DR Motosport

On a genuine STi 5 or 6, the fixings are bolts from the bottom of the spoiler, so you need the holes in the boot lid for them to fit through. So, yes there's about a dozen holes needed. On a replica spoiler, the fixings are usually long bolts into captive nuts in the spoiler. So you can choose how many holes you want to drill. Many owners (90%) don't drill extra holes and just use the 4 originals with either adhesive bonding or tape. Hope you follow that. davy

Doesn't sound too good, but symptoms are the head gaskets. So get that checked first with a leak test. If the turbo has just been changed, it may be old oil that's spilt. But on the top of the turbo is the oil "in". Easy to see if it's dripping. At the bottom of the turbo is the oil "out". Not so easy to see, but check the drain hose has been re-fitted properly. For the brakes, a good clean and free off any bits thats sticky. Replace anythings that doesn't look safe. For the air-con and spoiler, leave those just now. The above is much more important.

After 10 years of selling Subaru spoilers, I've never heard that one before. All Genuine, or good quality replica spoilers will fit using the original 4 boot lid holes. Low level, mid level STi 4, or high STi 5/6 spoilers all use the same fixing points. The STi 5/6 spoilers also use extra fixings in the middle, but the ends are all the same. Cheap ebay rubbish, well just bond those on. Davy

Yes you need KLC38. KLC39 is for a new-age.

We don't have any larger scoops for the Hawk-eye's. Sorry. Now it's late, and I've had a few beers, so keep that in mind. But on the bug-eye and blob-eye, the STi always had a larger scoop than the WRX. For the Hawk-eye, I'm 99% sure, the STi and WRX scoops are the same size. So there isn't a bigger scoop available. Also the scoops on the Classic's, Bug's, Blob's and Hawk's may all look similar, but NONE of them are interchangable between models.

It certainly was, 16 pages now. I don't go on Scoobynet much, too much bitchin'; and sure enough there's plenty on that post. But Bob Rawle's post (think it's 190) shows a good honest comparison between the 2. But it mostly down to how good the mapper is, and if you want the safety backup from EcuTek against having that initial purchase of an EcuTek licence. Now from my point of view, and I don't map cars or sell maps. But when I'm spending a lot of money on new tuning parts for myself, I'm not going to skimp at the most important time of the tuning by not wanting to pay a couple of hundred pound for the sake of a licence and use of the best mapper. I will only use Andy Forrest. He's 3/4 hour from me, and going elsewhere doesn't make sense. There are literally thousands of happy customers of Andy's, a lot of them on here too. You'll notice on the Scoobynet thread, the only ones to try and criticise him are other tuners trying to get his business. When that doesn't work they then try and bring in the rolling road V's road tuning arguement. But here's an important observation for them. That's were I drive - on the road.

I'd be more up for the trip down, then a wander about and a blether. Polishing the car to bits, really isn't me. I've fancied going to this for a while, but it Always falls on the same weekend as we have a boys weekend away to Ireland for the Donegal Rally. But this year, no Ireland. It's Spain instead for the WRC

Gladiator is part of Admiral Insurance, and currently paying £156 TPFT for my LPG Tranny.

Thanks Peter. It was one of the reasons for going with AET, they're supposed to have a good reputation. They're a very popular turbo with EVO's too and are used for a number of Time Attack builds. I think if they had come back with a - "really, really sorry, don't know how it got through our quality control checks, blah, blah, blah" I could start to accept that, and put it down as a bad one off. But to reply, it was a material supplier fault. Why try and treat customers as if they're stupid. Anyway, now I've had it checked out and welded properly; all is well, and I'm happy with it. Dunk, as you well know yourself, all these different turbos choices begin to become a bit of a minefield. A few people have asked me this question now, so here goes in a bit more detail. Bearing in mind that by using the engine I had and keeping the standard JDM gearbox, reliabilty was to be a top priority, so I'd set a limit of about 450bhp. I also wanted to see what was possible for a sensible amount of money, and show other owners that these builds don't need to cost a fortune. So that ruled out the need for a rotated turbo. I also ruled out the FP series after a bit of research and speaking to someone that had used one. I also ruled out the 20g, by wanting a bit more power. The MD 321 H/T is a debate that goes on and on. The summary seems to be is that the T is better for a stroker or 2.5, but can be a bit laggy on a stock 2.0. However a 2.0 with the variable timing of a new-age can make it work ok, and as I would be doing plenty of track days top end power was more important. So a T was a definate option. The H, I'd say is more for pure road use. I don't know the exact spec of this AET Turbo. I think all turbo suppliers like to have their little secrets regarding spec. But Grant at AWD says it will hit my target nicely. But this one spools up from about 3500rpm, so probably similar to what a T would do. Couple of other reasons for AET was their reputation, and the price Grant was doing for me. I'll get proper figures on it's performance when the final mapping is done and also a better idea of spool up.

