had it on 3 wheels in the Elan Valley.
It ended up pretty tight time wise but everything back in MOTd and a base map for running in put on by Bob Rawle a few days! before the wedding.
Decent sized boot
At the venue
With my Best Man's M4 Comp
Even managed to get a decent laugh out of people by duping them into thinking I was being nice about the Wife when really I was talking about the car in my speech
"So what can I say about her. I was first drawn to her as she was pretty and athletic but found there is much more to her once I got to know her. Its been over 10 years we have been together now. We have travelled around, seen some extraordinary things together, and had many great times with family and friends and I am lucky and proud to have her.
Its been a little stressful getting here today but now we have made it I’m looking forward to what the future has to hold in this new chapter of our lives. Anyway that’s enough about the car outside"
Wedding over, running it in could begin. So good to actually be out in it properly, it had only been mapped to 1 bar of boost for this but still felt pretty alive and was enough to toy with a new Focus RS on the way back from a Goodwood Breakfast meet.
Went to a few other meets like Queen's Square in Bristol
Out with my mate (Best man) with his R34 GTR VSpec 2
Local club meets at Kemble Airfield
Unfortunately one of the trips back from here took a bit longer than planned. Taking the scenic route I developed a rather loud knocking in the front right. From noise and feel we thought it had lunched a cv joint so crawled to a safe place and parked up waiting for the AA again. Still this turned out to be a laugh as we were all out in fun cars and one of us had a VBox in the car so we were having a 0-60 competition
Turns out it could have been fixed at the road side as I dicovered when I whippped the wheel off at home it was one of the bolts that hold the brake disc to the bell had come loose and was smacking on the brake caliper
So at least that was an easy cheap fix
Back out on the road again
Got myself a new keyring
Always wanted the inside to be a little more rally car so treated myself to a dished, alcantara Sparco wheel and a Cobb Knob gear knob which I picked up on a visit to Toronto as they are a nightmare to get over here. Its great having the steering wheel a bit closer as one problem I always had with this car was to be comfortable on the pedals I only really had fingers rather than a proper grasp on the wheel. So much more control now. The only disadvantage is you now have to take your hand off the wheel to use the indicators and wipers as the wheel is away from those.
Then I moved house, did not go smoothly at all what with other buyers pulling out and others being cocks but got there in the end. Nice upgrade for me, the wife and dog and a much bigger bedroom for the P1
Old garage
New one, I'm planning on making it a bit nicer, painting the walls and floor etc. So nice to be able to get in and out comfortable and work on the car in the garage.
Running in finally done, back to Bob for the final map, launch control, antilag and high(1.8 bar) and low (1.4bar) boost
Resulting in about 505bhp and 470lbft on a savage curve
I bloody love it, proper old school nothing nothing wham. Could probably be faster overall with a smaller turbo and less power but it wouldnt be as exciting. Its almost a bit too fast for the smaller roads around here
tunnels are fun though
Little demo of the antilag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zlo9iGWpAs
Then it was time for the Skoda to go back at the end of its lease which meant finding a new daily car. Needed something practical, niceish, petrol as my mileage had dropped and I was clogging the DPF on the VRS, so settled on an Audi A4 Avant 2.0tfsi. After months of looking, they are surprisingly rare! I found a decent one with all the options I wanted. It was the only one to that spec for sale in the UK at the time!
Nice little thing with this one turned out to be the history. It was supplied new by my local Audi dealer to a local lady, FSH by them, traded back in there and sold again approved used, to another local, still looked after there then traded in to another dealer who sold it to the place I bought it from. So like with my Mazda its been brought back home again.
Options I wanted were MMI and B&O but bonus with this one was the alcantara trim on seats and doors, detachable tow bar and heated seats. Also being 211bhp its quick enough but still makes the P1 feel pretty special. I had considered the S4 but it would have been getting a bit closer performance wise.
