So tried to fit my seat this evening but it wouldn't go in! It's a Recaro Profi SPG XL and the seat seems to be too wide with the shoulder support hitting the door pillar, has anyone else had this problem? I bought a Recaro rail to fit it to and that goes in perfect, so I think it must be an issue with the side mounts. I've been having a look and it seems that this seat has specific side mounts that go with it so I'll give Recaro a call in the morning.

I'm quite surprised at how snug this seat is considering it's a XL. I'm a 34" waist and 5'11" and I only just fit it!

 

So I gave up on fitting the seat!
It was going to be a bit to snug for a road car if I'm honest and I decided that if I'm going to change out the seats, I'll just buy a matching pair.
Fortunately I managed to sell the seat and rails on without any issues.

As I mentioned in this tread previously, I had a few bits that I wanted to take care of this year with the big ones being the engine and gearbox.
The engine is very rattly which drives me nuts! It drives lovely but just sounds **** when you pull up somewhere. When I'm at scooby meets there's always someone that says "oh dear, that's knocking!". I've spoken to several well known engine builders now and the outcome seems to be that if it's not broke, don't fix it. So I'll be leaving it alone for now and will look to have a rebuild next year to add 14mm head studs and big port heads if I decide to up the power again.

On to the gearbox. Again, I've spoken to a few people about this as there is a slight crunching going up and down the gears (in every gear). I took the car to a garage I've been using for years at the weekend to take a look as I was concerned it may be the synchros. They test drove the car and didn't think it was the sychros so put it down to the wrong oil. I had the oil changed about 18 months ago but not with this garage (I used somewhere else on a recommendation, I won't be going back there again!). They drained the oil and put some new stuff in and the changes seem much smoother now, I guess time will tell though. The gearbox will need to come out at some point anyway as I have a small oil leak from the back of the engine since it was changed.



With winter only a couple of months away and no garage to house the scooby though the bad weather (damn the council for rejecting the planning permission for a third time!), I decided to try using a sealer to help protect it this year. I usually use a wax regularly but seem to be speaking to more and more people who are moving away from traditional waxes in favour of these. After some quick research I plumped for the C2v3 from Gtechniq. It was very easy to apply, literally just wipe on and wipe off. It took about 10-15 minutes to do the whole car. It was perfect timing too as it chucked it down all weekend. We'll see how well the coating fares but it seems to have really good beading so far and less dirt has stuck to the car.






My next steps now are to refresh the underside. When it was up on the ramps at the weekend, there are some early signs of corrosion that I'd like to keep on top of. Mostly just rusty bolts that look unsightly and the jacking points that have some surface rust, the subframes look good though which surprised me. I plan on having it stripped back, cleaned and undersealed with bolts re-plated and anything that can be removed powder coated. should see it through another 10 years hopefully!

 

I see your selling up mate, which car has caught your eye? Another Subaru I hope? 👍👍

edit: just seen your after another one, happy days mate 👏👏

 

Hi John. Looking to buy a spec c RA. Have been thinking about it for a while and one has just come up that looks amazing. If this one doesn’t sell then I’m also considering buying the other one anyway, it’s a big outlay though so difficult to justify have 2. I was thinking I’ll sell the Clio and use this one for track days, seems a shame though as it’s a stunning car.

 

What’s price on the Clio if you decide to sell it mate

genuine interest as a daily for me

 

Not sure, I’d have to have a look to see what they’re going for. Probably somewhere around £3500-£4000 🤷‍♂️. I spent a fortune on it getting all the little bits done. Its a fairly hardcore daily with no carpets or roof lining, noisy as hell! Great fun though and turns me in to a hooligan every time I get in it! 😂

 

there sweet! If i could afford one mate it’s a no brainier...keep us posted ✊✊

 

aaah hardcore I probably wouldn’t even fit inside 😂👍

 

I ended up putting the door cards and dash back in as I do use this instead of the scooby if the weather is atrocious or I’m just nipping around town. Ideally it could do with some proper carbon door cards I just haven’t got around to it yet.

 

How you getting on with the sale of your Subaru mate?