As most people will know, when this level of mods has been done, you really can’t use the car, and the drive through to Andy has to be off boost. So up to this point I hadn’t been able to run the car properly other than a short run to check for leaks. Andy put in the Ecutek map to match the cars new spec, then we went out on the road for the next part of the mapping. Then a big problem, he couldn’t get anymore than 0.5 bar. We checked for any obvious leaks – didn’t find any, then Andy checked the actuator, and it was still operating at the correct level. Only thing left was a problem with the turbo itself. Bugger, or something like that. Ok, it was a lot worse than that. So back home and the next day the turbo was removed. As soon as I had it off I could see the problem, the wastegate was open. And when I touched it, I could open it with my fingers and move it about on the shaft. The weld hadn’t been done properly and had no penetration onto the shaft. I think when it arrived it was just holding it and no more, but as soon as Andy put some boost through the turbo it came apart. Relieved it was something simple, but angry that AET had sent out a turbo without checking it. Quality Control?????? I was angry, that I had to waste an afternoon removing and refitting the turbo, and angry that I had wasted an afternoon of my time and Andy’s time with the mapping. I decided not to send the turbo back to AET – didn’t trust them basically, but had the turbo re-welded at a local specialist who also checked out the rest of it. Turbo Problem. Wastegate in it's proper closed position. But I could also slide it along the shaft, And open it, And move it back to the correct position, all with my finger tips. I did send an email to AET about their lack of quality checks, and their reply was pathetic, straight out the book of “palm you off excuses”, blaming a material supplier. Eh NO, nothing to do with a material supplier – just poor welding and no quality checks either. Very, very disappointed with AET. Ok Rant over. So now with the turbo fitted to the car again, it was back to Andy Forrest for mapping again. And apart from having to adjust the actuator slightly, all was well. I knew before going to Andy’s the injectors would be the limiting factor. He told me the intercooler and filter were well within their limits, but he had to lower the boost so not to max out the injectors. He would normally run this at 1.65bar right up the rev range, but for now it was 1.5 bar tailing off to 1.3 bar and just hitting the 400bhp mark. I’ll make a final decision on injectors soon, then get Andy to map them in.

It's been a while, and it's about time I got all this nearly up to date. The bug-eye JDM STi comes as standard with a VF30 turbo. The VF30 is less known over here, but it’s actually the same size as the popular VF34 but uses a thrust bearing instead of a roller bearing. After speaking to Grant and Andy at AWD, and discussing various options, we decided upon a Garrett turbo supplied by AET Turbos. New Garrett next to the old VF30 Now over the years I’ve fitted plenty of Subaru turbos so I wasn’t expecting any dramas. But with a Garrett turbo the water pipes and the oil pipes are all different thread sizes to the original Subaru ones. Imperial sizes rather than metric. AET supplied a fitting kit, but I was really disappointed with it; cheap gaskets, no oil or water hoses, and the new banjo fittings didn’t fit very well either. The kit was returned to them, and I bought a “proper” fitting kit from Roger Clark Motorsport. That came with genuine gaskets, better banjo fittings and Samco water hoses. Linking up the turbo with the CAIK I used a larger 76mm SFS silicone intake pipe. Andy Forrest had told me when I came to fit it due to it’s bigger size – make sure you start it in the morning and have a big breakfast first. He wasn’t wrong, what a pain to fit. The car still had it’s original catted downpipe fitted with a straight through 2.5” centre section and a 3” H&S backbox. When I first bought the car I was given an Invidia 3” decat downpipe to try, but had never used it. I then had Stainless Creations in Falkirk make me up a straight through 3” centre section to join it all up. The last part of the mods at this stage would be the injectors. I had a few debates about this, on what size and make to go for, but still hadn’t made up my mind. Due to a booking with Andy Forrest looming quickly I thought I’d get it mapped as it was with the standard 550cc injectors, then take it from there.

A sport special didn't have a turbo bonnet, and I didn't see it well enough to see inside. However over the years, I've sold plenty of turbo bonnets and scoops to Sport owners, so wouldn't rely on that fact.

I saw one that colour last week near Livingston. Only saw it from a distance, but my first thought was a Sport Special until I noticed the turbo bonnet.

Not my cup of tea. The fact it's a Series McRae is more of a shame. But prior to September 2007 a Series McRae wasn't a sought after car commanding more money than any UK or WRX model. In 2006 when I bought my WRX ra that I converted into the track car, I was offered 2 Series McRae's both well under £3000. They are worth a lot more now because of what it is.

Sadly missed, and Knockhill was a quieter place last year without him. Can still picture him so clearly going up and down the pitlane with his camera.

Finish converting my STi to more of a proper track car. Will make final suspension decisions after I can see what I can blag at the Autosport Show. Then look to buy a new road car for myself.

