DR Motosport

Cheers Barry, not seen any updates for yours for a while now I hope so Peter, lots of cheap classics about nowadays, and nothing that can't be done in a garage at home. Pretty sure it will be at the next SIDC track day in June John, Just been keeping quiet for a while Archie. Dont think I'm planning on doing anything, always had it in the back of my mind, but never get round to it. Maybe Nick will have other ideas, and I'll change the cage then, but for track days it's fine for now .

Time for some more updates, At this point I was pretty happy with how it looked and how it went, it has somewhere in the region of 280bhp, it handles ok (not as good as the white car though) and it stops well with the Brembos. So from that point back in 2010, it literally stayed that way til now. The main reason was my son Nick was coming up to being 17 and desperate to get out on track, so I didn’t want to go mad with it, and in the back of my mind was the thought it could end up in a few gravel traps . So for 2011 and 2012 we did a variety of track days together at Knockhill and at Kames with the car in that spec. But towards the end of last year, I decided it was time to do more work to the car to make it quicker. More power (50+ bhp), less weight (50kg at least) and better handling (too much understeer on tight corners), but still trying to keep it to a £2000 budget, and so it begins. I had been through most of this before with the white car so knew what I wanted and the best way, hopefully to do it, learn by previous mistakes, etc. A couple of bits of luck were that the bonnet and wing still had scratches from that original crash and the door had a small dent. Then Neill54 put a post up with a bonnet for free uplift in silver, and later a door too, perfect, cheers Neil. That just left the wing, and I picked up a silver one for £20 from a lad on Track Scotland that was breaking his car and who also stayed in Livingston. He also had a rough looking Whiteline rear anti roll bar for £20 and a rear tow hook another £20. Both were rubbed down, repainted and fitted. New SuperPro anti roll bar bushes were bought for £12 A bit dirty now At this point Nick had found a Bomex rear bumper I’d had for at least 10 years. I think the plan was to use it as a mould for a modified bumper that incorporated a diffuser. As it was originally silver it just needed a freshen up before fitting. Not 100% sure if I like it fitted, but it’s a track car, and looks a bit different. Nick says it’s cool, teenagers – what do they know. This now allowed me to finish off the graphics. They are very similar to that of the white car, 1) to keep it with a similar theme, and 2) I still had loads left over from the white car, so there was no expense. Those with a keen eye will notice the SIDC stickers are red trimmed rather than blue, a sheet of graphics paper and a sharp knife, the blue didn’t match, oops. Actually taken before the tow hook was fitted A standard road trim WRX weighs in at 1230kg, so first job was to remove the rear seats, the carpets, all the boot trim, tools and spare wheel, seat belts, stereo, speakers centre dash, anything that was no longer needed. I modified the rear section of the roll cage to remove the bends and replaced with straight ones together with a bar joining both suspension turrets that would also be a mounting point for harnesses. I bought a pair of Sabelt 5 point harnesses for a friend who had them in his Subaru rally car and was selling them as they were just out of FIA dating £60. For now these are fitted with the standard seats until I decide what seats to get, and more to the point since the seats would be the largest purchase so far, could I find a bargain. One very cold and frosty Saturday morning during the Winter with the car out all night I set about on the sound deadening with a chipping hammer, 2 hours later it was all done, it literally came off in huge chunks, a full 10kg removed. A quick rub down with paint thinners removes any residue. With the white car I did this job in the Summer with a chisel and heat gun, took a full day and what a pain, so a really cold frosty morning is definitely the way to go. When the sound deadening is removed, you’ll find it holds in place a dozen or so metal discs, these will now be loose, so need to be bonded back in. I used a liquid metal, but only because I had a tube already open. When I get some time, I'll pull the interior again and paint the floor to tidy it up.

Nick is now a typical teenager, more interested in booze and woman. I think he also thinks it's an arrive and drive set up for track days. I sort everything out, get the car to Knockhill, he arrives - late, drives the car for a few sessions, then goes home. About time you were back on track yourself, we had a good few dices with those cars

Cheers guys, will try and post more about it later tonight once I sort out some photos Rich, I think Grant sold it on to someone who used it at Crail, but its been sold again, and has been at a few SIDC track days. JohnS posted some photos last year. I know it no longer has the AP brakes (Grant ) or the GAB coilovers, shame they were brilliant.

