My T25 Test Drive
03 April 2005, 07:08 PM
#1
My T25 Test Drive
Whilst visiting relatives in Warwickshire, I thought I would try and arranged a visit to Powerstation and Litchfields new premises just outside Tewkesbury. A quick call and all was arranged- friendly lot
I arrived early and went to meet Ian. He immediatley gave me a tour of the of the workshop and where they take the base JDM STI and perform the upgrade. He explained the development of the car with the experimenting of different turbos ,exhaust and suspension setups.
Test drive
He started up the car and I noticed how quiet it was at tick over. He took out the car to warm it up and explained on the way how he wanted the car to be an everyday day car with a smooth but limitless power delivery, but also a track car with minor tweaking of the suspension. As we went along it didnt feel like a turbo car, with it picking up instant pace from as low as 2k rpm in third, fourth and fifth.
Now my turn to have a go, I set off gently to get a feel of the throttle response then pressed the throttle halfway, and I was instantly changing up through to six speed box. I was amazed how fast you went through the gears and how low down the revs the rapid acceleration started. At this point I thought I'd better see how well it stopped. I pressed hard on the brakes and the speed fell away as rapidly as I had accelerated, with no weaving or the front end dipping.
Now onto the twisties, bearing in mind I have never driven in this part of the country before. The pace of the car is fierce when the revs start to climb towards the redline- I assume this is down to the variable valve timing coming in. 90 degree corners were taken with ease, hitting the brakes, then lots of right foot on the exit of the corner. After a few corners the car just inspired so much confidence, there was no understeer or oversteer I could feel, it went where you pointed it, even when the rear tyres scrabbled to put the power down. The geometry/ suspension is on an other level compared to my classic( which has powerstation suspension /geometry )setup. The car was very comfortable when driving steadily but extremely firm when the pace was upped and this was on fast road setup. I cant think of any other word than awesome, this is a truly a fantastic handling car with bags of power and torque which makes the average driver(me) feel like I could tackle anything.
The exhaust tone is very quiet when pootling about but sounds ferrari-esk when tonking on, gone is the burble to due to equal length headers, but it still sounds great.
As soon as the test drive had started it was all over, I think it must of been about 15-20 mins long, but seemed only to last a few minutes, I was having so much fun. I couldnt tell you how fast we went because I dared not take my eyes of the road as corner after corner appeared all too quickly.
When back at Powerstation, I asked Ian about their new rolling road they had. He showed me the new ducting for the extractor, it looked about 3 feet in diameter. Then I saw the new dedicated rolling road room, with its separate entrance. He explained that when the extractor is running the air in the room should be replaced about every 2 seconds
.
Those guys with top mounts will have a larger separate fan mounted above the intercooler and cars that are OBDII compliant can have all the engine parameters logged at the same time as the power and torque.
It was an excellent morning and I feel privileged to have had a drive in what has been said is, the best impreza ever, and a rare beast at that, with about 30 or so at the moment.
Andy
I arrived early and went to meet Ian. He immediatley gave me a tour of the of the workshop and where they take the base JDM STI and perform the upgrade. He explained the development of the car with the experimenting of different turbos ,exhaust and suspension setups.
Test drive
He started up the car and I noticed how quiet it was at tick over. He took out the car to warm it up and explained on the way how he wanted the car to be an everyday day car with a smooth but limitless power delivery, but also a track car with minor tweaking of the suspension. As we went along it didnt feel like a turbo car, with it picking up instant pace from as low as 2k rpm in third, fourth and fifth.
Now my turn to have a go, I set off gently to get a feel of the throttle response then pressed the throttle halfway, and I was instantly changing up through to six speed box. I was amazed how fast you went through the gears and how low down the revs the rapid acceleration started. At this point I thought I'd better see how well it stopped. I pressed hard on the brakes and the speed fell away as rapidly as I had accelerated, with no weaving or the front end dipping.
Now onto the twisties, bearing in mind I have never driven in this part of the country before. The pace of the car is fierce when the revs start to climb towards the redline- I assume this is down to the variable valve timing coming in. 90 degree corners were taken with ease, hitting the brakes, then lots of right foot on the exit of the corner. After a few corners the car just inspired so much confidence, there was no understeer or oversteer I could feel, it went where you pointed it, even when the rear tyres scrabbled to put the power down. The geometry/ suspension is on an other level compared to my classic( which has powerstation suspension /geometry )setup. The car was very comfortable when driving steadily but extremely firm when the pace was upped and this was on fast road setup. I cant think of any other word than awesome, this is a truly a fantastic handling car with bags of power and torque which makes the average driver(me) feel like I could tackle anything.
The exhaust tone is very quiet when pootling about but sounds ferrari-esk when tonking on, gone is the burble to due to equal length headers, but it still sounds great.
As soon as the test drive had started it was all over, I think it must of been about 15-20 mins long, but seemed only to last a few minutes, I was having so much fun. I couldnt tell you how fast we went because I dared not take my eyes of the road as corner after corner appeared all too quickly.
When back at Powerstation, I asked Ian about their new rolling road they had. He showed me the new ducting for the extractor, it looked about 3 feet in diameter. Then I saw the new dedicated rolling road room, with its separate entrance. He explained that when the extractor is running the air in the room should be replaced about every 2 seconds
.Those guys with top mounts will have a larger separate fan mounted above the intercooler and cars that are OBDII compliant can have all the engine parameters logged at the same time as the power and torque.
It was an excellent morning and I feel privileged to have had a drive in what has been said is, the best impreza ever, and a rare beast at that, with about 30 or so at the moment.
Andy
03 April 2005, 08:43 PM
#4
Scooby Regular
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Suffolk, very near Adnams !!
Posts: 2,860
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by Iwan
Did you see the gigantic fan that they bought on eBay? 
Mog
Meant to say it was the test drive that sold me the car.
03 April 2005, 09:23 PM
#6
Scooby Regular
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Suffolk, very near Adnams !!
Posts: 2,860
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by XRS
So when are you getting yours? 
Mog
Trending Topics
04 April 2005, 05:50 PM
#11
Scooby Regular
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Suffolk, very near Adnams !!
Posts: 2,860
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by XRS
Yes, and still waiting. I'm on 1,500 miles now and just had the ASTs fitted.
What "click" do you run yours on?
What "click" do you run yours on?
Mog
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post