500+bhp Impreza P1 and how I got here.

[RB Will]

mooseracer said:

Have you still got your old 3 series and if so, did I see you in it near Badminton yesterday?

Sadly I don’t. I sold it to a local chap, saw it driving around a few times, he had changed the wheels on it.
He sold it on to another local chap who has had some nice Sierra Cossies. Rumour was he was going to put a Cossie drivetrain in the BM!
I don’t think it ever happened though as the BM just seemed to sit on his drive unloved for a year or 2 then disappeared. I have heard people say he still has hit but no idea. Just checking online it hasn’t been taxed or MOTd since 2013

[trails]

This thread makes me miss my wagon. Really must finish it.

Can't believe how much the splitter has gone up

[AndrewGP]

Just read the whole thread from start to finish. Brilliant read, thanks for sharing.

I must live close to where you do as I recognise (and drive) a lot of the roads in your photos! If you see an aero-screened blue Caterham with a white stripe flying along some time, give me a wave!

[RB Will]

ICallCustard said:

Ha, good to knows it’s name. Please tell your friend it is in safe hands and well looked after. If you ever get a chance to post a pic of the canvas I would love to see it.
An S2000 is a great choice too !

Here ya go

[Schmeeky]

A cracking car history and a great write up!

Your P1 is definitely one of the most handsome Imprezas, and I agree with all the others that it looks so much better after losing the decals.

And what breed is your doggo? He's a proper handsome fella!!

[ICallCustard]

RB Will said:

Here ya go

That’s excellent. Thank you

[RB Will]

ICallCustard said:

RB Will said:

Here ya go

That’s excellent. Thank you

He said he is tempted to ask for first refusal if/ when you want to sell it lol

[RB Will]

AndrewGP said:

Just read the whole thread from start to finish. Brilliant read, thanks for sharing.

I must live close to where you do as I recognise (and drive) a lot of the roads in your photos! If you see an aero-screened blue Caterham with a white stripe flying along some time, give me a wave!

Thanks.
I’m in Swindon. I’ll give you a thumbs up if I see you.
Caterham is one thing I think I forgot to include in the thread. I rented one for a weekend as a 25th birthday treat to myself. Had good fun with that. We went to Bourton on the Water and some random guy in the car park told the Mrs they are deathtraps and she would die in it! He hadn’t even seen my driving!

[RB Will]

Schmeeky said:

A cracking car history and a great write up!

Your P1 is definitely one of the most handsome Imprezas, and I agree with all the others that it looks so much better after losing the decals.

And what breed is your doggo? He's a proper handsome fella!!

Thanks. It definitely is better without the decals.

Doggo is Summer. She is a Tervuren, one of the 4 types of Belgian Shepherd. Copes well in the car but I have made her sick a few times, bad parenting lol. I got her from a breeder whose house pretty much backed on to Silverstone. Her KC name is Vapreso Esperante. Vapresto means “go fast” and esperante because of the Panoz Esperante. The breeder wanted the pups named after cars beginning with E, all the good Lotus ones were taken and I wasn’t going with Escort the Panoz GTR is one of my fav racing cars so went with that.

[RB Will]

trails said:

Can't believe how much the splitter has gone up

Tell me about it! The manufacturer wouldn’t even entertain haggling either. I’ve never seen another Scoob with one on so presumably they are not flying off shelves either

[paulw123]

Brilliant write up. Love the P1. Enjoy!

[RB Will]

Someone at PH towers likes it

[Felix79]

I owned P1 0007 (the ex press car) from 2011 until 2016 and I had a bucketload done to it, but I had way too much rotting away on the rear arches with it stuck on the drive as my health was too bad for me to drive for a few years. I loved the car to bits and I think the P1 is one of the best looking version and driving version of the Impreza. I love a lot of the things you've done to yours, I always wanted to use the Hawkeye top mount rather than the front mount, but then I was happy with the 323bhp my replacement engine had (I blew my original engine's block and spun/twisted a piston!). I don't think I would have the balls to hoon a 400-500+ bhp P1, as it felt so bloody quick. I own a Z4M now and as quick as it is, I miss the sheer grunt my old P1 had.

Yeah the 22B looks utterly baller, but I've been told by people who have owned both that the P1 is a better driving car as the 22B has one hell of a sting in it's tail, especially in the wet!

If you ever did Japfest circa 2011-13 with the P1 owners club, I am guessing we've actually meet!

[Robbie C]

RB Will said:

ICallCustard said:

RB Will said:

Here ya go

That’s excellent. Thank you

He said he is tempted to ask for first refusal if/ when you want to sell it lol

That would be me and yes, please do let me know if you ever intend on selling

Car is looking great as ever Will, look forward to next Weds...

[RB Will]

Felix79 said:

If you ever did Japfest circa 2011-13 with the P1 owners club, I am guessing we've actually meet!

I have only been part of the P1 owners club on the website.
I was on the club stand for SIDC stuff years ago but never on a P1 stand. Probably would have been about 2003-2008 when I went to shows where the clubs would have stands.

To be honest I think 300-350bhp is probably the sweet spot for one as a road car. Unless I’m on a really twisty road I spend half my time backing off as it’s all getting a bit illegal.
But I’m a simple person and enjoy the rush of power

If you are still interested in P1s and or have pics and stuff about your old one you could join the Facebook owners group

[Olivera]

Lovely P1 OP, very similar story to what I've done with my Escort Cosworth.

[Felix79]

RB Will said:

I have only been part of the P1 owners club on the website.
I was on the club stand for SIDC stuff years ago but never on a P1 stand. Probably would have been about 2003-2008 when I went to shows where the clubs would have stands.

