Honkongfooi's old Impreza STi - an update (pic heavy)
 

Hi,

I thought I'd post an update on Honkongfooi's old car, as it's been nearly a year now and I vowed I'd keep the forum informed... I'm not good at Christmas or birthday cards either :lol: Well, aside from serving as a daily driver for most of the winter due to our shopping car being off the road, the car's been to some fantastic places over some great roads, and even out on track. Even so, just going shopping or taking the dog to the country park, the car never fails to put a grin on my face. It's a hoot :smile:

Things I've done to the car during my ownership:

- regular oil changes with Miller's Race Oil every 3000-4000mi
- full major service including timing belt and tensioners
- new RCM cone filter as the bung in the end of the old one came loose
- OEM wind deflectors because they are ESSENTIAL
- de-blacked the Zunsport lower grill, added stainless STi upper grill
- winter tyres on Hongkongfooi's old wheels
- new wheels and tyres (OZ Ultraleggera and Yokohama AD08R) for summer, plus alignment check
- kept her lovingly clean and polished despite the winter and the stone chips on front bumper
- added further stone chips to the front bumper :polish:
- ordered some quality PU mudflaps from the States which haven't arrived yet (black, with matte 'STi' logos, fairly subtle)

In terms of upkeep and maintenance, the car's been no trouble at all. Biggest expenditure in this area was the major service at Chevron Motorsport in Stafford. Simon, the top man there is a very knowledgeable chap, and is doing a good job of persuading me to concentrate my modification budget in the suspension. First steps will be:

- rear camber bolts to even up the back
- do the 'free castor mod' for the front lower control arms
- new springs for the front ASTs as they are now a bit tatty
- may also install offset rubber top mounts for extra castor at this point too

The bodywork's in good condition, however the front bumper and possibly wings require a respray so that's on the to-do list. Paint protection film will go on after this!

The trackday was amazing, but also pretty intense for a newbie. It was also my girlfriend's first-ever trackday - but I wanted her to come to help increase her confidence driving the car. As it turned out, it couldn't have been a better opportunity for it going into winter. Blyton Park was completely, totally soaking: spray, standing water, pelting rain. I went round with the instructor right after the sighting laps, gained some confidence with trail-braking, thought I'd nailed it then spun the car marvellously at about 60mph. I avoided any harm but it took a while to build the speed back up. Even so the instructor was really helpful, and pointed out it wasn't the speed per se, rather how I'd failed to handle the car's balance in the time leading up to the spin. Kudos to those who race for a living I have to say. I should also mention we did the trackday with Apex Trackdays, who were very professional. Free instruction!

A few pics, then. The first four were taken in North Wales on some lovely roads. I wanted to simply drive, but was constantly spotting good photo opportunities and pulling over. I'm glad I took the time to shoot the car properly, it was a gorgeous morning and the pics turned out ok. I've put in some of the trackday pics which were taken by the professional 'tog working there on the day, you can see it was as wet as an otter's pocket. Then I've just added some recent snaps - engine bay detail, a clean showing the stainless grilles, and finally the new wheels and tyres being fitted and aligned :norty:

Looking good :)

Thanks for posting (I bet Tim won't be saying that :lol: )

Having been taken for a blast in this car, I can see why you like it so much :nod:

Oh, and nice rubber :ok:

good to hear your enjoying it Luke:drive:

Tim will be well chuffed, don't think he misses it at all....much;)

A good read and thanks for posting. It's an awesome car. I was lucky enough to spend some time in it going to Germany and it was truly breathtaking at times. Good to see it's still going strong.

:sadno::sadnod::sadno::sadnod::sadno:

So glad it's still going as well as when I had it Luke. Good choice of other wheels too.

Good write up thanks for posting...

That is one well sorted blob.. :nod:

I'm doing my best with it Tim! :wave: Yeah the wheels were a good choice. Over winter I considered many others - and lately came very close to getting some Prodrive GC-05Fs, rare JDM 5-spoke wheels. However I got the run-around from the seller and decided to go with the safer option. I'm happy with them and the weight difference between the two is negligible, they're very light. Steve PPP - yes the new rubber is awesome. I've barely worn them in, but the wet grip is outstanding :smile: can't wait to see what they feel like once the weather clears up 8-)

Thanks to all for the kind comments, too :five:

Great update and a cracking car....Tim got it exactly right...but then sold it DoH !!!!!
I'm looking forward to when he sells the P1 ;)

Wooooooooooooohoooooooooooooo.....

Looking amazing..

Great write up and it is a great car having spent many hours in it so glad it's been used

Another update...

The car went in last month for some choice upgrades at Chevron Motorsport in Stafford, including replacement springs for the front ASTs (the old springs had become a little tatty). An urgent call came in after the car had been there a couple of days 'one of the front shocks is leaking, and the height-adjuster is seized. What do you want to do?'. Knowing Simon's reputation as one of the country's top Subaru suspension gurus, and deciding I couldn't wait for the repair from AST I went for broke and opted for Simon's full sprint setup. Fixed-rate Bilstein B14s have been supplemented with a more-or-less complete revision of the suspension components. Machined lower arms for more caster, camber/caster Perrin top mounts, improved bushings, new 24mm front ARB and more. All set up with a heavy 'sprint' bias, but tunable for street or track. In principle I'd have liked the adjustability of B16s, but the truth is I almost certainly don't need them, and they bring another variable into the equation. I can tune the balance of the car with the Perrin top mounts, ride height and the ARB settings if needs be, but for now I'm going to trust Simon's knowledge and try to learn what the car can do - on track. On the road it feels incredible, the huge amount it's holding in reserve is very clear :)

Good stuff Luke..

ps I moved the thread..:wink:

Sounds good. Bet that little lot wasn't cheap though ;-)

good stuff luke....good to see you are looking for some more track work:doubleup:

Gorgeous looking car ,, credit to both owners

Many thanks, Big "E", the thread's in the right place now and I'll update periodically with pics... Oh yes, the car's now got some reet sexy flaps (in black PU, courtesy of Rallytech) so I'd better get some pics of that up soon :wink: looks the business with the new wheels!

ScoobyStu, :agreed: it wasn't cheap, hopefully money well-spent... It certainly feels that way so far :)

Cheers, Tim :five: looks like it'll be Mallory on July 18th with Javelin: if any SES members are there, feel free to come and say hi :)

Cheers, oldskool, but not sure if the old owner will approve of the flappage... I'll get pics up and let you lot take a vote ;)

I always loved this car and it looks as if it is still in very good hands

Nice update, glad to hear its getting some thoughtful use/modifications in good hands it seems ;)

Looking forward to the next update, I too also always loved this car ;)

I was hoping you were going to correct me,haha.

Stu, I wish I could have corrected you but the bank balance doesn't lie... My other half's face was a picture as she told me she'd glimpsed the receipt :)

Greg - :five:

Ginola - cheers for the kind comment. I came across one of your track vids recently on YouTube and subscribed; really useful to see footage of various tracks from a Scoob, particularly with the overlaid info e.g. gear, throttle position etc. Keep it up, you're doing us a service, sir!

very nice car :five::10:

Hahaha, I can well imagine mate. Standard bits are enough!

Afternoon all,

Time for another update! It's hard to believe so much time has passed since my trackday at Mallory in July - the memory is still vivid... unlike most these days :cuckoo:

I had 2 sessions of instruction booked, one in the morning, and one after the lunch break. The day started beautifully weather-wise, however clouds were building in the distance and come 10 o'clock, first instruction session time, the heavens opened in a big way. Due to my spin at Blyton in the wet last year I was fairly tentative, and during my 20 minute instruction period I could only really focus on learning the braking, turning and clipping points. After this biblical deluge however, the track dried pretty quickly and my confidence began to increase through the morning. After lunch, with tank refueled I headed out with the instructor once more. 'Much improved' was the verdict, and I was able to sort out a couple of slightly tricky moments without too much fuss. I really tried to focus on being smooth, but found there was just so much going on. I think once I've been to a few trackdays I'll begin to process it all better and be able to think a corner or two ahead. Even so, I learnt a great deal and was keeping up with some slick-shod cars through the corners which was unexpected. Reviewing the footage of the day from my camera later, I found I was in the low 57s for my fastest laps, which isn't too shabby at Mallory for cars such as ours - and given it was only my second time on track. The Chevron suspension was great all day, and I found the car would now actually turn better with some throttle applied - however I didn't have the cojones to exploit this fully! Still it makes me aware that with this fantastic car the ceiling for its performance is very high, so there's much yet to learn about it. The brakes were amazing, the tyres were brilliant too - although I abused them somewhat in the late PM staying out a bit too long, see pics!:drive: All in all I had a really good day, helped massively by the friendly and generous people there. If you're yet to do a trackday I'd highly recommend doing one, this one was organised by Javelin and ran very well.

Since then I've got round to fitting the new PU front lip (Tim's beautiful carbon one was cracked, some of you will remember) and my new APR GT3 carbon mirrors. With the mudflaps, grilles and wind deflectors that's pretty much the exterior mods done - at least until I find a CF bonnet, wing and boot lid (PM me if you're selling and struggling to find a buyer :ninja: hahaha). PFC 01 endurance pads have now been fitted too.

So for now I'm going to focus on doing the interior, but I'm a bit stuck as to exactly how to do it. I want to fit a bucket seat for improved feel, CoG and comfort (my back doesn't like newage STi seats). For safety's sake this requires a harness, but I want to retain full use of at least one rear seat, and as such I can't refit the harness bar. My current thinking is fit a side-mounted GRP / Kevlar bucket to the Subaru-specific Buddy Club rails, and anchor the harnesses at the right rear passenger seat belt bolt. Given that the bolt is almost directly at the join between upper and lower cushions, I should be able to retain the lower bench in place and have the left side available for passengers. And the angle of the straps back from the seats is well within FIA recommendations, apparently many sprint cars run with this configuration (although they get rid of the rear seat!). If anyone's got any thoughts or experience on this please feel free to post! Anyway, providing I can safely fit a seat and harness, I'll be looking to fit a smaller aftermarket steering wheel too, which should improve steering weight and help when the proverbial 'dab of oppo' is required :doubleup: After this I'm thinking a flocked dash could be next...

Cheers for the update Luke its nice to see its getting used and looked after properly :) I'm sure Tim would agree.

Good to see its getting used :)

Great write up Luke . Flocked dash looks ok to start with but doesn't wear well IMHO . It can look crap pretty quickly

Love this car. :nod: Glad to see it is still well looked after! :doubleup:

Thanks all for the comments! Does anyone have any input regarding the seat at all?

Just stumbled across this write up, a good read! Nice to see what is going on in other peoples 'Scooby ownership lives'. :ok:

It's been a little while since the last update! I had a little wobble last year and seriously considered selling the car. I was thinking of going for a combination of an Integra or Civic Type-R daily, and a dedicated track car such as a RAW Striker... Needless to say the Scoob's hold on my heartstrings prevailed, and I decided to keep it.

I took the car into Chevron for service / MOT / general fix in November, and a few problems were found and sorted. The rotated kit's oil and water feeds had a small leak :eek: so they've been replaced with race-grade piping and new turbo gaskets. Front discs and pads needed replacing, so went for Simon's preferred Hawk pads, which seem to do a very good job without too much dust. I also went for a new catch tank with a full machined return to sump system, as the old one was blocking up too easily and over-spilling. Other jobs: exhaust headers were re-wrapped, in-line motorsport fuel filter fitted, noisy alternator pulley replaced. In addition, Simon thought the car was perhaps riding a little too low, so it's had a full suspension setup done free of charge.

While it was away getting fixed, I scoured eBay for bits I wanted to fit, and finally found the exact seat I wanted at the right price: a Cobra Suzuka Pro-Fit. Pics below, one with the dog kindly modelling. I fitted this myself with the assistance of a friend and the guys at Chevron, along with one of the two harnesses I have for sale. The car now feels like it should've from the factory IMO: the seat is comfortable (I find the standard STi seats hateful) plus you're sat nice and low in the car and you can feel everything. The difference is night and day.

When I find a buyer for the harnesses I will replace with this, it felt like the obvious choice :grin:

http://www.sportseats4u.co.uk/luke-b...prod_2322.html

The new OZ wheels were in absolute clip after I fitted the PFC endurance pads... After, ahem, extensive use, I would NOT recommend these pads if you care about a. disc life or b. your wheels! They are a truly excellent pad with amazing hot performance, but be warned. So the wheels have gone off to a good local powder-coater, to be refinished as per the wheel below, a sort of metallic graphite. Two new Yoko AD08Rs are waiting in the garage as well...

Luke

ETA: The pads mentioned above are PFC '01' endurance compound, i.e. racing compound. Their road (Z) compounds are very good but no idea how they hold up to brake fade.

Sounds as if you're still enjoying the scoob :doubleup:

Looking good too.:nod:

Thanks Big E. More pics and updates to follow; now just gathering info on how to fit an aftermarket wheel. Apparently this can be a pain with widetrack models and later, due to issues with the steering angle sensor. If anyone can enlighten me it would be appreciated!

