gigsy

Aye, you're a marked man! My Mrs works at the station as well (in fact she was the one who pointed out your P1 when she first saw it), so you'd best be on your best behaviour there too

Looks nice - mine is the green Vespa (am too tight to pay for parking at the Station and too impatient to queue in traffic getting there )

Is yours the P1 that sometimes parks at Didcot station BTW?

I think it might be Wantage based - have seen it round here a few times

Oiled filters were more of an issue on earlier hit foil MAFs and mainly due to over oiling. However, a good, clean paper filter is not limiting on a stock system and IMHO there's no real performance gain from the K&Ns of the world at that level.

If its boost related, it could be a duff dump valve venting the boost away. It might also be the ECU detecting something and pulling all the timing to prevent damage. The boost solenoid would tend to prevent you making boost at all rather than making boost and then losing it suddenly AFAIK.

As above, the turbo will run out of puff before the injectors do. Stock turbo + decat = 270-280 bhp Uprated cat (+ new injectors) 320bhp or so depending on the turbo. Much more than that and it's time to start thinking about a new gearbox.

Hayward and Scott do a Forester specific system

Not used the Kumho winters, but I was very impressed with their KU31 SPT tyres.... though not sure you can draw any comparisons that way. For winters, I use Nokian WR-G2s - very good winter tyre for UK conditions though prices went a bit silly after I got mine... might have settled down now though.

In order for the tyres to be road legal, they need to be E marked. I suspect if they're rally tyres, then they won't be E marked.

Welcome

How about the Godspeed 335mm kit? £550 including discs and pads is pretty good value. Alternatively, Brembo do a Grand Tourismo kit that fits under 17s. Seized 4 pots is pretty common and in most cases it's the actual cause of poor braking performance... with decent pads, braided lines and when working well, the WRX 4 pots are actually pretty capable.

Wagons rule There's pretty much nothing that ticks as many boxes in terms of performance and practicality... except maybe a Forester STi but that's a fair chunk of cash more.

Well serviced 4 pots with decent pads are fine for occasional track days (i.e. make sure there are no sticking pistons and use decent DOT 5.1 fluid). Braided lines and a brake stopper can be added quite cheaply too. You definitely do not need to upgrade the brakes immediately. Sure, it probably won't take long before you will want to upgrade, but you can do this when funds allow. Until then just brake earlier and allow them to cool if they start to fade. You'll still have fun on track even if you can't be the last of the late brakers. For the budget, Godspeed discs and kelvar pads are probably your best bet (but you will need to let the brakes cool quite a bit). However, given what you're saying about the discount available to you, then see if you can finds some EBC BlueStuff, Mintex 1155s, or Ferodo DS2500s within your budget.

Assuming you don't drive it like you stile it all the time, most fully synthetic 5W40 or 10W40 oils will be absolutely fine.... even the Halfords own brand stuff. However, you may find you need to change it more often with the cheaper oils, but again, it all depends how hard you drive it.