Tag Archives: Subaru

Project GC8: Taking Care Of Business With ST Suspensions

July 31, 2021 admin

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Project GC8: Taking Care Of Business With ST Suspensions – Speedhunters

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Welcome to another instalment of Fixing Broken Old Japanese Cars On My Driveway.

On today’s episode, we’ll be swapping out a set of old Cusco coilovers for a set of brand-new ST Suspensions XTA items. And because there’s a list of things to do as long as my arm, I’ll be tackling each one individually until Project GC8 – my 1999 Subaru Impreza WRX Type RA 555 Limited – is where I want it to be. Even if that means doing them in a non-traditional order.

I’ve been a Speedhunters contributor for nearly a year now, and in addition to hunting down all the raddest cars (and meeting some fantastic people along the way), it’s also exposed me to some of the coolest products, upgrades and tech available on the market. Which is dangerous when you’re embarking on your own project.

One of those is ST Suspensions, whose parent company happens to be KW Automotive. And we’re all familiar with the incredible work KW does when it comes to making cars handle infinitely better, be that for road use or motorsport.

How does ST Suspensions fit into this? Well, ST Suspensions are like an entry-level point into KW. They still boast quality and handling improvements, but at a more affordable price for a wide selection of vehicles. Plus, when you’re ready to delve into the world of high-performance or track solutions, you can easily make the jump to KW.

You might remember from a previous update that I took the Impreza on a five-hour road trip up to Nagano recently, so the idea of a 2-way motorsport-specific kit might be slightly wasted on my daily. One thing did stand out from this trip however: the old Cusco coilovers fitted by a previous owner performed as well as they looked. Terrible.

The rebound adjusters were either seized or spinning freely, meaning there was no way to tell what setting they were on. If I had to guess, I’d say the fronts were set for time attack and the rears to try and mimic a Toyota Century. The whole car felt completely different at each corner.

Thankfully, ST Suspensions had the perfect solution in the form of their XTA coilover kit. This is one of their top-of-the-range solutions which boasts ride height adjustment and rebound as well as camber-adjustable top mounts. But what made this kit particularly special was the customization ST currently offers on all their coilover kits.

Not only could I choose a custom spring colour, but also a neat little message which would be printed on each spring. Have a little scroll down to see what I went for; it seemed fitting given this particular car and the questions I’m usually asked about it.

Yup, that’s cherry blossom pink – the iconic STI colour. And a little text to remind myself that this project is very much being built and not bought.

Why choose ST over KW in this instance? Well, the ST XTA coilover uses the damper technology and components as found in KW coilover kits. They’ve even built in the same factory. But there’s two main differences – the materials being used and the price, with one of those directly affecting the other. KW units use a full stainless steel strut, whereas ST ones use galvanized zinc-coated steel to bring the price down – perfect for a project like this.

With all my parts and tools ready, I set aside a day to remove the old Cuscos and install the new ST XTA units. I have limited experience fitting coilovers, but failure to prepare equals prepare to fail.

Needless to say, as I unbolted the old coilovers something strange happened. All the bolts came loose… with no rounding. No threading, seizing, nothing. Each coilover emerged from its housing with no bloodied fists, and I held each up into the sun like Simba in that scene from The Lion King.

There’s a good reason for this. Firstly, it’s a clean Japanese car. Secondly, it’s never seen a salted road. The engine may be in need of love, but the rest of the car has been looked after meticulously and not subjected to a life of grime, salt or mud. The last Subaru I changed coilovers on was my Forester STI – a Japanese import that’d spent a year in the UK. You guessed it, that process was the polar opposite to this one.

With the old units out, I gave the hubs a quick clean (as well as the top mounting points) ready to offer up the ST XTA units. The fit is perfect; no need to cut or adjust anything even to get the camber-adjustable top mounts in. I nearly fainted, although that might have also been the 30+°C weather.

The only downside was the clearance for the Cusco strut brace, but it’s a small price to pay for otherwise perfect fitment both at the top and into the hub too.

It kept getting better, too. With the ST units firmly in place, I could connect the brake lines and ABS sensor in the provided tabs. No messing, no need for cable ties – just perfect integration with the OEM clips. You’ll have to excuse my surprise here, but that’s what a lifetime of car tuning does to you. A simple, easy fitting process shouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s a welcome change, especially when embarking on the install yourself.

The rears? Exactly the same story. The STI top hats I purchased fit perfectly too, slotting snugly around the damper piston with a satisfying click, the springs firmly held in place with a billet aluminium centering piece. Everything went together as if it were OEM.

To get a basic height, I took measurements off the old units and set the ST XTAs to what I thought would give a similar height. Compared to the heavy, seized spring perch of the Cusco ones, the ST springs move freely meaning ride height can be adjusted in seconds.

As an added bonus, the ST XTA spring perches are made of a friction-optimised polyamide composite material with a stainless steel insert. Sounds jazzy, right? Essentially, that prevents any corrosion occurring between the spring and the strut body. Technology passed down from the halo KW range.

