Well, surprised that no other thread seems to have appeared on this topic....

Iain's Type 25 gains second spot in Autocar's Britain's Best Driver's Car feature....

For the record, the Noble M400 wins.
The Evo VIII MR FQ-340 is fifth.
And the M3 CSL is ninth.

Lap times round Brands Hatch?

M3 CSL 54.75 secs
Evo FQ 340 56.4 secs
Type 25 55.5 secs
Noble M400 52.6 secs

 

How did the Clio do??

 

PMSL!!

 

The clio was obviously towing the Noble

 

LOL but it was only slightly Modded, Towbar

Tony

 

Funny you should ask mate....

A p1ss poor 60.0 sec lap.... Came 13th in the rankings overall.

'Course, it was only lightly modded....

 

These mags crack me up. One minute a car is great the next its rubbish. Take it all as lightly as possible guys. Next week the smart car will get a 45second lap time and win hands down cos its so light, lmao

 

what's the deal with the type25? is it a 2.5 litre?

 

Yep its 2.5,different suspension,exhaust,remapped,etc loads of difference from the STI10 on which its based...

 

Yeah - big tributes to Iain Litchfield for developing and sourcing.

 

Howd the CTR do, lap time wise? (heard it got slated)

 

I thought a standard Spec C was quicker than an M3 CSL? how come the "more powerful" T25 was slower?

Im not having a go......just i remember that artical that is always passed about with the CSL, spec C and GT3 in it.....

just curious.

 

In that test the M3 CSL was 0.35 seconds quicker around bedford Autodrome than the Spec C so no it wasnt quicker around the track and that was with a normal driver putting the cars through their paces wheras in the Autocar article all cars were timed whilst being driven by the touring car driver.

 

Maybe the Spec C wasn't standard then......

 

Dont Litchfields remap the spec C's to 335 bhp and about the same torque though?
Where was the WR1 Mike?

 

go on mike tell all

 

Not sure, but I'm not in control of Subaru's Press cars!

Iain has a good relationship with Autocar as he accompanies his cars on every test, that's perhaps why he was asked to take his car along and keep an eye on it.

Look out for Rally XS next week to see what Chris Harris thinks of the WR1

Mike

 

So where do you place the WR1 against its opposition in the Spec C and Type 25?

 

Based on what criteria? Road? Track?

What version of SpecC? As it leaves Japan, the version with the normal 'comfort' items or the spec that Litchfield sells or the spec that the Press drive?

Is an Official Importer/Manufacturer warranty important or is is just how fast it is in a straight line when you abuse the transmission?

Too big a question to answer in one line really but I know what I would want and we've got two of them..... as well as some of the others

Mike

 

More tellingly mike, do you think there is a bigger market for the kind of car Litcho is producing with the T25?

Is it the sort of car you would like to be producing, taking away the restraints of IM / commercial reality?

Surely its only a matter of time before the Impreza (in whatever form it lives on in after 06/07) comes in the 2.5 litre guise with an ATD-style system anyway?

 

Not sure if it was quicker, but they were tested together in Evo, that alone says volumes, when comparing rather large price difference.

£60k for CSL and £20 odd for a Spec C! CSL does sound awesome though, nice movie of CSL around the ring on fastdrive!

Here is some times at Bedford autodrome in back of Evo.

Radical SR3 1.16.45
Porsche GT3 1.19.40
BMW M3 CSL 1.19.95
Spec C 1.20.30
Evo VIII FQ300 1.21.90
TVR T350C 1.22.65

and middle of the list

*Unmoddified* Clio V6 255 1.24.15
Rarri 575M Fiorano 1.24.55
STI PPP 1.25.15

And six from the bottom:

Pug 106 GTI 1.30.95 (not bad for an aging hot hatch, I say, I say not three bad for an aging hot hatch). I bet it cocked up it's back leg aroudn the corners too Mr. Clarkeson!

To conclude the Radical kicks **** Spec C slightly slower than CSL but not much, not much for £40k difference in price for sure!

 

Called Mike and all sorted now

The confusion comes from the perception that the JDM cars have 330bhp as standard. As I have said in numerous threads before when I have tested std (fresh of the boat) JDM STI or Spec Cs at Powerstation they have made around 285-290bhp and similar torque. We however remap all our MY03+ JDM cars and this brings their power to around 300bhp at Powerstation & 325 bhp at PE (not to say either one are more accurate). With the Milltek exhaust system we will see between 315-325bhp at Powerstation (depending on Mileage etc etc) but have not tested a car at PE yet.
All of the magazine articles mention that the car is remapped and has our Milltek sports exhaust fitted and most customers go for this option as well. I think people see the fiqures in print and presume that all cars are the same.

I hope the makes some sence

Iain
www.litchfieldimports.co.uk

 

seems to me like theres some sour grapes going around at the moment and frankly I can see why.... everytime I read or see anything about the wr1 it seems that it contradicts especially the timings we have been told.

For everyones sake I hope that Prodrive get an invite to one of these testing days to finally prove exactly what the car can do.

Iain lit has proved it time and time again as far as i'm concerned fair play to iain for attending and backing the product he sells up.

I just don't understand why Prodrive don't get invited???

 

If you ever need an assistant Iian, I am sure i could find space in my diary

Well done with Type 25 - sterling effort, some excellent PR as well!

 

lol @ mike wood,

I have never seen such a bad case of the green eyed monster in all my life.

I like the way you suggest dishonesty with a , nice display of intergity that!

 

having driven a spec c,wr1 and t25 i know which one i would drive-t25
the wr1 was nice but not as fast or as smooth as t25 which pulls from 1500rpm!! with the wr1 not having good enough overtaking ability compared to my car or the t25 but as i am sure people will point out it is probably the best prodrive could do due to IM limitations etc but the t25 must hold the subaru crown
martin

 

And the worrying thing is that it's not even produced out of the box by Subaru....

 

If you want a REALLY quick Impreza, buy a MY00 Classic (16% lighter) for under £10k and stick a 2.5 US block in it, sort the brakes and suspension, and help yourself to more bhp-per-ton than a 911 turbo. There will be a few of these cars rolling around soon, including mine

Okay, it's not quite that simple but it's not that hard, either. If you fancy a go, new 2.5 US short motors can be had for around £1,400 all-in. See the Group Buy forum.

Richard.

 

or speak to mark aigin at lateral performance to avoid the grief of going through a organisation and waiting of a group buy!

 

Adam

In no way am I saying that Iain has done anything that is remotely dishonest, just the opposite.

All the tests that have featured his cars accurately list the spec and state that he remaps the cars and in most cases thay have a different exhaust fitted, hence the 325/335 or whatever bhp that is quoted. He is more than upfront about this.

Where it all falls down is the people read the article and assume that ALL SpecC's have this power output when the reality is very close to the figures quoted by Subaru themselves.
Having driven several JDM cars recently I can tell you that they are a lot less than optimal if they are still running the std JDM calibration as it just doesn't work on our fuel and you would be seriously disappointed with the engine if you jumped in a std SpecC or STi expecting it to feel like it has 335bhp.

Mike