Thanks, that joins a lot of dots for me, I’ll keep looking around to see what I can finddrcarlos wrote: ↑Fri May 29, 2020 4:06 pmYou could spend more and get a WR-1 Blob, UK RB320 STi or a JDM Hawk Spec-C if you want something a bit special and less likely to have questionable mods on. The other stuff is all in reach of people who will do this kind of thing to it.Orange Cola wrote: ↑Fri May 29, 2020 2:29 pm @drcarlos thanks very much for the response. It’s very much buying with a view to it being a toy so I’m not bothered about creature comforts. I keep looking and I find it hard to spot one that hasn’t got some level of questionable tinkering and it’s now looking to be £10k+ to get into a reasonable one. I did look at the lower end of the market with a view to picking one up and returning it to standard, polishing the paint and fixing a few minor issues but even at that price point they all seem to be more hassle or risk than they are worth with a fair few looking like they might need the engine pulling to fix certain issues. Worse still they’ve had some dodgy remaps which makes me question the driveline. Are there any reputable places too look out for ones up for sale? I don’t think I’d mind paying extra for one that comes with more peace of mind because the risks on certain cars don’t outweigh the want for me.
I have also tried to find somewhere doing Subaru hire/experiences but not found anything decent, the idea was to try one without buying because I already know the Fiesta ST’s very well.
My car was cheap and a punt but has worked out well and the mods are thought through, it's not as far as it could go and i'm going to pull the engine and build it forged myself over the winter.
Forged engines in a 2.5 (2.0 already had forged pistons and rods) add to value in a big way as they mean that the owner has spent time and money on it and if running moderate power (400ish BHP) they are built to last.
The standard maps (even prodrive ones) are shite (to lean and too much advance in the lower rev ranges with a cough as they come on boost) to get emmissions down and actually contribute to the potential of ringland failure on a 2.5. So a mild map from a recognised tuner on an otherwise standard car will actually stop this as they all sort this out and is desirable, also I found my map has boosted fuel economy by about 5mpg if you aren't booting it.
Dealer wise it will be a specialist but I don't really know any apart from litchfield who i think have stopped doing them now and are into higher end stuff. I wasn't even looking for imprezas when I bought mine I just wanted a wagon that was also a bit interesting and was after a Spec-b legacy originally, running out of time, finding only sheddy Spec-B's and my car popped up locally. It was clean and drove well so I went for it.
but I've found that if I change the pressures across the car it always feels 'better' regardless of what I've done. It's a good job I don't work in chassis development. "I've set the tyres to 50 PSI, caster at 10deg and camber at -5deg. It feels great now"