Handover day, passing on the torch / dog cage lol
One thing I have noticed is no bugger recognises me out and about anymore, even friends dont notice it. I'm just another Audi w
ker now.
Day out in the Brecons with the wife and dog
Which brings us pretty much up to date with the most recent day out being JDM Combe on the club stand with the R34 GTR and Supra turbo.
We are not quite sure what power the GTR has, its a factory S tune. The Supra is about 485bhp. Had an entertaining drive there and back and the P1 even with an extra 100kg passenger had the legs on both of them, not much in it though and obviously they have scope for mega power.
Almost looks like I have polished it, fat chance
Plan now is just to enjoy it and get it on track a bit this year then next year sort out the bodywork, big key mark down the front side from the wife's ex from many years ago and the rear arches are just starting to get rust on the inside which needs sorting.
Lets start at the beginning. I'll try and do this in as near date order as I can but a few cars overlapped and I'm not sure on exact dates. Warning this is not a short post! Anyway....
Before driving on the road my Dad used to take me out off roading and bumbling around my Aunt's farm I learned to drive in his Vauxhall Monterey (Izusu Trooper in disguise).
This meant I was pretty competent when I turned 17 and got my provisional, and my first car. I think I was old before my time and even at 17 wasn't really a fan of hatchbacks so I got a Mazda 323 1.3LX saloon.
Lovely interior.
I bought it from a dealer about 80 miles from home near my Aunts place.
When my driving instuctor (even though I could drive I had a few lessons to learn the procedures to pass the test) came to pick me up he noticed the car and remembered it! It used to be the loan car (oh god) for the dealership that I had just started working for, that my instructor used to work at. Felt kinda cool thast I had brought it home.
Had years of fun with it. It really taught me how to be fast and smooth. With 75bhp it was important to conserve momentum but you couldn't just bung it into corners or the back end would come round without even lifting off.
Had great fun on a serious hoon with my best mate in his 1275 Mini, pretty close duel but when we finished I parked up and left mine and his expired, steam pissing everywhere lol.
Bought for £1300, sold it to my best mate when he was in need for £250.
At the time my Mum was driving, thanks to my older bro having a history of them, an Impreza STI version 2 (pictured here with my brothers Boxter S)
The replacement for the Mazda was a BMW E30 325i Sport Mtech 2
Had this for about 5 years of abuse and apart from an idle control valve and a bit of welding it was spot on. Amazing grip in the dry, total liability in the wet
The only car I have ever spun at the Nurburgring (in the pissing rain, luckily kept it on the black stuff) As I said, a bit of welding required!
Liability
Managed to eat a bird, on a trackday at Castle Combe crossing the start line at probably 90mph or so it flew across
On a Spa / Nurb trip
Got told off for getting smokey out of the hairpin on a Colerne airfield day as I was pulling up the surface.
Despite being 20 years old it still had most of its 170bhp
I was young, it was rwd, I had to
My Mum wanted out of the STI so I took it on while she got a Vectra
Did a few basic mods , wheels , Prodrive/ Alcon brakes, little bit of power and a big gay wing which probably hindered more than it helped and this was on shared duties for road and track workHad so much fun and so many great experiences with this car, again amazingly reliable.
Lap around Castle Combe chasing a modded Elise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_xeFwjiVig
It did like to chew tyres
Nice neutral handling at Anglesey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM37v-VouQY
Where I also had my first ever spin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppmh9ng0C5k
Car was fine but blummin filthy after that
Also came to my first PH meet in it, actual Pistonfest all those years ago.
Had plenty of grip when required. It managed to get up the local snowy hills with no problems. A guy in a Defender told me I wouldn't make it as he had tried and slid back down. Drove up no problems. Mild heart attack was had when I took this pic as I got out of the car on the slope and watched the car start to slowly slide down!! Luckily it stopped by itself about 2ft short of the grass bank.
