The Shed

[DocJock]

The Shed

The Shed is (was ) a MY97 Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000 Estate which I have owned since 1998. Not much is left of the original car as it has had a hard life as my track toy.



Current mechanical modifications:

Engine

MRT cone filter under extra bonnet scoop

Pace FMIC

Pace uprated radiator

MD 340 turbo

3-port boost solenoid

PowerStation uprated fuel pump in 2L swirl pot utilising original pump as riser

Link ECU - mapped by Bob Rawle for 99RON

Exhaust

Decatted 2.5" downpipe

Decatted 2.5" centre

Prodrive backbox

Suspension

AST coilovers, adjustable platform, adjustable dampers. 60N front / 40N rear

Whiteline ALK

Whiteline droplinks

Whiteline 24mm rear ARB

Sparco upper front strut brace

STi rear upper strut brace

Custom alignment by PowerStation

Brakes

AP Racing 4-pot billet calipers

AP Racing 304mm grooved/vented discs on AP bells

Goodridge braided hoses all round

Power Engineering brake master cylinder support bracket

Ferodo DS2500 or Pagid blue pads

Transmission

AP organic clutch

Prodrive quickshift gearlinkage (modified for shorter throw) + Momo Phantom gearknob

Cosmetic

MRO splitter

Stickers

Home-made panel mods

Secondary gauges (including Fucking Greatness gauge, as available in the Shop)



Driving it:

Performance

Sufficient for now

Maximum speed seen: 6500rpm in 5th on the autobahn, 4-up, with luggage - still pulling

8.24 BTG with Cuntyboy driving, demonstrating the powers of denial and driving someone else's car.

Handling

Suspension mods have got rid of virtually all the understeer and made the rear more 'useable' (if scary at times). Hard ride, but much better control of roll/dive, allowing brakes to work properly. Too much weight high up makes itself known in high speed corners, especially at the rear. Mostly confidence inspiring thanks to good feedback, lets you drive like a cunt.
___________________________________________________________

OK, ten years ago (1998) I was on my lunch break, driving past the local Subaru dealer on my way to the golf range. I’d read a fair bit about Imprezas and he had two estates on the forecourt, both about 6 months old. 45 minutes later I was the owner of a red Impreza estate and all I had to do before collecting it a couple of days later was explain to the wife why I had paid over new list price for a second hand car.



Back then, a UK Turbo was faster than most things on the road, even with only 208bhp, but as we know you soon get used to the performance. This is where the saga of modding an Impreza begins and the car was booked in for a trip to Prodrive to have the PPP fitted in Sept ‘99. Unfortunately Prodrive had a policy of not fitting the PPP to cars running on the standard 15” wheels, so a set of 16” Speedlines was ordered, along with a new set of rubber obviously. So this was rapidly turning into an expensive 37bhp upgrade…
As the car was there anyway, I also ordered a quick shift for fitting at the same time.

Total bill - £3537.65

I coughed up, excitedly grabbed the keys, fired it up, hit the motorway slip road, and……

IT FELT NO DIFFERENT! More mods were obviously required……

[DocJock]

Brakes


A couple of weeks before the PPP I had done a track day with the SIDC at Donnington and this had shown up the pathetic nature of the standard 2pot brakes that MY97 cars ran. As I had decided I was doing more of these an upgrade was obviously required.

First effort was fitting a kit supplied by Brembo. This consisted of Goodridge braided hoses all round, ultra lightweight alloy Bembo ‘motorsport’ calipers, Brembo pads and Brembo ‘Gp A’ floating discs on alloy bells. These worked really well with immense stopping power…….for about half a track day!
A juddering developed which felt just like a warped disc and there were definitely no pad deposits causing it. The discs were replaced under warranty and the same thing happened at the next track day. A third set was fitted under warranty and these lasted a grand total of four laps of Cadwell before the same happened again. It only ever appeared on track so there were obviously heat issues with the discs.
I think the car was just too heavy for them.

It was decided to junk the floating discs and set of AP ‘atoms’ was fitted to match up to the Brembo calipers. At the same time I fitted a Power engineering brake master cylinder support bracket to counter bulkhead flex on heavy pedal pressure




These were a huge improvement in reliability and I never had disc issues again. Unfortunately AP stopped making the particular bell/rotor combination I used (except to [expensive] special order) so I ended up scratching my head again.

