scouk

Not a huge amount really. Both do the same thing and allow the same mapping abilities on the ECU. ECUTek is a licenced piece of software whereas opensource isn't licensed, it's built by enthusiasts. The opensource project has been on the go for many years now and has a fair following! Hopefully a ECUTEk mapper will be along soon to clarify any functionality differences there may be, but from what I've seen its very difficult to justify ecutek over opensource. Especially where the open source projects are today! From the mappers point of view the licenced product has some comeback if the software itself fails and bricks an ECU. But this is highly unlikely to happen. In the years I've followed the open source mapping I've never heard of that being an issue. ECU's have bene bricked but that's because the operators of the software mad mistkes, the software was not at fault.

Cool! A lot of work going into this by the looks of things! and it's looking sharp! Can't wait to see the finished product! Looks like this will tidy up a few design 'features' of the current site which people have commented on in the past Just don't make the mistake of launching it before it's ready! Get every part of the site looking the same first if you can.. Seen that happen too many times with other sites where thei've launched a new design through excitement rather than having a finished product and it's not a good look. For the proper overhaul it should be all or nothing! Teaser definitely looking good though

Thats my main one Also considering a beefier backbox.. & a little TLC

As above, I used open-source mapping on my car (Bug WRX) and have both Launch Control & dual map switching enabled along with a rev restricted valet mode You can also get the Flatfoot shifting on the later models which have Drive By Wire throttle

technically yeah.. Got a few bits I'm going to try sell shortly but thought since this thread came up was worth mentioning

I like the GFB valves. I bought a 2nd hand Stealth Fx a few years back (adjustable recirc/VTA) and it's been spot on! Read the instructions for setting the initial pre-load tension on the spring and your sorted, you can tighten/loosen a turn depending how you want the valve to kick in / car to feel when makign quick upshifts. I quite like the sound of them, even without the whistle trumpet addon it can still whistle a bit when lifting off from high boost! which is kinda neat to have the differnt sounds from it For anyone reading this I've also got a GFB Mach2 (VTA only) valve for newage imrpezas kicking around gathering dust if anyones interested

In which case try giving Russell at BHP Developments a buzz. He's out Inverurie direction but knows Imprezas inside and out Russell Posts on here as WUZ

1. Davey l wrx - Hawk STI - Any date 2. LynneNap - Blob WRX - Any Date i tell her she's going! 3. ScoUK - Bug WRX - Any date hopefully

Clark Motorsport out at Kintore have been getting good reviews from members on here recently! http://www.clarkmotorsport.co.uk/ Dont forget to mention the SIDC when you speak to them Disclaimer - Other garages/mechanics are available but Clark seem to be popular at the moment.

May also be worth seeing what events are on at Alford and maybe see if they are willing to have us pop along as a club to an event or two? http://www.gtm.org.uk/whats-on/

cant remember the name of it but fairly sure there used to be a big one at the AECC. maybe not..

Was out itheh scooby yesterday and saw more girls driving scoobies than guys! Thought it was unusual but each one got a wave

Stupidly it never twigged to just get a set of STi wheels.. Duh! Got two sets of standard WRX ones at the moment for some reason and the 18" oz's.. Never liked the idea of using spacers TBH. Just trying to work out costs of possible brake options. Quite like the idea of upgrading to brembos all round. Rather than just changing fronts only with aftermarket calipers. Cheers!

Toying with the idea of getting 2nd hand brembos for my WRX. Could work out cheaper or at least same sort of cost and buying a set of uprated calipers also brembo pads/discs potentially easier and cheaper to get hold of than for aftermaker kits. Only sticking point is I still use the standard 17" WRX wheels for winter and brembos wont fit with them. But recently discovered that the combo will work if using 10mm spacers on the WRX wheels. Just wondering how sensible it is to use spacers on an Impreza? It would just be for winter wheels so not too much pratting around I take it I'd probably have to get longer studs put in the hubs? Anyone know if I'd still be able to use the 18's without swapping back to shorter studs each time? Otherwise it's pointless

