1999 Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000

[Gawley20]

Thats a beauty, crackin find and hope you enjoy.

 

[Modmedia]

Thanks lads for all the kind words!

I used to know an old chap called Barry who came from the Birmingham area was big into his scoobys and evos. Ex dunlop test driver in the 60's and a class character. Did it come from that area?

This is from Norwich so not sure it would be the same guy. He traded in a basic Toyota Corolla for it

This is perfect . What sort of bhp do they have ?

They are listed at 218BHP I believe. The previous owner put this on a rolling road around 4/5 years ago (after the STI Backbox) and it made 236BHP so it’s a good healthy engine, it seems. I believe the standard pea-shooter exhaust is very very restrictive so probably accounts for the little

Lovely car, was messaging the seller about the car (in tyrone somewhere?) but didn't pull the trigger with the restrictions at the time. Great buy.

My memory of where I buy most of my stuff isn’t great lol. I think this is my 9th Impreza so they all tend to blend into one. I do remember the house in the arsehole of nowhere and he had a lovely big garage I was envious of lol. I’ll have to check back through my messages and pull the address. The guy was nice in the end but very reluctant to arrange a viewing with lol.

It even had a tow bar!

As for the one in Strangford it wasn’t that one for sure, this has never had a tow bar on it (thankfully) and hasn’t even had mudflaps ever put on it, which I mean surely has to make it the holy grail lol. Death to all mudflaps.

What a find!

Any plans engine wise, in bog standard form they aren't going to light the world alight (probably a bad time to be using that term )

To be honest I think the way forward with these is to keep them standard. For example my heavy-oil daily would dust this car in a side-by-side. For me I don’t think these old classics are about that anymore. I think they are about preservation and enjoying the raw driving experience. They are a rare sight on the roads now and I know I’ve barely been able to fill up without someone coming over and saying they wanted one or had one and want one again.

If it was something with 100k miles plus that was a little bit rough and ready then sure, I’d go for some upgrades. But with this one the only thing I could ever see myself doing is something like a Fujisubo RM01A or something of similar quality that could be easily removed again. Also if I see an OEM Pea Shooter exhaust for sale anywhere in good condition I’ll probably pick it up just to have it

The 'bright' switch is the best bit of high tech on the car

Thats class finding one in that condition

Haha I remember about 10 years ago getting my first classic and being like, oh switch that... does nothing. But then when you realise what it does. Wow. Mind blown. Lol!

Class. Health to drive. Where was this advertised? Expected it to come in from England but seen Tyrone mentioned above.

From memory it was a really poor advert on Gumtree with terrible photos and no mention of the sheer amount of paperwork and history etc. The guy who had it over here was older, as well, and didn’t ever take it out when he brought it back from Norwich. Just another reason for me to buy it because I really despise buying a car that everyone says ‘oh that’s XYZ’s old one’ lol. Just a pet peeve of mine.

That service history is superb. Can you get a nice wee Subaru folder for it?

I’ve been looking. There were a few old genuine Manufacture ones in the car but the amount of sheets outgrew them all. If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them because I get about as much enjoyment out of all the history of a old car as I do driving it nearly lol!

 

[FM155]

This is from Norwich so not sure it would be the same guy. He traded in a basic Toyota Corolla for it.

Nope, not the same guy for sure. When I was working with him he had an Evo 6 TME with the plate E6TME on it. He loved it but was worried about it getting stolen from his front door or someone breaking in for the keys. He went and bought an original Impreza as he was daily driving the Mak and said the temptation to use it was too much most of the time and the Impreza would be a better daily anyway.

 

[Chris0]

I always love you threads for the simple fact you seem so meticulous and detailed when looking after the car. Think it was a Skyline you had previous which first caught my eye to your attention to detail

Love the handling of a Subaru can throw it into the corner and come out the other side laughing! Might have a standard BOV and throttle body I think lying around if you need them. Also a set of 18” OZ if that’s the route your going

 

[Burt2000]

Agree with keeping them standard(ish). I would never do anything to mine that couldn’t be reversed easily. An exhaust and suspension can be changed pretty easily and keep the standard stuff in the shed. Also a remap and fuel pump upgrade just for safety, a few extra horses isn’t such a bad thing either

 

[ALN]

Thanks lads for all the kind words!