My Dad moved on from the Monterey to a Subaru Legacy 3.0. Which of course I dragged off to the Nurburgring
Where I had a memorable lap chasing down a Gallardo in the rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3OAQLwjPnE
The auto gearbox let it down a bit as it had really long ratios and a good chunk of the track was either too fast for 2nd but really to slow for 3rd but otherwise it coped brilliantly for a standard car. Dry lap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ig3GKIz_9k&t=...
and good satnav
My mum also moved on from the Vectra, thank Christ and into a Corolla TSport. For those who dont know its a bit like a Civic type R but with a wobbly chassis
190bhp 8,200rpm, same engine as an Elise / Exige.STI with my Dad's Legacy, Mum's Corolla and brothers Elise 111R
Getting my hotish hatch itch scratched I borrowed it a fair bit and had a lot of fun surprising people who had no idea what it was.
Took it to a rung what ya brung at Santa Pod one Mother's Day. Being the proper bloke, I returned it to her that evening with a bunch of flowers from a petrol station and a card with the time slips in
It did ok and once off the line made up ground on an EP3 and Clio 182, didnt beat this impreza though even though I had him off the line.
Of course that went off to the Nurburgring too and did fine.
I was now on the hunt for a new car. I was working at a Lotus dealer and this came in as part ex
Very tempted but I decided since I was getting to drive them at work it was silly to buy my own.
Now we introduce the headline act of this thread. After a week long test drive in the P1 and a quick go in a UK spec 22B I went for the P1, it was half the price of the 22B and I didnt like the clutch in the 22B. Annoyingly the 22B is worth 4 times as much now
This is how it was when bought. Standard engine except for a Magnex backbox and decatted and Brembo brakes off a newage STI.
Meeting the older brother
My mate wanted rid of the Mazda so I bought it back for £20
had it for about another year but couldn't really justify it as a 4th car at that point so sold it for £50 (no tax or MOT and weak clutch) to a guy who turned it into a banger racer so at least it went out in style Here she is on the day she left with my now wife's first car. The size difference!
The Swift was actually a pretty decent daily driver, not much power but great chassis and was our only regular car for a year when we first moved in together as we only had the one parking space, I had to leave mine at my parents
Anyway back to the P1. The intention was to have the P1 as a good daily and turn the STI into a track car. Obviously it didnt take long for me to take the P1 on track
First time on track with it was at Rallyday at Castle Combe. Found it was a bit more pointy than the STI and would actually power oversteer in the wet. Nearly got taken out by some massive bell in a Bowler though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E30wlTr9o94
Then went back to having fun. The 205 in front of me went on to use a pic from that session in his for sale ad on here with me in the background lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkGABamrCYM
Of course I made a nob of myself in the afternoon
should have kept my foot in.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yzXK4oA9Ds
Good time overall though.
Its second track outing wasnt quite as successful. Same track and I was taking a mate out for a session. Did a gentle war up lap, then first fast lap it shat its bottom end. Thank you Subaru for the very generous warranty
I was already signed up to do an event with it, a charity rally, 2500 miles around western Continental Europe. Got the P1 back from Subaru rebuilt with 2 days to spare and a couple of bottles of oil and a filter in the boot.
At the start of the trip (note PH Sticker in window)
So gentle runing in through France and Switzerland then I managed to convice a Citroen garage in Germany to do the oil change for me.
Next day was lapping the Nurburgring
I took out 3 of the other lads on the tour for a lap, not even going too quickly but it was enough for them. (one of them doing the commentary, some bad language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgPH6y58370
Trip sucessfully completed it settled back into daily life. Including a bit of hanging around in car parks in the evenings.
It looks a bit Fast & Furious but my friends Neon SRT-4 was actually pretty rapid and sounded ace. Think it was about 270bhp. In a straight line it was a dead heat with the P1. He was a US Air Force guy serving at the local base.
Many unmentionable adventures ensued.