At this point I took it to its first track day to set a base point. Mechanically it seemed strong but the suspension was hopeless, and it highlighted a few other issues. The plastic header tank on these early classics had a crimped on top and this leaked, so it was replaced with a metal tank from a later model I had in the garage. This is a simple enough job, make up a new mounting bracket and use the samco hoses also from the later model. The radiator also had a small leak so a replacement from ebay for £65 and new some uprated hoses at £30 were fitted. At this point I had 2 strokes of luck, Adam from Track Scotland was selling his Tein coilovers for £150, so these were soon fitted together with some Eibach camber bolts I still had from the white track car. The following day a local garage called me to say they had a classic WRX in and it needed a km to mph speedo convertor and the owner also wanted a boost gauge and pod. His car had come in from Japan with a bolt in cage fitted which the garage was removing as he didn’t want it, so a deal was done I supplied his parts in exchange for the cage (£112). Although it’s a dash dodger and no longer any use for any type of competition use, for a fun trackday car it was fine. The cage was a straightforward fit and had come with all the under floor plates, all I did was replace the old bolts with new stainless ones and lock nuts. The intercooler was the early slanty type, pretty useless for track days and when the turbo pipe popped, I bought Bravehearts old FMIC for £100 and had new pipes made up to suit mine at £60. Since the front bumper was still looking worse for wear from the original accident, I had a tatty looking later MY99-00 bumber that was then cut to take the FMIC, and given a coat of paint. I also had a set of crystal headlight in the garage that I fitted with a later grill. I still had a spare set of rear lights from the white car that I also fitted. They look better than the originals and since STi ones would set me back £150 I would rather spend that money elsewhere. The rear spoiler was also swapped to a damaged STi 6 one I had after I fixed it up and repainted.

I think in general most members enjoy reading build threads whether it’s a mega bhp big budget build or more modest “I could do that” project. So this is the later and I hope it shows that for a couple of grand you can build a fun track car. Some of the older members may remember my previous track car, I had a Classic WRX ra from 2005 til 2009 when Grant at AWD bought it for a price I really couldn’t refuse. Previous Track Car As I still had my new-age JDM STi road car, it took me a full 8 months to miss a track car, and indeed started modifying the STi for more power. But from an advert on these very SIDC pages I bought another classic WRX with a pretty decent spec. It was a 1995 model imported in 2007, with 98000km, a rebuilt engine to a better spec, new-age STi Brembo brakes front and rear complete with new Performance Friction 2pc discs and pads, Apexi Power fc with hand commander, 3” decat exhaust, HKS induction kit, blitz bov, blitz turbo timer, 17” inovit tarmac alloys and lowering springs. All the above had been fitted during the previous year. Now adding up all the receipts (engine build £2500, brembo’s £800, performance friction brakes £700, apexi ecu with mapping £800, alloys £400) and that’s just some of it, but all in it was easily over £6000 spent including labour. Unfortunately the previous owner had had a little bump with it, nothing serious. He had gone down a bank and hit a fence through no fault of his own as he was avoiding an oncoming car. The post had damaged the rear quarter panel and the fence wire had also scratched the paint on the corner of the bonnet and also the front wing. The front bumper also had some damage. I think this was the final straw and he’d become a bit fed up with the car and put it up for sale, so I got the car for £1650. Happy Days At first I wasn’t sure what to really do with the car, it was worth more in parts so the original plan was to break it and indeed the Performance Friction discs and pads went to another project car. So in reality I had the car for less than £1000 at this point, but it was such a decent base car I decided to see where I could go with it as a budget track car, and see if I could keep to a £2000 budget. First job was to repair the rear quarter panel, the dent was knocked out almost flush, a light fill, then a quick spray.