As things stand, I reckon I will go for a simple replacement boss (no quick release), and a dished wheel to bring it in closer for more control. As I now have harnesses, this is a logical next step. Thinking about:

http://www.jjcraceandrally.com/race/...steering-wheel

or

http://www.jjcraceandrally.com/race/...de-330mm-black

Both are 330mm diameter. I prefer the look of the first one, but am a bit concerned that the dish may be too, um, deep? (95mm). The second one has a shallower dish of 39mm. Feedback / opinions / experience welcome :-)

Have also booked on a trackday at Rockingham in May, where they include more-or-less free access to their wet grip area. This sealed the deal for me, as I really want to increase my confidence with handling oversteer. Exciting times!

Hi
Had the omp corsica fitted to my blob(95mm deep dish also) fitted to a hkb boss(these fit perfectly and come with airbag turn off and indicator self cancelling) but with a 350mm wheel as always found the 320 and 330mm wheels i had in the past to be too small.

feels so much better than the original wheel (but am 6ft5 so helped with legroom as well) also my boy has same wheel in his s15 and loves it

Hearing you - I'll try both diameters :five:

Great - going by your car bio, I take it you had no probs with the steering angle sensor then. Excellent!

Luke

yes if you can try a couple of different sizes beforehand would be the best bet,and too be honest never heard about the steering angle sensor problems until recently so maybe i was just lucky??

Interesting. Maybe the sensor on your car(s) simply didn't move during removal / installation. It seems taking the wheel off can mess with the way the DCCD gets feedback from the steering sensor, resulting in an error code, blinking DCCD light, and an ineffective DCCD:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2406549

and

http://www.scoobynet.com/general-tec...le-sensor.html

Luke

seats ,make a huge difference...never really liked the standard scoob ones as didn't give much grip in the corners.
Good to hear you're still enjoying it Luke:-D

Cheers HKF! :ok: Yep it's still massively enjoyable, and I feel like it's really coming together in terms of my own preferences too. You're right, the seat makes a big difference, would definitely recommend putting bucket seats in especially if going on track. Very excited to fit everything now...

• Steering wheel and boss
• Refurbished wheels
• New tyres
• Refurbished idle control valve (despite cleaning, old one is malfunctioning slightly)
• Plus a few bits of bling :grin:

I also need to clean up the brake calipers, restoring them to Porsche red (they're currently a dirty crimson courtesy of Performance Friction :oops:), and plan to 'de-silver' the headlight surrounds too. Pics to follow!

As promised, pics and a brief update :-)

Fitting the steering wheel and boss was a cinch, however I can see where things could go wrong. It's really important to get a boss which accommodates the steering angle sensor nubs on the clock spring unit; this would probably be a doable mod on a standard Momo-type hub, but I went for this item from the States:

https://www.rallysportdirect.com/par...el-hub-adapter

It wasn't cheap, especially after import duties etc. but I had the peace of mind knowing it would definitely fit with the steering angle gubbins. I put it on with no problems. It also has the patterns for both Momo and Nardi fittings, so you can use pretty much any aftermarket wheel you like. I wasn't bothered about having a quick release, but Splash do a short version of this hub for about $40 more, which would work well with QR devices.

The wheel is a Sparco 345: it has a 60mm dish, so a nice halfway between flat and full dish. Nice slim unfettered rim, went for the suede trim for use with gloves on track (plus I prefer the look ;-)).

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motors...steering-wheel

It also happened to be one of the cheapest wheels from a reputable company, so (not really) quids in too. It's a 350mm, Bigemp as you said a 320mm is too small :ok: The positioning feels much better now, I can get a bit further from the pedals for comfort. And the steering has a bit more weight due to the smaller radius.

At the same time as the steering wheel, I fitted the refurbished IACV. Hasn't helped the fast idle issue, but I want a full remap doing anyway after I get the ECU sent off for the upgrade to Alcatek, so should see it all sorted then. I plan to ditch the anti-lag setting, and use the switchable map feature for separate street and track maps.

The wheels came back and IMO look great. £30 per wheel! Put a new pair of Yoko AD08rs on the back, and gave all the calipers a little clean. I suspect the fronts will need repainting at some point though :-( Not sure whether to attempt this myself, it would definitely be cheaper. Any feedback on that is welcome!

Finally I fitted some bling. Tegiwa rear tow hook in red anodised aluminium, white Cobb Racing delrin shift knob, and a Broadway JDM-type wide angle rear mirror... That last one takes some getting used to, but wow what a difference to rear visibility. Esp with the daft APR race mirrors I fitted :geek:

I like your knob:five:

:rofl: glad you like it. It makes me grin in the morning when I put my hand on it.

:tissue:

What do you think of my glittery rim?