The plan to turn the STI into a dedicated track car was not going brilliantly. I had spent a bit of money on it but was just not getting the results I was after so made the hard decision to pull the plug
with the plan to spend the cash from the sale making the P1 a bit more interesting.Sold the STI to a friend. On the day he picked it up we headed off and did a trackday at Castle Combe. Him in the STI and me in my E30. Annoyingly we had to spend the first couple house in the morning pulling the plugs on the STI as for the only time in its life it managed to flood itself starting in the morning! Obviously didnt want to leave.
Both cars performed fautlessly all day after that.
Before any work on the P1 started it had another trip into Europe. For a Subaru club roadtrip and trackdays at Spa and the Nurburgring.
Taking it steady around Germany
Managed to split the cat open at Spa so had a bit of a noisy drive home, and before I got that replaced I did another run what ya brung at Santa Pod. Running a 13.9 1/4 a bit broken and with a gentle launch.
Time for the first round of mods to start.
Wanting to have some success with this one I spoke to local, internationally renowned Subaru guru Bob Rawle. I told him roughly where I wanted the car to be and he gave me a spec list. I bought it and me and my mate fitted everything.
Slightly nervous taking the grinder / cutter to a few bits
Showing her new front mount off with the E30
Only a few basic mods, front mount, bigger turbo, induction kit, fuel pump and injectors, full exhaust and remap. End result was 402bhp / 365lbft
Also took the opportunity to update the livery as the original stuff had faded. Number 88 on the side is because mine is 88/1000
This was underneath Waterloo Station on a fun night out and about around London.
Shortly after gave it a proper shakedown on a very damp trackday at Hullavington Airfield with my mate in his 2.0 Corsa and another mate with his 300bhp Ibiza Cupra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0TzD6y8ZRA
Performed faultlessly
It was about this time that me and the woman bought our first house together, and got a dog. It came from a breeder who pretty much had Silverstone in his back garden and a 911 Turbo. Dog grew quite quickly and after a few months was too tall to be on the back seat of my E30 so I reluctantly let it go and bought myself a nice sensible daily dog wagon.
Subaru Legacy 3.0R Spec B manual. Compared to my Dad's old auto this thing was great, the gearbox totally transforms it.
The P1 was enjoying lots of use now going to various meets...
PH Cheddar, bit of spot the Scoob for you
PH Tall Ships
PH Mini Factory
My Dad had replaced his Legacy with a Forester 2.5XTEn with PPP on it so about 260bhp. This thing was brilliant fun, bit crap over 100mph but ace 0-80 and pretty handy on back roads.
Obviously it was taken to the Ring
Someone obviously didnt think anyone would be so mental and one day my Dad came back to the car in a Co-op car park to find someone had written this on the back "The Ring in this?"
I went for a distance record in it one day and told myself I could do Swindon to Doncaster and back on one tank. It hit the bottom of the gauge with about 40 miles left to home so I took some brave pills and carried on. Made it to the petrol station nearest home with the gauge here. The amount I put in it exceeded the fuel tank capacity so I must have only had left some of what was in the filler neck! nearly 340 miles on a tank though.
P1 continued to perform faultlessly in all weathers, showing off its hill climbing ability again it managed to get me up one of the larger ones in the area to get to a clients site, we had to abandon my associates car on the way as it just couldnt climb.
Got used as the slightly unconventional car for carrying the bridesmaids at my other halfs sister's wedding
Got invited along to Silverstone by Racelogic to try out their new VBox. We got one run going slow to try out the new features and then one fast run just for a laugh. Was quite happy that it was only just behind (about half a sec) a race caterham and R35 GTR despite me having a passenger and load in the boot and them having a much bigger run up into the course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpaRmoAdrBY
And another ring trip, didnt get any clear laps for a decent time unfortunately
There was another change of daily driver. The Legacy was replaced by Billy a Dodge Ram 1500 SLT 5.7 V8. I really wanted an SRT10 but they were out of budget. I loved this thing. It was so roomy and comfortable, dog loved it too, that whole massive back sofa to herself. It did about 11-13mpg in normal use so when the tax on the P1 ran out I took it off the road for a bit to ease the finances.
