Ok well finding this car was completely unexpected. Fresh off the boat, I was looking for a car to get started in and was trawling through all of the used car lots on Windy Hill Road trying to find something appropriate, Neons and Focus's. All of them were very well priced compared to what we were used to back home but they were all boring and if you're gonna drop some money on a car you need one you have a connection with. Anyway, it was the end of the day and we thought lets have a look at the Subaru garage for a laugh, knowing that everything was out of the price range and too performance orientated. So there we were at Ed Voyles Subaru with the salesman desperately trying to get us to walk away with a Forrestor, drove one, it felt terrible. Gawked at the Sti's for a bit and then we moved on. A couple of days later we get a phone call saying an 01 Impreza RS had just came on the lot, now to me this was a, "oh great rub it in why don't you moment!" I had always thought of the Impreza's as turbo beasts from my time in England, it didn't even enter my realm of thought that I could end up driving one. So after grinding away on my dad telling him to at least go have a look so he can say he's driven an Impreza we go. It's a dark rainy night, there's a haze about, and underneath the covered lit entrance, the RS sat purring. My jaw dropped. It was a GC! "What the fuck?!" I thought, how can a 2001 be a GC?! You see, back in England they switched to GD's in 01. Then I found out the price and it wasn't a turbo. I smiled to say the least. We took it for a test drive, had a little fun in a parking lot. Smiled some more, tore the salesman a new arsehole in negotiations and then went home. The next day we picked it up. Some stock goodness there.... didn't last too long as soon as I found out about clear corner lights! Next up I changed the pedals and shift knob and then added some red rock blocker to mask the awful red/amber combo; I then picked up this RB5 fibreglass replica spoiler for about $70, looks good here but a rather nasty crack developed and I spent some time researching how to fix it myself after being quoted $600 for a repair and paint. After a few months I managed to relay the fibreglass myself and then took it to get painted, and here's the result; I then won this on ebay for $90 shipped Took a month or so to arrive but it was worth it! Then the engine fire struck! After a lazy oil change, someone at a dealership cross threaded the plug, pressure built up and it coated the underside of the red hot exhaust system under my car while driving back on 85 South. I heard a pop and looked in my rear view mirror to see a cloud of dark smoke, I thought I hit some sand or something on the highway, moved over a lane to see if it dissappeared, it didn't. Pulled through several lanes of traffic and got out the car to see flickers of flames underneath the front. Here's a pic from the aftermath; Fortunately the wiring withstood the flames, put some fresh oil in there and it was running again! I then bought some rear spats off Kevin on here, when he got a jdm rear bumper; At this point I had a quiet time for a while. Saved up some money until I could afford to get a new suspension system. I did a shit ton of research and was trying to find a high quality system. After seeing some shock dynos, I settled with the GC/AGX combo. Installed: The camber plates didn't work out and the setup made an awful knocking noise with bushings clanging up front. I couldn't afford to buy compatible ones so I sold up and bought some Megans.
I then entered my first autox: Had a blast and bought these rims ($120) for next season And that's how it sits today. I've done a bunch of other stuff I'm sure I've missed out but I think that's enough for now! Actually I left out the jdm seat, but bugger it!
For deffo! I might be in the morning though for the novice runs. Although if I'm able to run again in the Time Only class I might hang around.
wow.....if i was to get an old GC that would be the exact color and model. good eye there! nice job on the mods too, they're just right for the car. will you be at the suby challenge in november? :bigthumb: from a "new school" RS owner
haha I used to think that but I've grown to love the deep metallic shine to this rather than your sickly pale blue
Nice writeup. Do you have your old stock driver's seat still and would you be interested in selling it?
Thanks for the comments! Yep I have the stock drivers seat around, I need to give it a good vacuuming after keeping it in the garage for a few weeks now, just a tad dusty. I would be interested in selling it depending on what I'm offered otherwise I would like to keep it just in case anything ever goes tits up and I have to sell the car.
Cheers, my experience with the Megan coils has been brilliant, can't believe I didn't get them earlier.
Just thought I would continue to update this... As some of you know my back end decided to overtake my front end on a very cold morning and I ended up wrapped around a tree. So unfortunately the BRP baby is dead. It got written off for $9000. The next update in my little blog here should be coming fairly soon!
My new car, a Miata! A 1.8L 1996 MX5 with only 54k on the clock! It's an absolute blast to drive and sometimes feels faster than the RS did. I decided against an RS I was looking at, felt I needed to experience some other types of car and this baby won out. So far it's completely stock. All I have done is change the fluids and the slave cylinder, but basically it's brand new and needs breaking in again. According to the car fax it only did 400 miles each of the last two years! Already broken that by quite some in just over a week! The first upgrade is to replace the god awful generic all seasons with some rt615's. It's a blast to drive. Anyway, here are the pictures: And here's one from a mountain run on Sunday morning: Cheers!
STS2 is not a miata category... the current STS2 national champ, Mike King, won in a CRX.... however the STS2 runner up, Rick Cone, is from Atlanta and rode in a miata. C Stock used to the be "miata only" class untill the solstice came around. The first gen miatas fare pretty well in E stock however they are pretty equal with the third gen MR2. I'd say the only truely "miata" class left is CSP. Congrats on the new car, miata's are always a alot of fun!
When you go to the next AutoX, I'll introduce you to two friends of mine who both race miatas, they'll be able to tell you what's what.
Ask Rick, tall guy usually wearing a bridgestone hat. He's got the aqua colored STS2 miata. If you are going to ask somebody ask the national STS2 runner up. IF you want to know about C stock setup go to Alabama region and ask Clay McCool (former CS national trophy winner).
wow. hadnt been here in a bit and find out the rs got smashed. sorry to see the rs is gone, glad you are ok......you are right? nice miata.
Cheers, yeah I'm fine, well at least I think I am! I need to update the Miata pics. Got some Azeni's, painted the wheels gold and added a rollbar. Pretty much all I'll do while I continue my search for an Impreza L/LX/Brighton for cheap.
That's my baby, 1996 1.8L Miata. Only mods are diy gold rims, diy front lip, and a hard dog rollbar. It looks good for a 12 year old car!
#1 glad you're OK! The tree lost: F# that tree! #2 when you gonna trade that bad ass Mazda for a Suby, Ha! Nice car though, those little cars are runners and they handle reeeel nice! Congrat's