Definately started in the early 90's Loved watching any sort of motorsport on TV but always preferred the rallying and rallycross. Somehow The Cossies never really did it for me, and when the Impreza came along which in Rally form was much the same as the road car it just clicked with me. The sound it made the way it could be driven in such flamboyant style and still be fast, mostly thanks to McRae at the time, I just loved it! Used to pester my folks all through the 90's to buy one for the family car but never happened. But even before the days on the Internet I tried to find out all the details I could about these cars. Think it was the early to mid 90's a neightbour of mine bought one. He used to have a honda crx and switched to to subaru. It was a standard car but I just couldn't stop droooling! It was WAY back then that he introduced me to the SIDC, possibly a very early member at that that point. Not sure if he's still a member. Hes onto his 3rd or 4th impreza now, took a couple years out for a carrera 4 to try and find something with the same sort of 'feeling', but after a couple of years he came back and bought a Hawkeye STi! My family never gave into subaru's until my bro bought one of the first Bugeye WRX's. Such an awesome car! But always felt even as passenger the chassis could cope with much more grunt! But it was at that point the option of owning an Impreza for myself became more of a realistic goal rather than simply fantasy! For the next 5-6 years I saved every scrap of money I could find. And in 2006 I finally bought my own Impreza! Was hoping to buy my bro's one but he didn't think I was serious about buying his so went and bought one elsewhere (ex demo car apparently). I got to admit realistically I knew I would struggle with the running costs even back then but not a day went by when i didn't think about owning one! Promised I wouldn't modify it in fear of increasing insurance costs, but thanks to the SIDC it didn't take long to break that promise. The car's opened up my eyes to much more since owning it. I'd always had an interest in engineering and mechanics with previous cars the family has had but it wasn't until I started working on the Impreza that I really enjoyed it. Actually getting stuck in, making your own changes to the car and feeling the effects of those changes as an ongoing project, is just such a great feeling. The Impreza is such an easy car to work on! No wonder they rally crews chose them. With the time and effort I've put into this car, there's absolutely no way I could bring myself to sell it. For one it's practically worthless on the 2nd hand market today, and I wouldn't sell it in it's current form, it'd be put back to standard. But most likely I'd SORN it and put it in storage, I'd grudge breaking it for parts unless god forbid it got damaged in such a way was irreparable. I've spoken to too many car enthusiasts of an 'older' generation who regret not keeping some of the cars they owned when they were younger. For me the Impreza is something really special I an hope to keep her going for a while yet.. I my scooby Currently with winter boots on: [Post Edit: Added a recent pic]

only read the news this morning. Sad news indeed. The Impreza is a great car and always will be in a class of it's own. But todays world running costs are hurrendous for a form of transport. Surprisingly Fuel isn't necessarily the major concern. Insurance costs are inflated for impreza's and the road tax is rediculous. £460 a year would be out of my budget range. And if you do buy a new one you get the added showroom tax ontop of that for buying a big gass gussling 4x4. I know it's a little against the trend but if subaru were to work on a 1.8l (or maybe even 1.6) WRX/STi or a diesel STi which was rumoured, they may have got more sales. But would we buy a smaller engined impreza? In recent years to get past regulations they had to slap in the heavier 2.5l engine here in the EU whereas JDM's still ran the relatively bulletproof 2.0 Certainly is an end of an era for this pokey wee island we're on.. .. guess if nothing else, it just makes the Impreza even more special now. Probably more important now more than ever, to have car clubs like this one to keep these cars from being forgotten

Interesting to see a mix of views for winter driving. With some taking their Scoobies off the road while others appear to be buying them just to take care of winter driving! Guess it shows just how versatile these cars can be in the real world... ... SUBARU All Year Round!

