Info on classic impreza's - help needed
 

Hi,


This is one of my first posts on Scoobynet so please excuse my lack of knowledge! For a while i have been into decent power front wheel drive cars but im fancying moving to a 4WD car and really like the classic shape impreza in fairly standard/mildly modified trim (bodywork wise anyway).

I have been looking at classic shape imprezas and im hoping people could give me some advice/opinions on the pros and cons of different models and buying a UK car vs. a JDM import. I have a budget of £5000 and im hoping this will buy me a fairly decent example???


I would be looking to buy a car that has some modifications already (exhaust/wheels/splitters/4pots etc), i have seen a few UK classics which i understand are cheaper to insure than the JDM cars but start with a fairly low ~200BHP. Do you think i would be better off buying a JDM import and accepting that the insurnace would be a little more and the history hard to trace or look for a UK classic that has had some tuning work done to it or buy a fairly std UK classic for less than my budget and tune it up to ~280-300BHP (im not sure what it will take/cost to get to this figure - so any info would be good)


Tim

Some will say uk some will say JDM. But for 5k you could be in a nice JDM Type R. Better spec than any uk classic. DCCD and 280bhp as standard.

I went for a classic STI. all WRX/STI are JDM.

The STI has stronger internals if you want to go for more power. 300 gets boring quickly.

And youl find youll spend tons on a wrx/turbo 200 to get to the power of the STI so probably cheaper inreality to go for the STI.

Clearly you HAVE to buy a good unabused version. Id go for one 100% stock (which i did), was imported into the uk new in 1998, 1 owner since then and full service history with reams of recipts.

5k, probably puts you in type R territory, which will get you DCCD and 3 doors. thats it, for a couple of k premium.

STI is best value for money id says.

Also the JDM STI's come very highly specced, i.e. climate contol, leccy mirrors n windows allround etc etc.

Please excuse the ignorance - what does DCCD mean????


Also does anyone ahve any info on insurance cost differences? Im 25 with 7 years NCB living in a fairly decent area - looking to understand if the dirrerence between UK 200 and a JDM is huge or not.


Also am i correct in thinking the STi's have a higher rev limit?


Tim

DCCD = Driver Controlled Centre Diff?? Something like that anyway. It means you can adjust the amount of power going to the front & rear wheels.

Driver controlled centre differential. I am 24 in the same boat as you, I pay £1450 all mods declared ( not many) on 97 WRX. In contrast to that I could get insured on a Turbo 2000 for about £1k. WRK redline is at 7500 and STI is at 8000 rpm.

Hi I'm 25 just renewing my insurance now with 1 claim against my name from 07, 4yrs NCB, live in a fairly good area and have just been quoted £730 for the year on 7000 miles by a company called Subaru insured, seem good value.

As for which one to get, I've got a 99UK Turbo 2000 with Prodrive Performance Pack @ 250BHP, which is a good base to start with I think, in between the UK model and the JDM WRX/STI's, so keeps insurance at reasonable level for the first few years and gives you that same thrill as the STI's for me! It's not all about power, if you've got one that has better suspension and handles nice then it completely changes it all, makes the car 100 times better than standard and insurance isn't hit so hard with those type of mods i've found.

For £5K you could buy mine. Anyone who knows Imprezas and reads the cars spec list will know what needs to be done has been :thumb:

https://www.scoobynet.com/private-sa...d-edition.html

Its JDM but been in UK since new and has every bill and receipt since purchase. Only one owner before me. Loses nothing to an STI in terms of speed and much cheaper to insure.

I have a W-Reg UK Turbo. I agree its not all about power.

However, for three years I have been running with 273bhp/273lbft - plenty of go and early spool-up with the standard TD04 turbo.

Costs about a grand to get a standard UK Turbo up to that power - exhaust/filter/remap.

I was quite happy with that power until recently decided to go for more.

So, now running 325bhp/320lbft and I have been grinning from ear to ear for the last month.

Bigger turbo (VF35) - which means later spool-up but much bigger bang when it kicks in, and instead of running out of puff @ 5.5k rpm now pulls all the way to 6.5k-7k redline.

Cost about another grand again to get where I am now with it - needed uprated fuel pump/intercooler piping and a tweak of my original Ecutek map.

:thumb: