In the summer of 2004 I caught the track-day bug good and proper. I’d driven on circuit a few times in previous cars: both my TTs and second 330d had seen service at Castle Combe, Goodwood and Anglesey. After selling the BMW I wanted to find a car that wasn’t too expensive to buy, could be modified for track use fairly inexpensively and be practical enough for me to use every day.
I’d been out in a classic (meaning pre-2000) Impreza a few times and knew the reputation they had as a point-to-point car. Here was a vehicle designed for fast driving. Somewhat archaic, perhaps, but with real integrity. I saw past the chav image and went looking for a clean low-miler. The first car I saw was in lovely condition and had been fastidiously maintained by it’s owner. We agreed a price subject to RAC inspection and I started preparing for the handover. Boy was I glad I had that inspection done. It turned out that at some point in it’s life the car had been rolled onto it’s roof. The repairs were good enough to hoodwink me, but the RAC inspector spotted them straight away. To be fair to the seller, I don’t think he knew either, he seemed as surprised as me. He eventually got the supplying dealer to buy it back, so all was well.
Then I became aware of a car being sold by Chris, a salesman at Station Garage in Taplow (a franchised dealer for a number of sporting marques, including Lotus, Mitsubishi and Alfa Romeo as well as Subaru themselves). His engine had blown and was being replaced under warranty. Other than that the car was in great condition and I agreed to buy it subject to the new short engine being fitted. The price was over my budget but was it ever thus? This was offset completely in my mind by the risk-free purchase of a car with a brand new engine, still under warranty.
The only modification I planned was a remap of the ECU and a sports exhaust. This was carried out by Power Engineering shortly after I had run in the new engine. This resulted in a headline power figure of 275bhp, though I’ve since heard that the rollers used to test it had been patched with the Walter Mitty software upgrade: 275 bhp might have been a little optimistic. Still, it was much faster than standard and I now had a car to be reckoned with on track.
Or did I? The first few track days were great fun. The scoob was much faster than either TT or 330d, due in part to the extra power, but also the relatively low weight and genuine 4 wheel drive providing great traction on corner exit. Then I bought some pictures from a track day photographer. I was disappointed to see the car listing so heavily to port that I might as well have been shared a seat with the passenger.
Around the same time, the Impreza made it’s debut on the Nurburgring. Along with a few mates, including the thinkCAR bloggers, I make the annual pilgrimage to the Eifel region of Germany for a few days driving, drinking and sausage eating. This was my first trip and shockingly someone was killed the first day we were there. This set me back quite a long way. I’d done a few track days without feeling in any danger or seeing a single serious accident, now this. It made me look at my own car and see if I was taking all necessary precautions to protect myself. The guy tragically killed was driving a standard road car with no helmet. I always wear a lid on track, but if I lost control and rolled the car, would the seatbelt and helmet be sufficient? I decided not.
Fast forward three months and the Impreza was a very different animal. Gone were the standard suspension and brakes, replaced by AST coilover spring/damper units (from the much-lauded Litchfield Type 25), AP Racing 6 pot front brakes with 335mm grooved discs, and various other suspension tweaks including fairly extreme geometry settings. I also ditched most of the interior to make way for a Safety Devices bolt-in roll cage supplemented by Cobra Evolution bucket seats and Sabelt 4 point harnesses.
Now the car had a surplus of grip and handling over power. You can never have too much poke: as they say, a little too much power is just about right. I decided to fit a bigger turbo. I acquired an IHI VF34 unit for a song, but er, the spending didn’t end there. It’s all very well bolting on a large turbo but this alone would have probably ended up melting number 3 piston, so I had to undertake some serious work to make the engine able to handle the power safely. This entailed fitment of an oil cooler, new fuel regulator and pump and some modifications to the air intake. It was at this time that I attached the absurd carbon-fibre-ish scoop to the bonnet, all in the name of performance you understand. Nothing on this car is done for cosmetic reasons: look at it, how could it be?
The results were very satisfying: on track the car was now properly quick. Able to keep pace with most Lotuses, if not the bonkers Caterham R400s and R500s, I was very happy. Unfortunately I then spotted an even bigger turbo, a Mitsubishi TD05-20g, for sale on Scoobynet. A deal was done and after selling the IHI unit for it’s correct market value, I was only a couple of hundred down. Plus fitting and remapping. Plus electronic boost control. You get the picture.
Now even faster, I drove over to Germany last June for our ‘Ring weekend. On the second lap, hitting the power hard on the exit of Bergwerk: bang. Goodbye 3rd gear. Still, it’s all fixed now. Here’s to a trouble-free 2007. 