Hi, sorry to hear about the bad luck you've been having On the brakes front. possibly not further good news.. The WRX calipers are good but they are prone to having sticky pistons over time so at very least should be cleaned out and made sure they are freed off and workign smoothly! For the discs I'm afraid take it easy on the drilled ones! They looks cool and seem like a good idea as 'supercars' tend to run them but on the those sort of cars their not drilled they are cast with the holes in them. Drilling the disc actually weakens the surrounding metal with tiny micro fractures and many people have found that the discs crack around the holes! Particularly if driven in a spirited or hard fashion. There are people who have run drilled discs with no problem but something to be aware of. And if your looking to replace them in the future, probably best to look at grooved only or plain discs. Grooved discs technically run cooler and cleaner with less chance of warping but wear our the pads quicker. Try to avoid cheap ebay discs and black diamond discs. They work but are known to be quite soft. Pad wise, Not used them but i hear EBC Red stuff pads aren't that great. Two main recommendations seem to be kevlar pads from aztec performance or godpseed brakes, as a solid upgrade from standard. Looking for something with a bit more bite, Mintex 1144. Money no object Ferrodo DS2500 or performance friction pads. If your looking at calipers the standard WRX wheels wont fit over the brembos.. The upgrade to D2 or K-Sport calipers will allow you to still fir the standard 17's on there. (Something I have on my long term wishlist) Coupel other things to consider. Upgrading brake fluid to somethign with a bit more heat resistance. This will help keep the brake pedal from sinking to the ground when brakes are used heavily! Also upgrading to braided brake lines can help brake pedal feel a bit firmer and there's less expansion in the pipes. Not sure if this was an answer you were looking for but hopefully it will help steer you in the right direction

Considering giving the castrol universal oil a try in the new year on mine. getting into 4th gear can be a little more scrunchy than it used to be now and again. Also since upgrading a pile of bushes on the rear end the diff is transferring a fair bit more noise through chassis. DOn't mind transmission noise but it does sounds a bit harsh on on overrun, so looking to see if the change of oil away from Silkolene/Fuchs will help.

CooL! that's handy to know! last i heard people were forced to package up all four of their struts and ship them off to japan.. Did think it was a bit much.. Maybe that was just for warranties sake or something...

Sounds daft, but maybe you misread the 87W upside down as M&S ? I defiantly wouldn't say the RE050's are anything like a Mud and Snow tyre..

Quite a few folk on here run BC's myself included. Had them 3 years or so now and think their great! No clunking or anything. Still nice and firm dampers Yuu can get a choice of spring rating when purchasing and the dampers are adjustable individually to you can get the style that suits you. I've heard teins are quite harsh on the roads and if they do ever fail they need to be sent off to japan. whereas parts for the BC's are easily available in the uk from apex performance.

Got to admit I agree the Re050's are lethal in snow! I'd never driven a car that was so dangerous in snow than when I had them on the impreza for the first time in snow! Even the Toyo T1-r's I got later with their fancy V tread pattern was surprisingly better! Possibly because of the diagonal tread pattern whereas teh Re50's are mostly linear tread. But with John (above) and a few others on here praising winter tyres for many years I took the plunge last year and got a spare set of alloys cleaned up and fitted some Nokian WRG2's. When people say winter tyres are like night and day, their not kidding! Where in most cases on snow/slush the car moves around a lot even taking it easy, it just feels much more stable on the winter grips and rarely step out of line, unless provoked . Their not miracle workers. you still NEED to adjust your driving style to be more careful but they are far better in every respect than the summer tyres. On 100% ice though, no rubber will help, only spikes/chains or maybe snowsocks. Had the fortune of driving in that sort of conditions last year through a local village. Think curling with around 1.4tons and near 300bhp.. Tricky, but surprisingly satisfying when you don't hit anything I'm a total convert for winter tyres! I use them on both my cars now (Nokian WR G2's on teh Impreza and Vredestein Snowtrac's on the front of the focus). I agree cost of tyres isn't cheap! but if your thinking safety and long term, if your swapping tyres every 6 months it's going to take twice as long to wear them out. So other than the initial cost of spare wheels and the tires in the first place, it doesn't necessarily cost more over time and your MUCH safer over the winter months, note winter tyres are also superior in cold temperatures, not just the harshest of conditions! If your not keen on getting another set of wheels and storing them, some tyre fitters now offer a winter tyre swap, where you pop in and they'll swap your tyres over. But over you may find that's more costly than buying 2nd hand wheels unless you know a friendly local tyre fitter.

I guess that's the theme for the fling sorted then

Hmnn.. My insurance is due at the end of December (yeah I know great timing around christmas!) and in light of the milage thing I just checked back my annual milage on the Impreza.. Since 2009 I've been averaging between 3000 and 3500 miles a year! Might be worth updating that bit of info on my policy this year.. Maybe drop it to 4k or 5k just to be safe. See if it makes a difference.. Fingers crossed anyway