fmj

Working last night we used a new Mitsi shogun with a nice technical 4wd system and decent winter tyres, great on snow and mud. But on the cm thick black ice that covered most of the housing estates around here at about 4am it was as useless as all the fwd cars. I have new found respect for black ice after watching multiple car accidents (and a bus!) unfold right infront of my eyes through the night. Be carefull out there people! It's the bits that look ok that are the problem not the white stuff.

Most insurance companies won't touch anybody under 25 on a import. No matter what it is. So you will never get cheap insurence for a jap impreza at 19. The absolute cheapest I could get for a UK Turbo at 21 years old was £2000! Thats with no points and a good country address. Now im 24 I have got down to under £900 which is going in the right direction. As for the driving other vehicles on third party check carefully. My policies have always said this but on looking at the small print there is an exemption for under 25's so it has never applied to me despite it being written on my certificate! If the vehicle is not insured in your name the police will demand to check your vehicles policy, which they can do via the insurance database in seconds at the road side. If it turns out you are not insured your vehicle will be seized under section 165 of the road traffic act and you will be walking home. They will charge about £150 for the seizure and about £20 a day storage until somebody with the right insurance turns up to collect it within 14 days. It's not worth the risk so make sure you are covered! Not to mention the far worse issue of having an accident, killing somebody and then not being covered. As for Imprezas being written off so much, i think that is a myth. They are a very small niche model and most young drivers who often write off cars don't drive them. I would have thought there are far more mainstream "first cars" that are written off more frequently.

From last year as we haven't had any worth mentioning yet this year!

Has the crank case/cam breather system been changed or altered? If not could be that one of these pipes has split. Either that or you have a small oil leak perhaps, it could be from the cam covers if so as this is a common place for it to leak. If the oil lands on the exhaust that would explain the smell.

HKS SSQV is the daddy imo but as has been said costs a bit. Baileys always seems to give people problems. I got my HKS new from nengun.com for about £140 delivered but that was before the exchange rate suffered. However things are getting better again now so worth a look! Certainly dont pay the £250ish that some UK retailers will charge you.

Not bad! I was getting around 27mpg from my standard classic and after all the mods and remap started to get near to 29mpg but that was on a good straight 60-70mph run to work each day at a fairly constant speed without the stop start. Now down to about 25mpg as my journeys are now short and lots of stop start at 20-30mph.

More for buget styling then handling or performance. I would steer clear.

I can vouch for these but remember not to over tighten them! http://www.rarerims.co.uk/accessories_sub....ubCategoryID=17

You guys think blue side lights are bad. I saw some **** driving around at dusk in a clio the other day with red front side light bulbs and no headlights on. So effectively you are driving along and look for an overtake and only see red lights in the distance so you assume its a car going the same direction you are.... Until that is you pull out and have a head on with some fool in a Renault.

Don't worry about them. They will MOT fine and no copper in the world is going to pick up on it. Not even a traffic officer.

Try confused, I paid £900 fully comp, with breakdown and legal cover with ecar. Thats a classic uk turbo 24 years old, 4 ncb.

If the tyres are all fairly new then you can get away with just changing one as long as you go for the same brand and type. If the others are all quite worn and you put one new one on then you will have uneven grip and the new one will be slighty larger in diameter which MAY or may not cause problems too. So in this case change both on that axle and put the two remaining old tyres on the back new on the front. Again try and keep brands and types the same to keep thing balanced. Ideally you want four tyres all the same brand and type and all the same amount of wear. Usually to do this you fit four new ones, wait until the fronts wear down a bit more then the backs then swap them around. Reason for new at the front is that fronts tend to wear more quickly and perform two jobs (propullsion and steering) as well as the majority of the braking.

True but dont forget its not just BHP, torque plays a bigger part and transmisson loss with AWD/4WD saps power. It does mean you get a great take off with no torque stear but once your moving you lose out over a light fwd system. Obviously the AWD/4WD then takes it back in the corners so its horses for courses.

I always use Abbacus in Bournemouth who will mix you any colour and send it to you in a tin or aerosol for around £10 a can plus postage. It's not cheap but they have been spot on with both cars I have had paint from them for. Halfords on the other hand were tried once and sucked... nowhere near a match.

I think you will also find they are different shapes and sizes so only the correct one will fit.

I don't get people who judge a cars speed on the fact you beat it in a race on the road... Whats to say that they were trying? They may have been looking after their car, worried about being caught at over 100mph and getting a ban which would ruin their life and career, safety or simply be lacking ability or confidence in themselves, their car or other drivers around them to keep out of their way. Unless you speak to the other person and plan to have an all out trash no holes bared, completely disregard safety, the law and your cars welfare then you will never know whats faster and who was holding back. In my experience Honda Civic Type R's are usually driven by people who are well up for racing Imprezas and they are very quick cars. Both times I have had spirited but safe and legal driving with one I found that my classic seemed quicker in roundabouts and accellertion and the type R's beat me with top end but only due to the fact they obivously didnt mind loosing there licenses, which for me simply is not an option. If it wasnt for this fact I am sure I could have gotten upto around 150-160mph and sat at that speed where the civic would not be able to catch up until my engine went pop or I ran out of road.

It is also worth checking small print for car ages... My insurance has break down cover included BUT only if all cars on the policy are less then 8 years old... So for me its tough as mine is 9 years old.

Pefectly normal for it to take a while. Mine usually starts at around 1500rpm then if you touch the throttle it drops to 1400rpm where it remains for about two minutes then slowly drops to 800rpm.

You may get by with the old ones and some sealent but if you want to be 100% sure use new ones. The centre one is a rip off but its not a normal gasket so you have to pay the money. I got some new ones then fitted the new pipes with the old ones to see if they worked. There were no leaks so I kept hold of the new ones for now.

Well spotted its got more bent fins then straight ones!

Others will give you far more detail but the P1 was a slightly toned down R type for the UK. I believe it has longer gearing and slightly softer suspension for our relatively crapy roads in the UK. The plus side for the P1 is, as you have said service history, cheaper insurance (Uk rather then import), easier to get parts from dealers, mapped for UK fuel already and a bit more UK friendly. The R is a bit more raw, I know if I had to choose I would have issues deciding.... Lookign after these car properly is key to keeping them reliable! So any well looked after one should do you proud.

Just a side note regarding high brake costs... How would you feel about paying £35,000 for a set of discs and pads? Just found out thats what it will cost to do just that on the GTR35 Spec V! Ouch!

Just my opinion but they are not a patch on Toyos. I only paid around £65 a corner for 215 40 17's from camskill. Each to there own of course. But I personally avoid budget type tyres as they are possibly the most important part of the car performance and safety wise.

How do you guys end up with buggered fronts only? When the fronts start to ware swap them to the back and then you will be able to replace all four as a set. I find that my fronts only ware slighty fatset then the rears anyway. Toyo Proxies TR1's or Proxy 4's are very good tyres and not too dear! Try camskill for a good deal.

If you have a WRX does the UK turbo not have a longer 5th gear? I am sure my UK MY00 would do close to 160mph at full chat judging by the gearing and im only running 271bhp.