Who needs a body shop, great job

 

Not me!

 

Superb job sir BPR

 

Cheers mate!

 

That's a great FSTI. Really interested to see what you do next...

 

Thanks mate.


Been fiddling with things on the car and tinkering, but nothing big for a little while. I wasn't happy with a slight mark I put on the grill paint job when I was trying to get my kids out of the way of the drying paint, so I completely stripped it and did it again. I also purchased a couple more fog lamp covers that came up for sale (as I know how rare these are). I stripped them and painted them to match the car.


I then had some bespoke STI stickers made for the doors and fog covers in a bronze colour to compliment the wheels and painted the front & rear STI badges to suit. I've also fitted a couple of my own BrownPantsRacing stickers on now very subtly.


I'll post up a few pics if I get a chance tomorrow.

 

Grill re-painted and STI logo detailed.






Rear tailgate STI logo done.





New bespoke door stickers done.





New fog covers painted and fitted with new bespoke STI stickers.





All cleaned and ready for Trax show a few weeks ago.





At Trax with Matty and his beast.








Not too much planned at the moment as I've been rebuilding my garage, rewiring and building benches etc in my spare time.


Still plan to upgrade the stereo as I have a full Hertz front and rear component speaker system to install, the sub, amp etc too. I'll get round to that at some point.


Apart from that I've really been enjoying the car. She is just amazing to drive daily now. Can honestly say it's probably the best car I've ever owned now. Faultless.


Cheers

 

I don't see the subtle BPR decals bro??
Or was you talking about the sti ones you've had made?
Which look sikkk pal

 

Aaaah just got a glimps

 

Yeh I had all the stickers and logos redone how I wanted them and had 2 of my own BrownPantsRacing logo stickers made up too.


I designed my BrownPantsRacing logo some 20 years ago now when I used to race classic A series mini's back in the day. I've used that name ever since.


One on the front & one on the back. Subtle.

 

 

Cheers bud.

 

I have seen a very nice C63 that's taken my fancy, so I MAY be up for selling this for the right offer. In no hurry at all though and if it doesn't sell I'll hang onto it. Love this car.


PM me if anyone is interested.

 

A sad day

Will you be returning her back to standard or selling as is Andy?

 

I can do either as I still have the original wheels, steering wheel and few other bits tucked away in my various man caves. Will most likely sell as it is with everything on it for the right deal.


To be honest, it's not advertised and I'm in no hurry and not going to push it. I love the car and if I end up driving it for another couple of years then so be it! It'll be another 2 years of great motoring.


I've had so many cars over the years and I can hand on heart say this is one of the best if not the best car I've ever owned. Helped by the £6k I've ploughed into it in the last couple of years.

 

First dibs on the steering wheel

 

Oh, and I suppose I should say something along the lines of "it'll be a sad day in Bucks if / when you move on..." blah, blah

I'll also allow you to stand at the end of my drive and look at my motor if you need a fix

 

haha. Thanks mate. Had Subaru's for 10 years and been the longest I've spent in one single marque. Don't wish to leave the clan / weird family to be honest, but Subaru just don't make anything in their current line up that ticks as many boxes as the FSTI and gets the blood pumping as much! So I've been toying with the idea of a C63 for some time. Probably won't happen.


Hand off my steering wheel!!!!!!

 

I know what you mean - only the BRZ grabs me in the Subaru stakes at the moment, but with 2 dogs I'd either have to have 2 cars or just the Forester. Trouble is, I wouldn't know what to jump ship to anyway and it's handy having the garage 1 mile up the road.

 

My obsession with foresters has started to really take hold

 

Yep I like the BRZ too, looks like it could be great fun. Before we had kids, my wife had an RX8 and the BRZ reminds me of that car in many ways. Sensibly powered (not excessive) coupe/sports car that's just great fun to drive without trying to kill you.


Also, been very happy with our local Subaru garage. They've been great.


The C63 I'm looking at is a 4 door saloon, which coupled with the wife's 4 door saloon means I would potentially lose a lot of flexibility. I really love the flexibility of the FSTI and the package as an all-rounder.



Yep, mine did too! hahaha.

 

On that basis it would have to be a Peugeot

 

Very good. If Peugeot did a car I actually liked, it would be handy only having to walk 40 yards to collect it...

 

Peugeot don't make nice cars any longer. Not a car in their range I'd use. Besides, that's a whopping 1.6 miles from my house so that just wouldn't do.

 

So it's probably time for a long overdue project update.

I still have the car (for the moment as I really do fancy a C63 at some point). I’m still using it daily and I still absolutely love this car every time I get into it. There is something about the Subaru marque I just love and something about this car that just feels special to drive.


A couple of weekends ago I felt the very early start of clutch slip in the car as it was going uphill at full throttle heavily loaded. It was only ever so slight and I haven’t felt it again since.


With that in mind I contacted Alyn at AS Performance for a quote on a new clutch and a few other bits and pieces.


I have the Perrin 6 speed quick shift kit fitted to the car (which is great) and have the Perrin lower shifter uprated bushes fitted too now. It’s completely stopped any unwanted gear selector slop front to back, but not side to side. After MUCH research it turns out that the FSTI gear selector universal joint is different to an Impreza, standard Forester, or STI. Typical. This means that the up-rated bushes are just not available for it. Thankfully someone from UKForester.com was able to measure their selector UJ removed from their 2004 FSTI with the same chassis code as mine, so I was able to do a drawing of the new uprated selector bush parts required for mine. See below.



Alyn is now making these for me and supplying these with a few extra parts.


So I’ve just ordered:


Exedy pink box uprated clutch kit for 6 speed
AS Performance Ultra-light billet flywheel
Forester STI AS Performance (BrownPantsRacing) shifter bush kit
New Rear shifter steady assembly
Millers CRX 75/90 gearbox oil
Millers LS diff oil


All of this will be fitted by Rich @ FB Tuning asap after the parts gets here.

J

 

Nice

 

Cheers!

 

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of the lightened flywheel - I've heard a couple of reports from Fox owners who weren't too keen on how it changed the feel of the clutch.

Sounds like you're still having fun

 

I'm sure it'll be fine. I've owned silly cars with paddle clutches and ultra light flywheel before that I've ended up using as daily cars with no issues. It's what you get used to.

I also asked Alyn and Rich @ FB on their opinion on lightweight flywheels and they both said it was a mod well worth doing in their experience. So I went for it!

I'll report back once fitted and bedded in to let you know.

 

AS Performance winter aid packages arrived today!