grantr

I got a wave from GB270 in Woodhall Road last week, wasn't you was it? I was in the blue bugeye STi.

I waved at a Rover 400 with a Scooby bonnet scoop last night. Ouch.. Nearly always do it and always to other blue blobeye STi's . Classics seem to rarely do it round Edinburgh for some reason. Wife finds it amusing too but I don't care! It's part of the fun of owning a Scooby.

I've got an 04 plate STi with the PPP fitted and you certainly wouldn't describe them as the last word in comfort! They feel very raw compared to a WRX, less refined. It took a while to get used to all the little noises, the diffs whining away, the noise the brakes make etc. Feels very much like a rally car with a few creature comforts thrown in. And I mean a few, very basic inside. No toys to speak off to play with and the Subaru stereo is crap too. Suspension is hard but not too hard, you can cover long distances in it quite easily. I find it better then the v6 Mondeo I used to have for that. All this said. when you jump in and turn that key you'll soon forget any shortcomings. The burble is addictive and the surge when you press that pedal is mental the first time you feel it. Try and get a PPP car (Prodrive Performance Pack), it does make a difference, however as many on here will tell you there are other ways of getting the extra power so find out what if any mods the car has. Certainly a fair bit quicker than your RX8 too. I bought mine from a main dealer, A F Nobles as I had little experience of the cars and the only others I had sat in were a Grp A 555 and a WRC car, not really comparable to the road versions! Paid a bit more but I did get full MOT, great warranty (which you'll need if its got the standard suspension on it) and the peace of mind of little or no bills for the first year at least. I did pay a fair bit more than your £9k though. If you do find a good one though go for it, you certainly wont regret it. Mine puts a smile on my face even driving to work in the morning and I cant see me getting rid of it for a long while to come. Pity I'm in Edinburgh as I'd have let you see what they are all about quite happily.

Cheers for the comments guys. I'd love to put a splitter on the car but I doubt I have the clearance on my drive to add one. Steep up and over onto the road, its tight on the front end as it is. Might leave the idea of the graphics for now. Any recommendations on where to get decent window tinting done near Edinburgh?

I wonder if that's the same one that was up for sale at Kenny Dunn's in Roseburn a couple of years back. Sure it was only around the £18k mark.

While the car was reasonably clean I decided to dust off the DSLR and try and finally get a few half decent shots of it, hope you like. Hoping to go back and try and get the shots with the castle in the back in the dark at some point. Need to get the rear windows tinted and want to get the Prodrive grille on at some point. Toying with the idea of putting full graphics on it put not sold totally on that one yet! Need to get a polarising filter for photographing it as well, bit too much glare on the pics.

Personally I'd start off with a small setup, no more than 2ft as they dont want too much space when they are really small, freaks them out. Old fish tank is fine and get a couple of decent babies to grow as you know how they've been treated etc. Get them from a decent dealer, Aquacadabra 2 in Edinburgh or that one on Kinghorn who's name I forget are both good. Get used to the feeding with smaller insects etc and when the time comes most of your kit will transfer to the bigger vivarium. You might even want to block part of it off till they get bigger. Then you can keep the small tank for feeding if you can. The last thing you want is to be chasing crickets about a big viv if the lizards dont eat them. If you leave them in they can eat at the lizards when they sleep, they can also escape and you dont want them about the house as they are noisy at night and a bugger to find (look under pictures on the walls!). I used to handfeed mine the crickets and hoppers when they were bigger so I knew where they all were, still had plenty escapees though. Plan ahead though, if you do get them make sure you can accommodate a 4/5ft vivarium. Bonus when I had mine was to keep the heat mat on the roof of the viv, the heat that travelled up was enough to heat a small snake tank and fire bellied toads without having to get multiple heat mats! Once you get one reptile you'll want more. If you dont want the big viv though there are other options, Ghekos are much smaller and just as good to keep, breed like mad. I'd like a water dragon now but cant get enough space for a viv big enough.

Nice to see another blue blobeye STi in Edinburgh!

Nobles are top notch, every dealing with them is a pleasure. Mine is back in a couple of weeks to get the front struts done again as well. Backs, fronts and now fronts again all in just over 6 months.

Nice to keep but as has been said you do need a big vivarium eventually. I had a 4ft but felt it was too small for a pair. Maybe consider leopard gheckos too, smaller and don't have the space or lighting requirements of the bearded dragon. I've got 3 at the moment and they have been much easier to look after than the dragons. Make sure too you have a decent reliable source for the live food.

Been on it for a couple of weeks, STi_Grant. Quite interesting in places. 3G iPhone does make it though, can't imagine it would be a good without the ability to tweet while on the move. pmac, try Tweetie rather than twitterific, £1.79 and a lot more features, worth buying if your going to stick with it. Each to their own with it thought, I've never been into the social networking stuff but this is a bit different and if you get past the guff there's some good stuff on there. Like everything, the more you put into it the more you'll get out.

Thats a seriously nice car, I've wanted one of them or a '79 Corvette for years. You see them going on ebay now and again for under 3k, which I presume are the ones to avoid?

Can anyone recommend anywhere in the Edinburgh area to get a set of decent plates made up? Tried Halfords tonight but they only do one standard size which is ok for the front but the rear plate on my blobeye STi is slightly bigger top to bottom than the front. Don't want anything too fancy just something that'll fit in the same space as the old one at the same size.

I know that corner well, been there on many Galloway Hills and Scottish Rallys. Is the road still as rough driving in? Forgot the rally was on today or I'd have been there too.

Deliberated over L555 BAF or L555 BOT for the last week, finally bought L555 and my initials. Now I'm thinking about having to change every document with the car reg on it and wondering why I bothered...

I think it probably was Iain, out by Wilkieston? I never got a good look at the car but remember the GB270 spolier.

Flash of the lights and a wave from 3 in 10 minutes today, all on the A71 heading towards Livingston on the Edinburgh-Livingston stretch. Blue STi, Sliver STi and a Black STi around 3.20pm to 3.30pm. Anyone on here? I was in the Blue STi blobeye heading towards Edinburgh.

If you can get online try doing the new system update thats available. Takes a while to download and install though.

W plate Maroon classic spotted in the carpark at Cramond prom today around half 1. McRae Gathering sticker on the front screen and SIDC stickers too. Owner might have been just leaving the car when I got back to mine (Blue STi with SIDC stickers) but wasn't sure if it was the owner or not!

There's a few cars usually parked in the drive at times along with the Scoob, sure there's an Integra there too. You dont drive a blue blobeye wrx or silver hawkeye wrx do you TPS? See 2 of them quite a lot going up and down that stretch of road.

I'd be very interested in what equipment/settings you used to get shots like that, very impressive.

Pass this most days too on way to work, got red alloys? Got a wave from the driver on Slateford Road a couple of weeks back, also a metallic purple flared arch BMW sits at the same spot a lot. very nice for a BM...

Our new Shih Tzu pup. 10 weeks old and really not in the mood for getting a picture taken. Taken with a Nikon D70 with a 70-200 F2.8 lens.

I think so Davie, got the bug again for the rallying after today. Crail's always a good if freezing cold event! Planning to do the RAC as well now. Had Twiggy for company today, always a fun day!

Anybody else out on the Cheviot Rally up on Otterburn today? Didn't see many Scoobys about but got a flash of the lights from a Blue STi up by Otterburn camp after the 2nd loop. Very cold day out on the ranges and the field seemed to deplete rapidly. Bit of a disappontment to see Steve Simpson out on the 2nd junction of SS1 too. Couple of the Subaru's out today: Few more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/grant_r/, first time out with the DSLR for a while so deleted more than I got.