What you must have is an early Scott Taylor or Polar Performance chip, these are a generic map that's mapped for 97ron fuel and usually 1.0-1.1 bar boost. They're usually a plug in 32 pin chip in the bottom right of the board, over on the left is a resistor (think its J1) and that will have been cut as you say. Your 0.8bar is that from a gauge or the rolling road? as it should be higher. I wouldn't expect the map to run lean, and with the lower boost you may have a small leak somewhere. The MAP sensor isn't a straight swap over I'm afraid, and they need rewired, and just to add to it the wiring colours are completely different. When you get a sensor, also get the plug into it with a few inches of wire so you can make up the new joints for the loom.

Hi Peter, it was poor quality right from the start new out the box. The wastegate penny wasn't spot welded to the wastegate shaft properly, it all looked fine when fitted, but as soon as Andy Forrest put some boost through it when mapping it, it moved about on the shaft and wouldn't hold anymore that 0.5 bar. So it all had to be stripped down again. Closed as normal Then move it about with your fingers along the shaft and open it That was 3 years ago, but now and only 8000 miles later the exhaust housing has cracked, so its off with it again when I get a few hours to spare. Planning on getting in touch with them, but going by their customer service with the wastegate and a never ending list of excuse from supplier problems to material problems, when in reality they sent out a turbo with zero quality control checks, I wont hold my breath. I also spoke to Owen Developments who can supply an inconel housing that will fit this turbo, so I'll look at all options. Fingers crossed.

I think if you stick to the 16g TD05 you already have, look at bigger injectors, either 440 yellows from the sti for about £50+ or 550's for a fair bit more, an ESL remap, frp, all as Lewis says, but its the MAP sensor that's your limiting factor not the MAF. You need a later one from a 97-00 model to lift the 1.1 bar limit. With all that you wont be far away from your 350bhp target

What spec you running just now?, you might not be too far away from that mark with a few tweeks.

I type too slow

Going front entry is your best option, it does work better for air direction travel getting rid of the 90deg bend. I can't think of any better turbos that are a straight swap for you. If you do go front entry you'll need a spacer to lift the manifold and also fit the later power steering set up, to get the new intake pipe under the early manifold. Incidently on a standard ra, the 5th injector isn't set up to work. It was fitted purely for rallying homologation rules, as the rally car did use it. I've no doubt some of the latest ECU's could utilise it, but as standard it's not used.

Will enjoy reading this Craig, then seeing it on track.

VF30 on right, AET's piece of c**p on the left

It was a 1996 car that was used, these were a lighter colour. I think it may have been N555 BAT that was used, its in private hands now but was originally a Prodrive car that Liatti used in '96 Did enjoy the program though and Chris Hoy looked pretty good behind the wheel, unless Jimmy did a few takes

SKY prog guide has this showing on Sunday 27th at 10pm, BBC2 and BBC HD

Sorry not deer park, just off lizzie brice roundabout heading along A71 towards dedridge.

My mate told me he saw one with a wheel ripped off near deer park roundabout in Livingston on sunday, guess thats it. Whats left of a bugeye wrx.

Always enjoy seeing your photos John, so post away

Will be fine to drive, just take plenty of fuel with you, low-mid teens mpg. The sensor has a small heater element to help it get up to temperature quicker, that's what will be away, unfortunately you have to change the full sensor. Price not too bad, expect double that from the dealer. Davie

Also on a 2002 STi, but a JDM rather than UK model AET Garrett Turbo (similar to 321T) Hybrid FMIC 76mm Intake Hose Invidia de-cat with custom straight through exhaust and H&S backbox Ramair CAI 750cc Injectors Mapped by the Master Andy F I've got a 2nd Ramair CAI, and a new set of 750cc Injectors, if they are any use to you. Davie

That's great news, congratulations to both of you. Grant, get better soon, missing our chats about rally days of old. Davie

Had my renewal in from Admiral Multicar last month, and it's actually down very slightly from last year. Everything I read, said all insurance was going up, so a pleasant surprise.

Saw you yesterday Chris as you were leaving Knockhill. It was me that gave you a wave and a toot in the silver classic. Then you thought - who the hell was that. Didn't realise there was an afternoon track day. We were up there from 6-8pm for the Track Scotland event.

Afraid your all wrong. The bootlids on a Bug, Blob, and Hawk are all exactly the same shape. Same spoiler will fit perfectly on all bootlids......................so long as it's a good spoiler in the first place. Davy