 

I’ve had one person call me who seemed like a bit of a time waster, kept going on about wanting one with the prodrive package. I did explain that if he’s looking at cars this modified the ppp is fairly pointless but he didn’t seem to get it! 😂

Other than that it’s been fairly quiet. I put it on a couple of FB groups and had a few messages but most were just saying how they’d love it if they could afford it. I’m not on many FB groups anymore so sticking with eBay for now. May put it on piston heads at some point too. I don’t really want to sell it tbh though so I won’t budge on price and that will put a lot of people off I guess. 🤷‍♂️

 

happy days mate, she’s a beast with all the right mods, probably cost twice as much for someone else to carry out the same mods as I’m finding out 😭😭 but the ride is worth it

 

Yeah, it’s not cheap! 😬
I have around £25k in parts alone and I never do any on the work myself either!
It would make an awesome track car but I can’t bring myself to track it. If it doesn’t sell then I’ll definitely get it out there though. 😁

 

Hi Zany. Clio is now posted in for sale section mate.

 

So the car hasn't sold and I've decided not to list it again until next year now. My mates have been telling me I'd be nuts to sell it after spending so much on it and I've been deliberating over what's the most sensible thing to do. I'd love to keep it but it's just so difficult to justify having 2 impreza's on the driveway in the current climate. Anyway, I decided that regardless of what happens next, I needed to get the scooby out on the track to really stretch it's legs and see what it can really do! I already had a track day booked at Bedford so I decided to leave the Clio at home and take this instead.
I know the car is set up well so I don't know why I was so surprised at just how amazing it is on the track! It was incredible and on a fast and wet circuit, there was very little that could keep up with it. I didn't even have to drive it hard, shifting at around 6-6.5k rpm and never breaking traction, what a buzz!
I decided to take it easy with the weather being truly awful and it being the first time I'd really pushed the car, so I took my time and found the lines during short 10 minute sessions with a 20 minute break in between. As the morning progressed, I had found my feet and started to push on a little more; unfortunately that's when the day came to an end at just gone 11am. 2 black flags in quick succession for noise infringement was followed by a visit to the uncompromising marshal who told me to pack up. The track limit is 87.5db and I had registered 88db! what's even more annoying is that there were clearly louder cars out there too. Anyway, I still had an amazing time and now need to make the hard decision of what to do next...



Mr Porsche is no problem in the wet!


Getting to grips with the slippery conditions

 

Serious questions mate. If the RA is on your drive where are the pictures

and also why the RA over this, just want your opinion is there something specific that offers

 

Hi Nossy. I haven't taken collection of the RA yet. I wanted a couple of bits sorted on it, arch extensions replaced, brakes refurbished and new disks & pads, standard suspension installed, undersealed and a little paintwork and new tyres (I'm not fussy though ). It should be getting MOT'd this week and then we can apply for the registration. Apparently the DVLA are slow at the moment and I have a trip to Spain booked end of the month (followed by 2 week quarantine) so it's looking like mid November. I promise you will get pictures when it arrives.

I've always wanted an OEM white RA, I personally feel it is the best looking scooby they made (along with a 22B). It's a purists car I guess and I have no intentions of modifying this one. I did look for one prior to buying the black on but there was nothing about that fitted the bill. To be honest, I wasn't really looking when this one came up, but it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. The black one is a great car and an absolute missile, it's a bit uncompromising as an every day car though. I probably went a bit too far with it as a road car in all honesty. It would make an awesome track car though and if I do decide to keep it then I will definitely look at doing more in it. I don't think I had fully appreciated how good a car it is until it's out on track and starts playing with 911's and Aston's for fun. It's definitely made me question selling it and I'm currently leaning towards keeping it. It's under the cover now for the winter now so I don't have to make any quick decisions.

 

You do you mate

With me no car is perfect so I have to modify. Thats why I didn't entertain the idea of them lol not that I could afford one any way

Sorry I think you did mention it before but how did you find it again.

 

Tom at Sprinting Hare imported it and put a post on FB when he went to collect it. I saw the post and contacted him right away.

the problem with cars is that none of them are perfect in every situation! Imprezas do a good job of being great in most though! 😁

 

They are brilliant cars. Its a shame they have given up in the UK with the STI 2.5. Imagine if that came factory forged.

He must have had loads of interest. You were very quick getting it sorted.

 

It is a shame. I did hear they were planning a new wrx based on the 2.2 engine used in the outback. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how good that’ll be though. The competition nowadays is pretty strong!

i don’t know if there was anyone else interested. I do know that I’ve missed out in the past to foreign buyers when I have seen them. On this occasion I was fortunate to be able to access the funds quickly and get it sewn up. 😁

 

I've decided I'm keeping the car for a while longer and want to do some track days with it. I've now sold the Clio so I have a space on the driveway to take the Spec C once its it's ready.

