DR Motosport

No it was for complete spoilers. They did cost about £1500 from Subaru...................but that was 10 years ago when everyone wanted one.

A few years ago, the company that made the original P1 rear spoilers for Prodrive phoned us, and asked if we wanted to buy the ones they had left over. They were all new and unpainted. We advertised them at £400 painted to the customers own colour. They were sold pretty quickly. For a used one, needing painted. £250-£300 But if you could find a cheap courier, sell them on ebay USA, and watch the bids flying in. They love anything thats genuine Prodrive.

My membership is due in April, and I WILL be renewing it again. I've been a member for about 10 years (I think it's about that anyway, maybe more) No. 643, so it's an early one. I Don't get a wee icon or picture next to my name though <------------------------------------------ I think my original username was DavieR, but passwords are on an old computer - long since dumped. I've met a lot of good friends, many of them not on here anymore, but we still keep in touch. I try to get to events - never as many as I would like to, but will try harder this year. But the main interest for me are the SIDC track days run by JohnS (who never gets enough praise in my opinion for all the works he's done since the very beginning of the SIDC) He's probably organised 40 - 50 events at Knockhill since the first in 1999, and bar a handful, I've managed most of them. Long may it continue Davy

It's not been an original spoiler, or the holes would have matched. And as I said earlier the better replicas would match too.

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.

Watched the darts final earlier so recorded Top Gear, and just watched it. On Sicknote Steve timed lap. He starts in a car with EVO XL buckets seats, but the lap finishes with him in Corbeau seats. 2 cars. Ok, I never noticed it. It was Nick.

Agree with the 2 offsides that weren't. I think the disallowed goal was the correct decision - goalies are well protected within the rules these days. Lafferty should have got a straight red for the tackle - stupid and dangerous. Lucky he didn't break his leg. Samaras has the finishing touch of a centre back. I think if Boyd had those chances they would have been in the back of the net. Too early to predict the league. Celtic were further ahead last year and lost it. But if Novo isn't out too long and Miller is back, the goal trail will be back on again and it will be difficult. Celtic must be gutted tonight, they should have won that easily today. But, how many times have we seen that in old firm games though.

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.

Thanks everyone. Going to drop by the local tip tomorrow, see if they have any. Turns out my Dad has one also, that he hardly uses. So thats a back up plan.

Does anyone have for sale / or know where I can get an empty propane gas bottle. Not too bothered about the size 11 or 19 kg etc. I can get the refills ok, but need a bottle first. Cheers Davy