Bought the car Sept 04, 36K miles and had it unmodified for 2 1/2 years as I felt an STI was as fast as you need for the road, and it was.
I did 4 x 20min sessions on a pre Jap Fest day at Castle Coombe (2006), and was impressed with it, but annoyed that a well set-up (i would say that wouldn't I!) Prelude was quicker than me, I had it on the straights, but its cornering and late braking was good so I let him go.
And so the modding began, and after some advice sought (not necessarily sound either), ARB's, DL's, ALK, and Eibach springs were fitted for a more focused track car.
The road holding was amazing and I reckon thats the only mods needed to an Impreza for road use, so much more predictable on the road and I had much more confidence in the car.
Indeed the handling was brilliant and managed a 5th place at 2006 SSO on the handling circuit, powerwise was still standard and a 13.41sec 1/4 was set in the wet at the same event one rainy May weekend.
I managed to get an entry to Round 4 of the Time Attack series at Silverstone, stripped out the car looked like it was on stilts, the car was OK, OE brakes still held out (now with goodridge hoses) and I posted a respectable 1.12 on my flying lap, i was getting 1.33 in the wet on my road/ditchfinder 50 quid a corner tyres, and best in damp/dry practice on toyo R888's was a 1.14 so I was happy with the 2 second jump. I think best in club class was around 1.05
I wanted to go quicker on track, saw an article in Track and Race mag about some quick Subarus and took it down to a dealer for AST suspension to be fitted. Essentially what was done, the dealer took my car to powerstation, where Curtis (who I still pester for advice :lol: )fitted and set up the suspension for fast road/occasional track use, and the dealer charged me full subaru labour prices. I was very impressed with Powerstations work though, the car was very stiff for a daily driver but theres always a compromise. I couldn't get on the Donny finals of 2006 TA but booked 3 track sessions. On track, even on the road settings the car was amazing, very precise, flat through the corners.
end of the year, roll on 2007, although blew a load of money on my other favourite sport - skiing :lol:
) just to give me a bit more personall prep time instead of messing around with car.