This is from Norwich so not sure it would be the same guy. He traded in a basic Toyota Corolla for it



They are listed at 218BHP I believe. The previous owner put this on a rolling road around 4/5 years ago (after the STI Backbox) and it made 236BHP so it’s a good healthy engine, it seems. I believe the standard pea-shooter exhaust is very very restrictive so probably accounts for the little



My memory of where I buy most of my stuff isn’t great lol. I think this is my 9th Impreza so they all tend to blend into one. I do remember the house in the arsehole of nowhere and he had a lovely big garage I was envious of lol. I’ll have to check back through my messages and pull the address. The guy was nice in the end but very reluctant to arrange a viewing with lol.




As for the one in Strangford it wasn’t that one for sure, this has never had a tow bar on it (thankfully) and hasn’t even had mudflaps ever put on it, which I mean surely has to make it the holy grail lol. Death to all mudflaps.



To be honest I think the way forward with these is to keep them standard. For example my heavy-oil daily would dust this car in a side-by-side. For me I don’t think these old classics are about that anymore. I think they are about preservation and enjoying the raw driving experience. They are a rare sight on the roads now and I know I’ve barely been able to fill up without someone coming over and saying they wanted one or had one and want one again.

If it was something with 100k miles plus that was a little bit rough and ready then sure, I’d go for some upgrades. But with this one the only thing I could ever see myself doing is something like a Fujisubo RM01A or something of similar quality that could be easily removed again. Also if I see an OEM Pea Shooter exhaust for sale anywhere in good condition I’ll probably pick it up just to have it



Haha I remember about 10 years ago getting my first classic and being like, oh switch that... does nothing. But then when you realise what it does. Wow. Mind blown. Lol!



From memory it was a really poor advert on Gumtree with terrible photos and no mention of the sheer amount of paperwork and history etc. The guy who had it over here was older, as well, and didn’t ever take it out when he brought it back from Norwich. Just another reason for me to buy it because I really despise buying a car that everyone says ‘oh that’s XYZ’s old one’ lol. Just a pet peeve of mine.



I’ve been looking. There were a few old genuine Manufacture ones in the car but the amount of sheets outgrew them all. If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them because I get about as much enjoyment out of all the history of a old car as I do driving it nearly lol!

I think these are class that were done on m3 cutters but wouldn't likely be feasible as a one off. Maybe get a set of RMS ones done and wee custom plaques depending on your car or something lol

 

[Nickyyy]

^^ thats a real nipple rubber, you can get porfolios made, they run well into the hundreds. Deffo worth it though if you intend to keep a car forever.

 

[ALN]

^^ thats a real nipple rubber, you can get porfolios made, they run well into the hundreds. Deffo worth it though if you intend to keep a car forever.

I think the BMW ones worked out around £60 all in. Would have liked one but missed it at the time. Group buy was minimum 50

 

[Crow555]

That's a proper time capsule car, that's for sure. You rarely see any classic Impreza as original as that, let alone at all for sale nowadays. Very, very jealous.

 

[JonnyG-Tturbo]

That is stunning!!

 

[S2K-Aaron]

Beautiful! Health to enjoy

 

[Modmedia]

Carried out a sympathetic polish, not wanting to remove too much paint (it is 21 year old after all) and wanted to try out a product that I seen getting good feedback.

It’s a ceramic spray coating from Turtle Wax. Yes I know lol... it’s been about 10 years since I used anything from Turtle Wax but a lot of people making noise about this and their Graphene offerings so I wanted to check it out. It’s not going to be the same type of Ceramic as a proper G-Techniq coating, but will be nice to see how it fares. It’s a bit fussy to work with but left a nice slick finish after a clay and polish.

A nice finish when I pulled it out of hibernation today. Yes I know my grass needs cut lol.

Then it was time for a service. After a bit of thought I decided it best to keep the history with Subaru so a trip up to Eastwoods Subaru for a full inspection and Oil and Filter change. Thankfully, the inspection didn’t show up any issues and they serviced the car and stamped the book. So that’ll do it for another 6 months or 7,500 miles. It’s my intention to keep up at least the Oil changes with Subaru in my ownership and continue adding to the massive history file.

Really crappy (Sun was in front of me rather than behind), compulsory dealership picture. Actually stayed pretty clean Ballymena to Lisburn lol.

I got the chance to have a real proper drive on the way home and it really is awesome given the age of it. It’s pretty sharp given it’s just a standard UK car and there isn’t a knock or bang out of it at all. Really pleased with it.

 

[Burt2000]

It looks so good in red when all polished like that, the paint looks in great order.