As I'm keeping it, I've decided to tackle a few of the little things that have been annoying me.
1. Crushed jacking points
2. Paint chips on intercooler
3. Noisy engine & oil leak

So first up was the jacking points. I didn't really want to tackle this myself but I enquired at a few local places and nowhere would give me an upfront price. Most places said that once the skirts come off they usually need new sills so they didn't really want to get involved. When it was on the ramp recently I noticed some surface corrosion on the jack points due to them being crushed last year and didn't want to leave it like that so had to just get on and do it.

I jacked the car up and removed the skirts (fearing the worst!) and there's not a blemish on the sills. :-)


I straightened out the seam as best I could and sanded back the paint before applying and anti corrosion agent from Jenolite.





Then 3 coats of zinc primer, 3 coats of satin black, 2 coats of stonechip and a slather of Hammerite underseal on the inside edge. I forgot to get a picture of the finished job.




I had to buy new clips for the skirts as I destroyed the old ones pulling them off.





It's not a professional quality job but it will see the car through the winter months with some protection and I'll look at them again in the summer when the weather is better and I hopefully have a proper driveway! It actually looks much better in the flesh than it does in the pictures!

So next I plan on getting the front end off and repainting the intercooler. I've also booked to have the engine taken out, examined and then refreshed/rebuilt depending on the findings. This lockdown has caused a slight delay to that so I intend on doing the intercooler in the meantime although work is busy and I still have a ton load of decorating to do so probably not for a couple of weeks....

 

Looks loads better mate

 

Good work mate 👍

 

So I've finally got the little jobs, more of that in a minute.
Far a while now I've been a little concerned about how noisy the engine is, it's quite slappy and doesn't really get quieter even on a run. I spoke to my local garage who didn't seem overly concerned by it but I wanted a second opinion from a specialist. A few people had highly recommended speaking to Mark at TDR so I gave them a call and booked the car in. It's a 5 hour round trip and we would decide next steps after he'd taken a listen, I've been preparing for a bottom end rebuild though. After some careful listening and investigation, Mark said he thought the engine sounded perfect and the piston slap is absolutely normal on a forged engine built to take over 500bhp. To say I'm happy and relieved is an understatement!

Back to the small jobs then. On the agenda was:
- Intercooler respray
- Change cracked splitter
- scraped winglet resprayed
- caliper deep clean

I'll let the pictures do the talking (for once! )

Next up:
- track friendly exhaust (or back box)
- gearbox weep fixed
- full service and overhaul as required
- Syvecs additional sensors pack
- Maybe some bucket seats if I find some at the right price


Looking a bit sorry for itself




It lost the argument with the curb!





New splitter wasn't a perfect fit but I managed to massage it in to place







The front wheels come off to remove the bumper so it seemed like a good time to tidy these up!

 

Enjoying a rare sunny day. intercooler looks much better!

 

Good job Adam 👍👍 glad the engine didn’t need rebuilding. Did the piston slap put anyone off when it came to selling your car?

 

Its a good looking car for sure , what did you use on your calipers ,compound?

 

Thanks mate! I actually only spent 5 minutes on them lol. I used a fallout remover, I think it’s the AG one; magma or something like that. Gave them a quick scrub with a softish brush and rinsed.

Hi Johno. No, I’ve only ever had a couple of people mention it. One of my mates has a forged hatch and his sounds very similar, he said a couple of people had mentioned it to him but he isn’t overly concerned. Now I’ve had a couple of trusted people look at it, I’m satisfied it’s nothing major. I’ve done over 4K miles with it now including 2 mapping sessions and a third of a track day so if it was going to let go I’m sure it would’ve by now. 😬

 

The car has been down with Perfect Touch all week having a full service and getting the oil leak fixed (always a great service from Gabs ad the team). It was weeping from the back, between the engine and gearbox, so it was a gearbox out job.
While they were in there we replaced the rear crank seal and clutch release bearing, the clutch looked good so was put back in (it's only covered 7k miles and I don't launch the car).
We've also decided to modify the breather system as I've been getting a strong oil smell in the car recently. We are going to run a pipe to the rear of the car so the fumes go there rather than coming in to the cabin. No pictures yet as we've ordered some more parts and will install at the end of January.
I plan on booking some track days now and enjoying the car a little more! I'm waiting to see how expensive the running costs are once I also have the spec c before committing to some more additions (syvecs sensors, flex fuel, buckets, etc.).


Getting the complimentary valet