Subaru Impreza WR Sport Prodrive
Discussion
Very interesting thread! I bought a 1995 Legacy Turbo, the facelift successor to the 4 Cam Turbo, from Cheam Motors in 1998. It had 11k miles on it when I bought it, with all the history, and I ran if for 15 years only selling it in 2013 with 130k miles odd on the clock. Truly, it was the best road car I have ever had and I would have unhesitatingly bought another Subaru except for the awful dealers down here in SW France, dishonest rip off merchants. Cheam Motors were really good too but we left the UK in 2001 and it was a struggle from that day onward, sadly.
One of my biggest regrets in life (!) was not buying a 1997 Impreza Turbo owned by a friends father for many years and fastidiously maintained. I worked for a guy who was involved in GC8 Imprezas years ago and always liked them, probably fueled by the antic of McRae when I was a mere lad. Never actually owned one and now regretting that as they seem to be going up in value and very hard to find a nice, clean non-abused or modified example... should situation change and I reshuffle what I have just now and free up space for a weekend / mid life crisis / inner child in me car then I think one of these will be very near the top of the list. I'd love an RB5 but sadly the costs these days inhibit that. Yours is superb, just exactly how a good Impreza should be,
UPDATE
Where to start.....
I noticed in the Autumn last year that one of the rear shocks was banging over bumps. It was the near side.
Having done a fair bit of research over the years on my car, and how rare they were getting i already knew
this was going to be a problem from posts i had read on the scooby forum.
This issue is that i had specced the car with the Prodrive tarmac rally spec WR suspension package. This was
one of the best decisions i had made, because it transformed the standard impreza Turbo default setting which is understeer on the limit, into a weapon which oversteered when the limit was crossed. To be fair i can count the number of times it has broken grip on one hand, because the car really is planted. However, the other byproduct of the decision was the most compliant, yet sporty suspension set up i have driven.
The Bilstein derived prodrive suspension really instilled confidence on any UK roads, but really shines on bumpy damp B roads.
Anyway, this suspension was now unavailable. I phoned Prodrive but although helpful to an extent they were quite matter of fact telling me they no longer supported Subaru and had moved onto other things. They could not advise me where i could find any spares.
I devoured threads on the scooby forum, trying to decide whether to put on some coil overs. The problem was that no one *really* gave any of the coil overs good reviews on the road. People seemed to like them on track, but the very place where my car excelled, UK 'B' roads, i seemed to read nothing but negativity regarding all the different brands of coil overs.
I am also aware that the WR Prodrive Bilstein package was a really important part of my cars reputation
and potential value.
I phoned many different Subaru suspension independent specialists and none really seemed confident on fitting something that would rival the Bilsteins, which they all knew about. When i said i wanted something progressive and compliant for B road blasting none really seemed prepared to commit.
It was at this point the MOT on the car was running out, so i decided to take the car to the fantastic Ken Paterson at Bell & Colville and try to reach some sort of plan with him.
Ken tried to find a NS WR Bilstein shock on the second hand market but failed to do so. He was loathe to remove the shock and send it to Bilstein for refreshing because my car would take up well needed space in the workshop, and apparently refreshes at Bilstein can be somewhat longer than the quoted times.
After much head scratching, i managed, by chance to find a chap called Peter Cambridge who runs a company called PCA Dynamics. Peter worked at Prodrive, and was one of the people involved in the design and development of the WR Prodrive Bilstein suspension package.
I had a long and fruitful conversation with Peter who gave me different options, within different budget ranges to sort out the issue. I have chosen to take the most thorough route-
Ken at Bell and Colville has removed the whole Bilstein suspension package and is sending it to Bilstein. Peter Cambridge is project managing the refresh/rebuild of the whole package with the service department at Bilstein on my behalf to make sure this quite unique set up is reworked to its original specification.
This will take some time, so i have decided to keep the car on the road by having Bell & Colville fit a set of 'Pedders' replacement suspension for the Classic Impreza. This kit is reasonably cost effective and has had good reviews on the forums from people who feel it is less 'crashy' and stiff than coil overs (KW or BC). The Pedders kit will stay installed for a a good few months while Bilstein bring back the originals to new specification.