To be honest I think 300-350bhp is probably the sweet spot for one as a road car. Unless I’m on a really twisty road I spend half my time backing off as it’s all getting a bit illegal.
But I’m a simple person and enjoy the rush of power

If you are still interested in P1s and or have pics and stuff about your old one you could join the Facebook owners group

I'm on a number of Subaru groups on FB, but tbh it's too painful seeing P1's after having to give mine up. I will say the JDM/Subaru owners meets I've been to are the most friendly I have ever done. I use to do a lot of BMW/German car shows and it's not the same vibe at all.

[Felix79]

RB Will said:

I have only been part of the P1 owners club on the website.
I was on the club stand for SIDC stuff years ago but never on a P1 stand. Probably would have been about 2003-2008 when I went to shows where the clubs would have stands.

To be honest I think 300-350bhp is probably the sweet spot for one as a road car. Unless I’m on a really twisty road I spend half my time backing off as it’s all getting a bit illegal.
But I’m a simple person and enjoy the rush of power

If you are still interested in P1s and or have pics and stuff about your old one you could join the Facebook owners group

Sorry to quote again, I managed to find some pics of my P1 for you

[RB Will]

Seeing that I may have to start hunting for a genuine splitter.

Was yours a WR? or did you just have the brake upgrade?

[Felix79]

RB Will said:

Seeing that I may have to start hunting for a genuine splitter.

Was yours a WR? or did you just have the brake upgrade?

I will tell you a bit off an odd long winded story with my P1.


My P1, was chassis number 7, which was the official press car for Prodrive. It was my car that was in all the magazines and was on Top Gear and Fifth Gear. By the time I took ownership of the car in 2011 some bits had been removed and sold off by a previous owner. I think I was the 4th owner from new.

After owning the car for a few months, I was hammering down the A34 when suddenly loads of white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust and I saw flames coming out of the bonnet scoop. My fuel pump had failed, which caused the engine to lean out and I blew out a 3cmx3cm on one of the blocks. I had 2 pistons snap and one even managed to turn inside the head. Turbo got smacked with shards and fuel lines got cut and I had an engine fire. Thankfully I was able to pull into a rest area and the fire brigade got to me within minuets.


I was able to find another P1 owner who was breaking his car up and I was able to get his very special engine etc. It was a full closed deck block and customised P1 head. I had forged rods/pistons , nitroded crankshaft, arp studs and a Cosworth gasket set. Using the standard top mount I had a bespoke map done by a chap called Bob Rawl and I said I wanted to have over 300bhp and reliability. At this time, my system had a straight pipe, meaning I had not CAT and the car had a Blitz Nur-Spec R , which was 3" - 3.5" diameter!

I got 323bhp and 330lbt , which meant I was breaking a lot more and I warped the standard Subaru disks. Another member on the P1 owners forum had recently totalled his car and was selling off what parts he could. I was able to get the Prodrive/Alcon callipers pretty cheap. I was advised to go to Godspeed Brakes, as they did a custom two part brake rotor and hub. When they asked about the sort of driving I tended to do, to which I replied that it was a B roads that I drove, rather than doing track days. They told me that I would find that Blue Stuff pads would be best, as they were for endurance racing and in the 5 years I had them, I never once had the pedal fade on me. When they were cold, it would need a few mins to get enough heat to feel normal.

A few years down the line and one big fight with one of our neighbours about how loud the car was, I was able to trade my Blitz system for another JDM stainless system (can't remember the brand but it was worth a lot more than my Blitz) , which was a 2.5" system and my mechanic friend built a sports cat pipe in stainless and installed it. I also had a HSK blow off valve fitted. Straight away, the better back pressure meant the engine felt very easy to rev. I also started to swap some UK spec parts for genuine JDM ones, such as the rear lights and clear front indicators. I got myself the Nardi wheel they used with the WRX STi Type-R and 22B cars and used an adaptor mount. Unlike the MOMO wheel, they didn't have an airbag, so I had to put a resistor into the socket for the airbag, so the airbag light would stay off (if it was on during an MOT is was an insta fail).


Even though it was the main press car for Prodrive, it didn't have some of the options you would expect. It had the 17" grey wheels (I got the car with budget brand tyres, so I put a full set of Continental Sports Contact 3's, which I had a number of flats happen and I went over to Falken's which where awesome), not the 18"s , it had the Prodrive buckets rather than the uprated Recaro's with the half leather. When I sold it 5-6 years later, I had 124,000 miles on the clock and the only fault it had was with the rear arches rusting away , due to being stuck on my driveway for about 18 months (my back and medication made driving too dangerous). I was backed into selling it, so on my eBay ad I was very honest and set a "Buy It Now" or Best Offer , which was £2500 more than I was willing to to accept. The car sold in under 80 seconds!


If I was able to keep driving and had the funds for the bodywork, I had a few more mods I wanted to do on the car, such as using the Blob-Eye top mount, which was much bigger than the standard version 5 one. Next I wanted to have a better turbo than the small Garret Turbo they used, and finally I wanted to put a 6 speed box in, as I knew I was on the limit with the 5 speed. I didn't want to go front mount, as it would have most likely required me to have to hack a section of the front bumper out, which ruined the lines of the P1.

With regards to the front splitter, I was amazed mine survived as for a few months, my front shocks we shoot and with Oxford's evil speed-bumps, would catch it on the way down. Even back in 2012 people were asking me to sell my splitter as Prodrive just stopped making them. I would not be surprised if someone has finally started making carbon fibre versions, as the demand was always there. Due to the bodywork problems with my rear arches, I thought it might be cool to put a 22B bodykit on, as you wanted the looks of the 22B, but the drivability of the P1.