Rescue turned up in the shape of Mike at ScoobyMania who sold me one of his AP 4-pot kits (bells/rotors/calipers/hoses/pads/fluid).
Fitment was spot on and there have been no reliability issues since. The set up is also much easier on pad wear so I suspect the previous set-up was just not up to the heat generated on track with such a heavy car. Another bonus is I can use off the shelf pads without having to grind bits of backing plate to make them fit

[DocJock]

Suspension

The standard suspension is great on UK roads but taking it on track reminds you just how heavy an Impreza is. Lots of dive and roll due to the high (road car) centre of gravity. There is also a fair degree of understeer built in as well which is frustrating on track as you can’t utilise the fantastic traction fully.

First mod was setting up the standards struts to a better state.
Maximum negative camber
Neutral toe
Lots of castor
Remove bump steer
Front and rear upper strut braces

I had this done by Powerstation because they have a neat mod for totally removing bump steer, which is a big contributor to Impreza understeer.

The result was better but still way too much pitch and roll allowing weight transfer to dominate things.

Next mod was fitting Eibach sports springs along with an anti-lift kit and solid rear drop links. There was noticeably less body movement, particularly dive. This allows the brakes to work harder, especially the rears.

It was still possible for the tyres to foul the front arch liners in full attack though so more mods were required.




This involved another visit to Powerstation for a set of their AST coilovers, rear camber bolts and beefier ARBs. This allows for a fair range of adjustment and I’ve currently settled on 60N front springs and 40N rears.

Much less roll and dive, which lets the tyres and brakes work properly but still leaves some adjustability on the throttle.

[DocJock]

Powertrain


After the PPP debacle I decided to do some research whilst waiting for the bank account to show signs of better health .

I decided that the order of work would be safety then power. So...

First up was fitting a PACE fmic kit to lower intake temps. This fouled the airbox, so at the same time an MRT induction kit was fitted. Air could now get in more easily so a sensible next step seemed to be improving exhaust flow, effected by a 2.5" decatted downpipe and 2.5" decatted centre connected to the Prodrive backbox. Because the Prodrive ECU overfuelled significantly this led to some spectacular fireworks and no leaning out.

Again with safety in mind an uprated fuel pump was planned and I settled on the Powerstation kit which has a 2L swirlpot to draw from. This totally eliminated fuel surge, even on track with an empty tank. Worth every penny.

Ready for more power, I entrusted this step to BRD developments. On went a 3-port boost solenoid, Possum Link ECU, TT MD340 and the clever stuff done by Bob Rawle.

Adding >100bhp to a 70K mile drivetrain showed up the age of the original clutch so an AP organic was fitted to get the power to the wheels without slippage.

This engine lasted about 2K miles before a hgf led to a rebuild. Another 10K miles and it span No3 big end bearing. Motor #3 - I went for a brand new short motor with STi3 head gaskets and this has proved reliable so far (20K+ miles).

To increase the power any further would start to overstress the gearbox and internals so I doubt I'll be going down that route any time soon. That said I'm happy with current performance level, so it's no hardship.

[DocJock]

Crashes


27.04.2001 Cadwell Park - stuck it in the tyre wall before Mountain - expensive





15.02.2003 Donington - total brake failure at Redgate, gravel trap frozen solid - very expensive







28.03.2004 Nurburgring Nordschleife - Outbraked myself going into Eschbach - fixed it with my axe and some stickers (as available in our shop)

[DocJock]

Things That Have Broken

Apart from when I crashed into hard stuff...

3x radiators
2x engines
1x turbo
1x fuel pump
1x brake hose
boost solenoid pipe
exhaust bracket
speedometer
central locking
heater



Bad Points

Eats brakes.
If you drive really, really slowly then you might see 20mpg, but you'd die of boredom.
You are constsntly waiting for the next thing to break.

It is noisy, harsh, vulgar. People hate it vehemently.

Good Points

Paid for years ago.
Fast enough to piss off sports cars.
Nearly as fast in the wet as in the dry.
Handling suits me.
Porkers hate being passed by a Shed load of people on the 'Ring.

It is noisy, harsh, vulgar. People hate it vehemently.

[DocJock]

Fin.

[spazzers]

That last pic is quite sad.

Onwards and upwards.

[velocgee]

Damn....that looks pretty terminal

[edward]

that'll buff out.....