So practical around town
Being used as tow car and race truck for my mates now much upgraded Corsa (build thread on here somewhere) it had over 550bhp!
Would have been much more practical if they did a shorty version
Drifting it around in the snow was hillarious especially with a mate on a sledge hooked up to the tow bar
So with the P1 off the road driving thrills had to be found elsewhere. The other half had sold the Swift to her little sister (who still has it, coming up to its 10th birthday in July, now battered by car park dings
)and bought the car she had always wanted a blue Mini R53 Here on a South Wales road trip. This thing is fun but a bit of a liability on back roads, the standard suspension and solid run flats make it really bouncy.
As much as I didnt want it to, for practical reasons Billy had to go
I sold him to a dealer in Germany who flew over to drive him back. Must have had a decent profit margin on it as getting it back to Germany would have set him back nearly £500!
I tried the usual pickup suspects like L200, Navara, Rodeo but after the Ram they were all garbage so had to change tack. Stepping into Billy's massive boots was Arfur the Audi Allroad 2.5TDI. This was my biggest fail car wise.
It was a nice place to be and a nice comfortable daily driver but the dealer I got it from made the buying experience rubbish and set me off on the wrong foot with it. It lasted all of 3 months before suddenly cutting out on me one morning. AA guy came and diagnosed cam belt snapped. Had it recovered to my mates workshop for storage while I figured out what to do with it. Figured it was going to be best to sell it as is or part it out as putting a new engine in was going to be expensive. I offered it to a local VW/Audi breaker for what I thought was a reasonable price but he laughed at me and said he could get a working one for that. So I decided to break it myself . It was at this point, looking at pics of the engine to see what was worth taking off it that I realised it wasn't the cam belt that had snapped but the belt for the diesel pump! So it was me laughing now not the breaker, he would have tripled his money!
Unfortunately while I was doing all this I had sorted myself out a good lease on a new Skoda Octavia VRS diesel. My first brand new car.
So Arfur easily fixed and sold for a proper price life continued on with the Skoda, Olly.
This turned out to be a brilliant daily driver. Comfortable, modern, quick enough and surprisingly brilliant on a back road with a really exploitable supple chassis.
Even giving it utter death it still averaged above 30mpg and if driven gently would do 55-60mpg.
In the period between Arfur and Olly we had another Ring trip and as I still had the P1 off the road I borrowed my mums Corolla again.
I took my MTB and after closing one evening did my slowest lap ever. Really good to see the track this way, though I never realised how many willies were painted on the track!
Beautiful
Ring car and ring bike with their stickers
Me and my mate were sharing it on a Destination Nurburgring trackday where it didnt embarass itself, until the last lap when it started knocking
Here is a lap chasing a mate in his S2000. Surprisingly little straight line difference between them. I did have big understeer issues though in the standard car on average tyres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFgEXgLQsbc&t=...
The trip home was fun, not. I thought I would see how far I could get. Put a load of oil in and hoped for the best. Made it about 60 miles, back into Belgium but once on the motorway the increased revs were too much for it and it expired.
Thankfully the AA cover got me and the car home, though it took a while. I phoned them at 10.45 am and was finally recovered off the motorway at 15.35! More delays then a long trip back passing me between trucks and ferry and more trucks and I got home for 06.40 the next day.
Mother was quite understanding and we got her a new car sorted.
The Corolla was bought by a lad who worked with my mate and he rebuilt and supercharged it which was nice. I wanted to take it back to the Ring supercharged.
Back to enjoying the Skoda life.
Coming to PH meets, Morgan factory
Race transporter for the dog. We compete in a sport called canicross which is essentially cross counrty running as a team.
Wales road trip
Despite the arse kicking it still averaged over 40mpg for the whole trip and only needed one fuel top up.