A fibreglass splitter will break hitting anything above a couple of mph. Bumpers are made from ABS plastic. Hit anything above 10 mph, and your bumper would crack. That's all ABS plastic can cope with to spring back to it's original shape. Splitters that are made from ABS plastic, for that same reason, will also break with a 10mph impact. I've just replaced a customers ABS spiller on his hawkeye when the mechanic at Arnold Clark snapped it in 2 when he was driving it onto a ramp for it's MOT. So it's the joys of wanting to fit a splitter I'm afraid.

I hope they don't grit my street. Anyway I can get in and out if I need to. Plus Nick's been busy practising his crop circles today.

Another vote for the Hybrid from Harvey. I had an Autobahn on my classic wrx ra, but they are designed for the 97-00 models, and if your car was like mine an earlier 94 model, it does need a bit of tweaking to the pipes for a better fit. However I've just fitted a Hybrid to my new-age STi, and it's just so much better quality. Not just the core, but to having better flanges on the pipes to stop hoses popping off. But more importantly Andy Forrest commented at the mapping how well it was working. So next time I'm fitting a FMIC to a classic, I'll be giving Harvey a call for a Hybrid.

Time for the next update, Although the car is only at the 50,000 mile mark, I felt the clutch was starting to feel its age. So this was a good time to fit an uprated Helix clutch and flywheel that would be able to handle the new power. I’d asked AWD in Perth to do this while I was on holiday, and also decided as an extra precaution to get them to fit a new timing belt, along with new tensioner and idlers. Andy at AWD also suggested a later spec uprated oil pump, so that was fitted at the same time as the timing belt. So, thanks to everyone at AWD for helping me out at short notice. Since I now had the sensible head on with all this precautionary work, I then changed all the oils and fluids, fitted another set of PFR7B spark plugs and a nice new Walbro fuel pump. So now after all that, it really was time to get started. Although the STi top mount intercooler is a good piece of kit and capable of handling what I was looking for at this time, I opted for a FMIC for that extra bit of cooling needed on the track. I’ve known Harvey Smith for about 8 years now, and have supplied him with various parts for his Impreza’s. So it made sense to give him a call, and a nice new Hybrid Intercooler arrived the following day, and at a cracking price. The Hybrid intercooler also comes supplied with a cold air intake pipe, and it was all pretty straightforward to fit. The only tricky bit is working out how much to cut from the front bumper, and with the intercooler being 100mm thick – it’s a lot of cutting. Trying to get a big enough filter to fit inside the wing space, was the next problem, but I already had a large Ramair filter in the garage, it’s good for 450bhp, and I was able to squeeze it in - just. I decided to box in the underside of the inner wing to stop water and dirt getting to the filter using a 3mm sheet of plastic. This sheet together with the bumper itself and inner wheel arch trim made up the boxed area. I then replaced the fog lamp covers with some new ducts I had made up to keep the filter supplied with plenty of cold air and fitted a small plastic deflector to stop the filter getting wet in the rain. Still to be fitted is the original front lip spoiler, this has still to be trimmed for the front mount and then a fresh coat of paint for it. And just when you think it's all going too well, it goes badly wrong.............................. Stay tuned.

Don't worry about the fitting work being done at Extreme. George who will be doing the work, was working on Subaru's long before he worked at Extreme and started with EVO's. That was over 10 years ago, long before most people on this site owned a Subaru. For the mapping, I would agree with the others. We have the best Subaru mapper in the business on our doorstep, crazy not to use him.

I think it looks great. Well done. Especially love those wheel arches. Not 100% sure about the front bumper yet, I'll reserve judgement until I see it in the flesh - so next time your home Chris, pop up for a chat. I do like those bonnet vents though. Davy

It's a sign of the times, but I think you'll struggle to sell a UK turbo for £2500-£2800, just as Mark says. Sorry. But I don't think there's enough value in a UK model either, to get that sort of money by breaking it. If it was a STi - maybe, but not on a UK car. Count it up. Why not tidy it up - arches etc, and keep it until the spring / summer and try and sell it at a time of year when the prices can be a little better.

I've not bought anything else yet Colin. Not really been looking. Carolines still got her car, so if we're going out as a family we take that. Can't beat leather heated seats at this time of year either. Chris, I don't honestly know where I'll end up with the car. But I said that about the white wrx too, and that ended completely stripped out with a cage, sparco seats and harnesses. Remember I'm still using the 2.0 engine, so that will be the limiting factor to start with. But as you know Chris - come the Summer time there could be a 2.5 build, sitting in the garage. I'd like to see what can be done to these new-age cars without spending a fortune. It'll maybe encourage other owners, rather than sell up, this is what you can do to get a quick track car for Knockhill and Crail.

Probably, but keep that under your hat for now I'll drop you an email soon. What about you, got your plans for 2010 worked out? I enjoyed your recent write ups in Jap Performance and Total Impreza.