About 7k worth of goodies extra from a standard STI. Then there was the upgrade seats, satnav tints ect. Have you ever driven one ?

 

I think Immy might have driven a few different Scooby's in his time!

 

 

Sorry I didn't mean any disrespect to the RB320 as it is a great car however in terms of significant changes i.e Engine and Chassis it doesn't really have a sniff on either the JDM STI or SPEC C imho.

Immy

 

I always felt - and this is just my opinion - that the RB320 looked a bit 'bling' with the fussy wheels and grills.

For a car that was meant to be a tribute to Richard Burns, one of rallying's more softly-spoken drivers, it never really hit the right note for me. Surely a performance-orientated special edition would have been more appropriate?

Don't get me wrong, nice cars - just not sure the looks really fitted with the name.

 

In an ideal world yes, I totally agree with you that a raw 22B style limited edition would be a far more fitting tribute to Richard but Subaru UK were obviously balancing warranty vs reliability for day to day driving / UK road worthiness (speed bumps, pot holes etc) / costs vs sales

all of which constraints the JDM Spec C wasnt considered for, hence only import version.


I would imagine if they had gone down the "performance-orientated special edition " you would be seeing a price tag of what the 'cosworth' hatch is , shy of £50k - ok they initially said they sold them all but how many are actually in owners hands and how many still sitting around with cancelled orders!!


You only have to look at the new 2011 Hatch/saloon in standard guise to see that after more then 15 years Subaru UK has actually employed JDM / Spec C suspension as standard but the reflection in the OTR price has jumped £5-6k


Getting back to the thread question, it all depends on what type of drive you want from the Scooby, do you intend to track it a lot, maybe once a year, never!!! is it going to be your daily driver, if so how many miles a day?

this will give you a good guide to the chassis you want , do you want a back breaker or comfort

The hatch and its engine woes seems to be pot luck, however if you buy from a dealer ensure they give you a rock solid warranty and check they will definitely cover the engine if it needs replacing then you have no worries there, my engine blew at 6k miles, been replaced and no on 17k miles (it by far the best I've owned, on my 4th Scooby now!!! - you just need to do a few external mods to make it look better then the hideous standard look lol)

I had considered a R205 but none were available at the time or I would have gone for a JDM

 

Only reg'd it in April

 

If your going down the JDM route then your best bet is to talk to and purchase from Litchfields, plenty of cowboys around that enjoy taking your money and selling you absolute ****!!!

 

Just wanted to point out that although extremely precise, Spec Cs aren't really back breakers suspension wise. I find mine altogether tolerable!

Reliability issues aside both JDMs and UK models are IMHO great cars, although after a lot of consideration my choice for my second Scoob was JDM.

 

Indeed.