Got engaged and in the wedding planning decided I wanted the P1 to be my wedding car. It was the car that took us on our first date and so many other places. So I wanted to turn up in it and take us away in it.
So we started with the recomissioning. The plan was just to give it a good old service and couple of small upgrades. This is where it all went to pot.
One upgrade was to fit a baffled sump. So dropped the pan off and found it wouldn't come out with the headers in place so went to take them off. One bolt was siezed. no matter what we tried we coouldn't budge it with the room we had to work in. So decided the engine was coming out for easier working and well while the engine is out, may aswell rebuild and strengthen it for future track use. Man logic in full swing and a healthy bank account mean I went a bit OTT.
So its was to become a fully built closed deck, forged, stroked (2.1) bigger turbo and conversion from the original 5 speed to 6 speed gearbox. After 3 years of 400bhp abuse the original gearbox was a bit fragile anyway. AP Racing 6 pots and a few chassis tweaks.
Oh and taking the livery off.
Work trundled on slowly.
I started collecting little bits like original wheel caps, new pedal rubbers ( as my clutch one was torn), I got the wheels refurbed and painted back to the original anthracite.
Matt at RCM was building my short motor and my mate/ Best Man was building the top end and everything else. So I entertained myself with making things pretty.
Repainted the inlet that was looking a bit past its best
ta da
Since the heat wrap on my manifold and up pipe was years old and falling apart I cracked all that off and the exhaust bits had a trip to Zircotec
Here is the original short motor, fully opendeck
and the new fully forged, stroked, closed deck one
All coming together
Also had some parts, mounts, header tank, intercooler pipes painted crackle black, I still need to change a few of the silicone pipe joiners from blue to black.
Getting nearer the wedding and off on my stag do. Just me and my best man and ushers doing a 2 day driving tour of Wales with a bit of activities thrown in.
I had wanted to take the P1 but the build was a bit behind schedule so I blagged my Dad's E63 (which hasnt been on a Ring trip yet! must fix that). My Best man pinched his other half's week old Mini Cooper S Works, one of my ushers thought the weather was too crap to bring his S2000 so came in his commuting 3 series and the other usher's project car was broken so he jumped in with me.
Good time was had by all. The E63 used a bit more fuel than the VRS but I though an avarage of 18.6mpg wasn't too bad considering how we had been driving.
I was quite impressed with how well the big Merc managed on smaller roads, only a few moments where tighter bits had it on 3 wheels in the Elan Valley.
It ended up pretty tight time wise but everything back in MOTd and a base map for running in put on by Bob Rawle a few days! before the wedding.
Decent sized boot
At the venue
With my Best Man's M4 Comp
Even managed to get a decent laugh out of people by duping them into thinking I was being nice about the Wife when really I was talking about the car in my speech
"So what can I say about her. I was first drawn to her as she was pretty and athletic but found there is much more to her once I got to know her. Its been over 10 years we have been together now. We have travelled around, seen some extraordinary things together, and had many great times with family and friends and I am lucky and proud to have her.
Its been a little stressful getting here today but now we have made it I’m looking forward to what the future has to hold in this new chapter of our lives. Anyway that’s enough about the car outside"
Wedding over, running it in could begin. So good to actually be out in it properly, it had only been mapped to 1 bar of boost for this but still felt pretty alive and was enough to toy with a new Focus RS on the way back from a Goodwood Breakfast meet.
Went to a few other meets like Queen's Square in Bristol
Out with my mate (Best man) with his R34 GTR VSpec 2
Local club meets at Kemble Airfield
Unfortunately one of the trips back from here took a bit longer than planned. Taking the scenic route I developed a rather loud knocking in the front right. From noise and feel we thought it had lunched a cv joint so crawled to a safe place and parked up waiting for the AA again. Still this turned out to be a laugh as we were all out in fun cars and one of us had a VBox in the car so we were having a 0-60 competition
Turns out it could have been fixed at the road side as I dicovered when I whippped the wheel off at home it was one of the bolts that hold the brake disc to the bell had come loose and was smacking on the brake caliper
So at least that was an easy cheap fix
Back out on the road again
Got myself a new keyring
Always wanted the inside to be a little more rally car so treated myself to a dished, alcantara Sparco wheel and a Cobb Knob gear knob which I picked up on a visit to Toronto as they are a nightmare to get over here. Its great having the steering wheel a bit closer as one problem I always had with this car was to be comfortable on the pedals I only really had fingers rather than a proper grasp on the wheel. So much more control now. The only disadvantage is you now have to take your hand off the wheel to use the indicators and wipers as the wheel is away from those.