 

[Modmedia]

It looks so good in red when all polished like that, the paint looks in great order.

Thanks! Overall red is my favourite colour in a car for that very reason. It’s so rewarding to clean a red car. Something I missed with my white/grey cars, of late.

There are a few exceptions. For example an RS Focus must be blue or an ST has to be the Orange... and my favourite colour in classic is actually the blue you have in your avatar picture there. I’d love an STI in that colour but I think my ship has sailed for having big expensive weekend cars for a while lol. I’m too used to having the nice daily 640D back and don’t want to give it up lol. I’d be happy with just it, truth be told. They really are so good at everything IMO and heavily underrated.

Anyways... the only thing next on the list is a few annoying wee parking dents up both sides would like to have those taken care of and then I think that’ll do it!

 

[Burt2000]

Yeah unfortunately for anyone wanting to buy the JDM models have went a bit mad recently but good UK ones are following the same trend so that one you have will certainly go up in value!

I had pin dents took out of 4 or 5 panels on mine last year or maybe it was the year before? I’ve found 2 new ones when polishing it and I don’t know how they have appeared but classic Imprezas are terrible for it with the paper thin panels.

 

[lennyd]

There's just something about the classics. By far my favourite shape of impreza. Would love to get a silver one to build a Fisher replica

 

[Lyons]

Carried out a sympathetic polish, not wanting to remove too much paint (it is 21 year old after all) and wanted to try out a product that I seen getting good feedback.

It’s a ceramic spray coating from Turtle Wax. Yes I know lol... it’s been about 10 years since I used anything from Turtle Wax but a lot of people making noise about this and their Graphene offerings so I wanted to check it out. It’s not going to be the same type of Ceramic as a proper G-Techniq coating, but will be nice to see how it fares. It’s a bit fussy to work with but left a nice slick finish after a clay and polish.

A nice finish when I pulled it out of hibernation today. Yes I know my grass needs cut lol.

View attachment 320249View attachment 320250

Then it was time for a service. After a bit of thought I decided it best to keep the history with Subaru so a trip up to Eastwoods Subaru for a full inspection and Oil and Filter change. Thankfully, the inspection didn’t show up any issues and they serviced the car and stamped the book. So that’ll do it for another 6 months or 7,500 miles. It’s my intention to keep up at least the Oil changes with Subaru in my ownership and continue adding to the massive history file.

Really crappy (Sun was in front of me rather than behind), compulsory dealership picture. Actually stayed pretty clean Ballymena to Lisburn lol.

View attachment 320251

I got the chance to have a real proper drive on the way home and it really is awesome given the age of it. It’s pretty sharp given it’s just a standard UK car and there isn’t a knock or bang out of it at all. Really pleased with it.

Honestly, the perfect Classic right there .

Ive always had a notion for a wagon with Morettes!

 

[Deckz]

Tidy, tidy example.

If that is the original reg, personally I wouldn't change it. I'd keep it so all paperwork is the same.

 

[Modmedia]

Tidy, tidy example.

If that is the original reg, personally I wouldn't change it. I'd keep it so all paperwork is the same.

Thanks!

The original Reg was a cherished plate the guy had so that’s why I’m not too worried about that. But yes I agree if it was original it would have been kept on it.

 

[Mr.Mint]

Please leave this alone.

It's just so nice to see an un-molested one on the roads again.

I genuinely love it.

 

[Modmedia]

Please leave this alone.

It's just so nice to see an un-molested one on the roads again.

I genuinely love it.

Thanks! It really is a rare sight. Don’t worry, I’m an OEM man.

 

[Gambit]

The only thing that you might possibly consider would be to stick the PPP Prodrive ECU in it. it transforms how they drive and is plug&play for MY99/00 cars. The PPP kit was simply an ECU and the Y-pipe from turbo to intercooler. Really does transform how they drive - mid range is great on them and all easily reversible.

 

[Modmedia]

The only thing that you might possibly consider would be to stick the PPP Prodrive ECU in it. it transforms how they drive and is plug&play for MY99/00 cars. The PPP kit was simply an ECU and the Y-pipe from turbo to intercooler. Really does transform how they drive - mid range is great on them and all easily reversible.

Yeah would be fine with anything prodrive, but it’s trying to find one is the hard bit.

 

[Burt2000]

Full prodrive TBE with the cats taken out makes them sound just right too and also gives a few more horses

 

[Mr.Mint]

Thanks! It really is a rare sight. Don’t worry, I’m an OEM man.

Good man