This route is certainly the most expensive one to take, and there were many other routes available (the most cost effective would have been installing a secondhand OE Impreza turbo shock on the NSR of the car and having Bilstein only refresh the shock that was broken).
The reason i have taken the expensive option is primarily because this suspension is unique, and it is now 18 years old. I feel only refreshing one corner would have been, how can i put this, cutting corners......
Secondarily, i want to enjoy the car for the next few months. I have kept it so i can enjoy it, so driving it gingerly around with a OE shock on one corner, and Bisteins on the other three corners is not why i have kept the car. By the same token, taking the car off the road for a few months while waiting for Bilstein to complete the work was another option i did not want to take. As it is, putting the Pedders kit on the car means i can continue to enjoy it while waiting for Bilstein to work their magic.
On other news, the car was due a 7500 mile service (although it only covered 1500 miles last year...) After much discussion with Ken, with us both studying the service history, we felt that it was time to change the cambelt. This was depsite the fact that i have got nowhere near the recommend mileage since the last change which was in 2010 at 52,619 miles.
The car has now covered 67,585 miles and while the cambelt was being changed the hydraulic tensioner belt and alternator belt were also changed. A new battery was fitted.
The car never drinks any oil between services (it has never needed a top up) and has had another 4.5 litres of Valvoline Xtreme added, which is what Bell & Colville recommend nowadays. It has never had any mineral oil from the first service, always fully synthetic.
I also asked Ken to have the technician carry out the wax underbody treatment we do every year on it.
The car passed its MOT with flying colours and it was time to pay the bill.
The cost of my choices to keep an old Subaru in tip top condition was in excess of what one can buy old Impreza Turbo Classic for these days.
But, it is a labour of love and while paymment was painful, within 2 miles of leaving the garage as i
boosted through the back lanes of East Horley, through Ockham, towards Ripley then opened it up on the A3 slip road i realised it is worth it. There are very few cars that make your b*ollocks tingle like a Classic Impreza on full boost through the bends.
Where to start.....
I noticed in the Autumn last year that one of the rear shocks was banging over bumps. It was the near side.
Having done a fair bit of research over the years on my car, and how rare they were getting i already knew
this was going to be a problem from posts i had read on the scooby forum.
This issue is that i had specced the car with the Prodrive tarmac rally spec WR suspension package. This was
one of the best decisions i had made, because it transformed the standard impreza Turbo default setting which is understeer on the limit, into a weapon which oversteered when the limit was crossed. To be fair i can count the number of times it has broken grip on one hand, because the car really is planted. However, the other byproduct of the decision was the most compliant, yet sporty suspension set up i have driven.
The Bilstein derived prodrive suspension really instilled confidence on any UK roads, but really shines on bumpy damp B roads.
Anyway, this suspension was now unavailable. I phoned Prodrive but although helpful to an extent they were quite matter of fact telling me they no longer supported Subaru and had moved onto other things. They could not advise me where i could find any spares.
I devoured threads on the scooby forum, trying to decide whether to put on some coil overs. The problem was that no one *really* gave any of the coil overs good reviews on the road. People seemed to like them on track, but the very place where my car excelled, UK 'B' roads, i seemed to read nothing but negativity regarding all the different brands of coil overs.
I am also aware that the WR Prodrive Bilstein package was a really important part of my cars reputation
and potential value.
I phoned many different Subaru suspension independent specialists and none really seemed confident on fitting something that would rival the Bilsteins, which they all knew about. When i said i wanted something progressive and compliant for B road blasting none really seemed prepared to commit.
It was at this point the MOT on the car was running out, so i decided to take the car to the fantastic Ken Paterson at Bell & Colville and try to reach some sort of plan with him.
Ken tried to find a NS WR Bilstein shock on the second hand market but failed to do so. He was loathe to remove the shock and send it to Bilstein for refreshing because my car would take up well needed space in the workshop, and apparently refreshes at Bilstein can be somewhat longer than the quoted times.