Then I moved house, did not go smoothly at all what with other buyers pulling out and others being cocks but got there in the end. Nice upgrade for me, the wife and dog and a much bigger bedroom for the P1
Old garage
New one, I'm planning on making it a bit nicer, painting the walls and floor etc. So nice to be able to get in and out comfortable and work on the car in the garage.
Running in finally done, back to Bob for the final map, launch control, antilag and high(1.8 bar) and low (1.4bar) boost
Resulting in about 505bhp and 470lbft on a savage curve
I bloody love it, proper old school nothing nothing wham. Could probably be faster overall with a smaller turbo and less power but it wouldnt be as exciting. Its almost a bit too fast for the smaller roads around here
tunnels are fun though
Little demo of the antilag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zlo9iGWpAs
Then it was time for the Skoda to go back at the end of its lease which meant finding a new daily car. Needed something practical, niceish, petrol as my mileage had dropped and I was clogging the DPF on the VRS, so settled on an Audi A4 Avant 2.0tfsi. After months of looking, they are surprisingly rare! I found a decent one with all the options I wanted. It was the only one to that spec for sale in the UK at the time!
Nice little thing with this one turned out to be the history. It was supplied new by my local Audi dealer to a local lady, FSH by them, traded back in there and sold again approved used, to another local, still looked after there then traded in to another dealer who sold it to the place I bought it from. So like with my Mazda its been brought back home again.
Options I wanted were MMI and B&O but bonus with this one was the alcantara trim on seats and doors, detachable tow bar and heated seats. Also being 211bhp its quick enough but still makes the P1 feel pretty special. I had considered the S4 but it would have been getting a bit closer performance wise.
Handover day, passing on the torch / dog cage lol
One thing I have noticed is no bugger recognises me out and about anymore, even friends dont notice it. I'm just another Audi w
ker now.Day out in the Brecons with the wife and dog
Which brings us pretty much up to date with the most recent day out being JDM Combe on the club stand with the R34 GTR and Supra turbo.
We are not quite sure what power the GTR has, its a factory S tune. The Supra is about 485bhp. Had an entertaining drive there and back and the P1 even with an extra 100kg passenger had the legs on both of them, not much in it though and obviously they have scope for mega power.
Almost looks like I have polished it, fat chance
Plan now is just to enjoy it and get it on track a bit this year then next year sort out the bodywork, big key mark down the front side from the wife's ex from many years ago and the rear arches are just starting to get rust on the inside which needs sorting.
Whitean3 said:
Great write up- thanks for sharing!
Seems like there is a lot of petrol in your family's veins!
It’s just me and my Dad now. Mum has a Polo and my bro has moved on from exotic cars ( had Ferraris, Aston, etc) and does extreme sports instead like heli skiing and paragliding so just has a Land Cruiser to chuck all the gear in.Seems like there is a lot of petrol in your family's veins!
The P1 terrifies my Mum
though she is nearly 70 now
Gameface said:
It's looks SO much better now than it used to.
Escy said:
Nice post, looks like you get the most out of your cars. I think the P1 looks much better without the stickers.
Agreed.scoobygaz1 said:
Near identical figures to my old uk turbo absolute blast to drive ??
Cool. As you probably well know its a handful but very entertaining. You bang through the gears so quickly and by modern standards its a pretty light car so good to chuck around.
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