mystery machine

Welcome back, nice Blob – liking your wheels, they suit the car very well

Welcome to the Happy Hawkeye STI club

Jock, some people quote the RB320 Prodrive rear ARB as 22mm, others quote it as 21mm – was wondering if you knew the actual size?

Aye, sounds a bit daunting.

Have you driven on the RHS of the road before? It doesn't take long to get used to – what I found took a couple of days to get used to was driving from the LHS of the car...... (just about kerbed it a couple of times!).

Nae bother mate! I've never actually used the Edinburgh guy, but have had good results with Neil (Fife & Lothians) – he's taken 5 and 1/2 dings out of my car. The "1/2" was one that he couldn't quite reach properly, but he was at it for ages trying - you can barely see it now, mind.

Cool – let us know how you get on

Meant to say, mine is the adjustable and it's on the mid setting just now. The guy from Whiteline tells me that the stiff setting is equivalent to 22.5mm and the loose setting is equivalent to 21.5mm.

Looking nice!

For ding removal, I use these guys:

http://www.acci-dent.co.uk/company/location.htm

They are mobile and charge £50 per panel IIRC.

Can't blame you for turning your back on Scooby ownership, Billy - it ain't getting any cheaper, thanks to successive governments' COMPLETELY UNFAIR and UTTERLY MISGUIDED treatment of motorists

All the best mate

What's the ARB do then? Gees so much to learn

An anti-roll bar reduces body roll on an axle - your car has one front and rear. Some chat about uprated rear ARBs here:

As standard, Impreza WRXes/STIs are quick cars with lots of grip, but the handling doesn't quite live up to the rest of the package, IMO. To improve things, I began by replacing the springs/struts (big improvement, but big cost!) and making a couple of other handling tweaks. More recently I had an uprated ARB fitted, but in hindsight that should've been the first thing to do, especially as it only costs about £160 including VAT and fitting for a nice Whiteline adjustable bar... a no-brainer

Such a nice car to drive quickly now that the handling is sorted!

and no they are not offering them for RS500 money

Didn't think they would (they don't have to)

P.S. Before I got the uprated rear ARB I was trying to reduce rear roll by adjusting my rear dampers to be quite hard and putting more air in the rear tyres. The ARB is of course much more effective at controlling roll than either of these actions, so I have softened the rear dampers and let some air out of the rear tyres (more-or-less at Subaru spec now). As a result, the car is now more compliant at the back and rolls less too.

So John you might want to consider back-off the damping on your rear coilies if you do go for an uprated rear ARB

Yes, just the rear bar I also have coilovers and ALK.

Like most cars, the Scooby as standard is set up with more roll resistance at the front, basically as a 'safety margin' against oversteer.

Uprating the rear bar will tend to give the car more neutral handing, making it flatter, more eager to change direction and as a result more pleasant to drive. However, it will tend more toward oversteer than before, so you do have to be sensible and not do anything crazy like brake/lift-off suddenly mid-turn when you're pushing on.

Many people do uprate both bars, but tend to go for F-22mm/R-24mm, which is similar in balance to mine and Jock's rear-bar only setup of F-20mm/R-22mm, but of course F-22mm/R-24mm will be a bit flatter again all around.

So although you talk about 'upsetting' the balance, the standard Impreza anti-roll resistance isn't actually very balanced to start off with - therefore uprating the rear bar to an appropriate size should improve the car's balance - and it'll feel flatter in general because most of the roll was coming from the back anyway (took me a while to appreciate this!).

Also worth bearing in mind that, just because a front bar and rear bar are the same thickness, doesn't mean they'll impose the same roll resistance - the length of the bar has to be taken into consideration too... seems that a 10%-ish thicker bar on the back is the tried and tested route to a more neutral-handling Scoob, so probably the best place to start.

I just had a 22mm Whiteline adjustable rear bar fitted - great mod - handling is more balanced and steering is sharper.

If you're running the standard front ARB you probably don't want to go thicker than 22mm on the back as that could make the car a little prone to lift-off oversteer.

Congrats on the purchase, looking good.

Did you fit those alloys then? (you said you bought it 'totally standard').

FWIW, if it doesn't already have an uprated rear ARB, then that's a not-too-expensive mod that'll cheer the handling up considerably

If it's any consolation, they say that if you return from a trip to Andy Forrest's without losing a chunk of body work, then you weren't really trying hard enough

Bootifal, Bernard!

Nice work Bobby

The Escort is gleaming and the Scooby would look even brawer with some clear side repeaters

Braw! I didn't even realise dugs were required by law to wear a seatbelt...

"u-pull-it.co.uk"

Jeez! Sounds a bit like a – ahem – "DIY" web site to me!

Interesting to hear that some of the Impreza Cossies remain unsold.

Are they offering them for RS500 money then?

Nothing

Pics?

Clarkson said "it's too expensive", we all said "it's too expensive", yet every last one is sold...

I guess Subaru knew what they were doing then

That said, I'd rather have a Litchfield Hawkeye or an Evo 9 than any of the three reviewed (not hatchbacks, but you know what I mean)

That Roller was nice though, eh?

What's the story with your silver alloys, Jock - do you have a set of gold STI wheels and a set of silver Spec D wheels?

Must admit I never used to think I was a "gold alloys" sort of person, but I do think they go very well with a met grey newage... I think it's because the grey and the gold are both 'metal' colours.

Actually, having looked at the grey effort on an LCD monitor, it was probably a bit on the light side...

Somewhere between the black and grey above would be nice. But hey - it's your motor

Zactly!

The black looks drab, IMO - like steelies that've lost their trims.

I'd go for a dark grey...