craigdmcd

I've got a Prodrive STi sports downpipe for sale if you are interested?

My mate was up last weekend at Knockhill speed sunday, and was wondering if anyone had photos from the day. He was part of a large group of Evo's

Yes they are Peter. I bought them when I needed to get a new set of rotors for my DBA 5000's, but Clarke Motorsport couldn't supply them for 2 months, so bought a pair of cheap discs from a factor and the pads from Demon Tweks. When I got my new rotors, because of the wait, Clarke Motorsport gave me a very good price on DS2500's, so decided to fit everything new.

I've got a set of Carbon Lorraine pads that have done 2000 miles, and have next to no wear in them. Cost me £120, I'll let them go for £60. Pm if that is any use to you.

Alan, did you get it completely bled? Also, are you filling the the header tank to the top, as when hot it will spit some of this out to allow for expansion. You know where I am if you need some help. Craig

Damn you Sir - you told me that you would say I was "Good" at what I did, not just "competent" As for the servicing, I'll drop a PM with my number and I can see if I can enlighten you at all.

There are 2 other ways of bleeding the system well, as pumping the radiator hose does not always work. There is a small pipe that goes vertical just in front of the N/S inlet manifold - it is a little blanked off end. Removing this till water flows out is a good way to bleed the system. Another is to take the intercooler off, remove the upper heater matrix hose, and slowly fill this with water until it flows out of the metal connection above the bellhousing. Try to keep an eye how much it is taking to fill - I think 6 litres is required is the system is empty. My initial thoughts on your problem were thermostat and waterpump related.

I know a guy who got stung for £5500 for a Saab on a similar scam, but the car had been on E-bay. I would avoid this at all costs.

Where are you?

Very nice Frank. And don't worry about the money, or the lack of savings - I have my own personal assistant at the MBNA bank that phones and asks if I want my credit limit extended again!

The one I've always laughed at, is how one of the bigger horsepower producing engines is the Ford Cosworth engine, and it dates back to a bottom end from the Seventies . In answer to your question, I think maybe the biggest restriction to the power on a Scoob is the horizontally opposed cylinders that make the exhaust manifold and hence the turbo placement a bit of a nightmare from an engineer's point of view. I have absolutely nothing to back this up bar an opinion so don't ask me to justify it.

Many would say that a set of Teins and Whiteline goodies is as good, but Powerstation stuff is very nice, and usually very well suited to the car.

My wife is thinking it is time to get rid of her 04 WRX SL PPP (but I don't agree). It's got a lot of nice bits on it, but are you after a STi, or is a well spec'd WRX sufficient?

I've got a few 1/18th stuff, including a 22B, a road RS Cosworth and RS500 race car, a RS200, a Mark I RS1600 Escort with the 4 Cibies, a DTM 2.5-16 Merc 190 Evo II, and a few other Mercs. I've got a collection of about 30-40 1/43 diecast in the loft, waithing for me to make a display case one day. My biggest collection is my unbuilt plastic/resin/metal models. This started with me buying the usual Tamiya and Hasegawa high quality kits, and has now blown out of proportion. At a guess I have about 150-180 kits, mostly in the 1/24 variety, but quite a few 1/20, 1/16 and a nice collection of 1/12th with my wildest buy being a Porsche Martini 935 at around 95 quid and another 300 for the detailing kit for it. I don't bear to think what the whole lot has cost me, as anything I buy these days is generally something a bit different in resin, usually at the 80-120 mark. My pride of place though is a built 1/24 kit that I got at an auction - a 2002 bugeye of Petter Solberg, built by a competition winning standard of modeller, then completed with a detailing kit. It was then sent to Prodrive, and apparently chased Petter across 2 WRC events before he personally signed the windscreen. It came with a cap signed by Petter, Stephane Sarrazin and someone else I think. When I get home from holiday, I'll put some pics up.

Now, I'm no expert on the latest stuff but aren't the Brembos on the latest STi the same as those on a Hawkeye STi - if so, then the calipers will definately fit, and am sure a set of uprated discs will be no problem - in fact - just had a brainstorm and checked the DBA disc website and it lists exactly the same upgrade disc on a MY05 STi to a MY08STi, so then the disc on a MY03/04 STi will fit it. The only possible problem is the mounting holes, but I very much doubt that Subaru have changed the distance on these. I would be back on to Litchfields and buy that last set pretty pronto.

Boxter 2.5, basically done a clutch with a clutch arm and master and slave cylinders. The bolts rot at the manifold to silencer, but that is an easy repair with a set of gas torches, and had to do a radiator. Nothing was massively expensive (some are even Audi parts)

I've worked on my mates one, bits weren't too dear from Euro Car Parts. It drove quite nice, and to be honest, if the missus wanted one, I wouldn't complain. Oh, and they are considered to handle better than the "rich man's version".

Ah, but Jimser, you of all people should know, that fitting all that is required to reach a level is no fun at all, exceeding the level is far more satisfying and expensive.

But you could get the discs re-drilled by a machine shop with the correct PCD in between the original holes. They are damn good value at that money and have got to admit I would be heading down this route to start.

A full set of secondhand Brembos from a STi can be had for that, then just a set of shoes from Godspeed to adapt the backs. This then gives you the chance to uprate discs and/or pads at a later date, and makes sourcing such items relatively easy. My missus has this set-up on her 04 WRX, with DBA discs and bells on the front with DS2500 pads, it makes you look like Garfield stuck to the windscreen if you put your foot down hard on them.

71 Seedhill Road, Paisley - 300 yards from Hawkhead Train Station - You would usually ask for Craig, but ask for Scott or Dougie next week as Craig's on Holiday.

Seeing your from Renfrew, you could use a local specialist in Seedhill, Paisley

It sounds more like you have something draining the battery, or a bad earth lead.

The N/S shield can be removed no problem, and the centre section as well. The bottom half of the O/S shield is easy, but access to the top half is difficult, but you could leave it in place. The biggest problem if the car has been in the UK for a long time, is that the bolts holding most of the shields disintegrate as you try and loosen them. Are you going to replace the shields with heatwrap, as it's a wise move to keep the headers very warm to aid the flow of air to the turbo.

That sounds like a right off. That's a shame for such a nice new car. There weren't any undeclared mods that the insurance will try to use as an escape policy, were there?