After much head scratching, i managed, by chance to find a chap called Peter Cambridge who runs a company called PCA Dynamics. Peter worked at Prodrive, and was one of the people involved in the design and development of the WR Prodrive Bilstein suspension package.
I had a long and fruitful conversation with Peter who gave me different options, within different budget ranges to sort out the issue. I have chosen to take the most thorough route-
Ken at Bell and Colville has removed the whole Bilstein suspension package and is sending it to Bilstein. Peter Cambridge is project managing the refresh/rebuild of the whole package with the service department at Bilstein on my behalf to make sure this quite unique set up is reworked to its original specification.
This will take some time, so i have decided to keep the car on the road by having Bell & Colville fit a set of 'Pedders' replacement suspension for the Classic Impreza. This kit is reasonably cost effective and has had good reviews on the forums from people who feel it is less 'crashy' and stiff than coil overs (KW or BC). The Pedders kit will stay installed for a a good few months while Bilstein bring back the originals to new specification.
This route is certainly the most expensive one to take, and there were many other routes available (the most cost effective would have been installing a secondhand OE Impreza turbo shock on the NSR of the car and having Bilstein only refresh the shock that was broken).
The reason i have taken the expensive option is primarily because this suspension is unique, and it is now 18 years old. I feel only refreshing one corner would have been, how can i put this, cutting corners......
Secondarily, i want to enjoy the car for the next few months. I have kept it so i can enjoy it, so driving it gingerly around with a OE shock on one corner, and Bisteins on the other three corners is not why i have kept the car. By the same token, taking the car off the road for a few months while waiting for Bilstein to complete the work was another option i did not want to take. As it is, putting the Pedders kit on the car means i can continue to enjoy it while waiting for Bilstein to work their magic.
On other news, the car was due a 7500 mile service (although it only covered 1500 miles last year...) After much discussion with Ken, with us both studying the service history, we felt that it was time to change the cambelt. This was depsite the fact that i have got nowhere near the recommend mileage since the last change which was in 2010 at 52,619 miles.
The car has now covered 67,585 miles and while the cambelt was being changed the hydraulic tensioner belt and alternator belt were also changed. A new battery was fitted.
The car never drinks any oil between services (it has never needed a top up) and has had another 4.5 litres of Valvoline Xtreme added, which is what Bell & Colville recommend nowadays. It has never had any mineral oil from the first service, always fully synthetic.
I also asked Ken to have the technician carry out the wax underbody treatment we do every year on it.
The car passed its MOT with flying colours and it was time to pay the bill.
The cost of my choices to keep an old Subaru in tip top condition was in excess of what one can buy old Impreza Turbo Classic for these days.
But, it is a labour of love and while paymment was painful, within 2 miles of leaving the garage as i
boosted through the back lanes of East Horley, through Ockham, towards Ripley then opened it up on the A3 slip road i realised it is worth it. There are very few cars that make your b*ollocks tingle like a Classic Impreza on full boost through the bends.
Edited by Carlson W6 on Friday 16th February 17:05
Edited by Carlson W6 on Friday 16th February 17:31
A true labour of love.
I saw these on eBay last week:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...
I saw these on eBay last week:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...
Prohibiting said:
A true labour of love.
I saw these on eBay last week:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...
Wrong stickers on those? Originals have STI/Prodrive ones..I saw these on eBay last week:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...
Prohibiting said:
rossub said:
Wrong stickers on those? Originals have STI/Prodrive ones..
I think the Bilstein stickers are correct. The were a joint venture between Prodrive and Bilstein hence why they need to be rebuilt by Bilstein.Hmm .... these are the ones I’m talking about (ignore the springs, they’re not original)
https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-parts-451/1024093...
https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-parts-451/1024093...
Decided the WR needed a nice spruce up after all that time at the garage waiting for the suspension decision to be made.
Peter Cambridge also contacted me to ask if I wanted Bilstein to repaint the shocks they are refreshing, which of course I said yes to.
Design by Detail did a great job.
Peter Cambridge also contacted me to ask if I wanted Bilstein to repaint the shocks they are refreshing, which of course I said yes to.
Design by Detail did a great job.
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