Once I set the front and back heights, I took a step back to see how the car sat. The fronts were a bit low and the rear far too high. No issues however, simply jack it back up, wind the springs down and continue until happy.

It’s difficult to see in the photos, but the rear wheels have positive camber due to the ST XTA lower hub mounting tabs (which are more in line with the OEM shape) versus the old Cusco units which increased camber. It’ll need proper alignment and setting anyway, so this will get resolved later on.

I’ll get on to that once I’ve got the rest of the mechanics and bushings up to scratch. Remember that list I was telling you about earlier on? Yup, it’s a big one. And I’ve just added a wheel alignment to it, but it’ll be absolutely worth it in the end.

Even with my limited tools and experience, it’s been a properly rewarding process fitting my Impreza with this XTA coilover kit. What I anticipated to be a pig of a job turned out to be super easy, and it won’t be long until the fun really begins.

I say that, because on the next episode of Fixing Broken Old Japanese Cars On My Driveway I’ll be pulling out the EJ boxer engine, breaking it open and (attempting) to replace the internals. On my kitchen table.

The anxiety is already kicking in, but until then it’s time to go put some more miles on Project GC8.

Toby Thyer
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SH Garage: Pushing The Limits Of Project GC8

June 29, 2021 admin

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SH Garage: Pushing The Limits Of Project GC8 – Speedhunters

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The Purchase

There are two ways in life: the quick way and the long way. If we use food as an analogy to unfold this deeply profound philosophy, the quick way is Uber Eats and TV dinners, while the long way is slaving over a hot stove while following a Michelin-star chef’s recipe and feeling a real sense of achievement when belts are loosened at 9:00pm.

Almost everything in life is better when we take the time to savour the moment and really put in the hard yards. It allows us time to make plans, contemplate outcomes and work out how to get there. It also helps to eliminate any chance of things going wrong, although, Sod’s law dictates that something will always go wrong. Bracing for the inevitable, the best we can do is take it slow and do it properly the first time.

As they say, if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. These profound words of wisdom also ring true when it comes to building cars. And when it comes to modifying or repairing our pride and joy, the stakes are a little higher.

I’ve learnt my lesson in the past, rushing things with my project cars and ultimately making them worse. This one will be different, or at least that’s the plan.

As is often the case with rare old cars, my GC8 was at the other end of the country, which meant I bought it sight unseen after a late-night, Asahi-fuelled Yahoo! Auctions Japan bidding battle. Win!

To be fair, the car was very true to its photos and listing blurb. Mostly. The body is straight and paint the is excellent, but unfortunately some specifics were omitted from the mechanical description. The ad stated: “engine runs fine with no problems, but 3rd gear sometimes pops out.”

The latter part of that statement I could deal with, because a 6-speed swap from a newer GD series STI was on the cards regardless. But the first half of that statement did not really tell the full truth. While the engine did indeed run fine, boosting nicely and not leaking oil from every orifice, there’s a subtle rattling sound coming from deep within.

I’m generally a pretty trusting guy, and even more so in Japan where I stupidly think that people are 100% trustworthy and honest. Because of this I didn’t really listen carefully to the engine when I collected the car, and with a photoshoot to get to I simply drove my auction win away into the sunset.

After the shoot I stopped to take some pics of the new car, and in the quiet of the night it was soon obvious that the engine did in fact have a problem. By the time I emailed the seller, I was told “I didn’t hear anything, why didn’t you say something?”

Honestly, I’m actually at peace with the whole thing and looking forward to replacing the engine’s innards soon. Considering how much I won it for at auction, I’m pretty happy anyway.

The Trip

Before I start pulling the WRX apart and replacing everything, I wanted to see what the weak points of the car are. A visual inspection would have probably been enough, but where’s the fun in that?

When I headed to Nagano Prefecture for an event recently, I had two choices: take the toll roads and get there in two hours, or take the scenic route and get there in five. Obviously, I decided to go the long way and make a kind of touring holiday out of it. It would be a good opportunity to just enjoy the car before it goes in for surgery. After all, taking things slow is my new zen, remember?

Pushing the plucky little Impreza through the twisting mountain roads, it was easy to imagine how McRae and Burns must have felt on WRC tarmac stages. The sparse interior allows a direct connection to the outside world; the rush of the wind, growl of the motor and gentle pssshhh of the turbo blow-off valve make every corner a delight.

And boy, there were a lot of corners.

Taking the scenic route means leaving Kanagawa Prefecture, going past Mt. Tanzawa and heading into the highlands of Yamanashi Prefecture. From there it’s a couple of hours driving through the Minami Alps past Mt. Kita (Japan’s second largest mountain after Mt. Fuji) and Mt. Aka until finally arriving in Nagano Prefecture where Nagano City has an altitude of 371.4m.

Even though I had an evening photoshoot to get to, I could not resist stopping at what seemed like every mountain pass to take photos of either the car, the road or the view. It’s a trip that I won’t forget any time soon. A soak at one of Nagano’s local onsen was a welcome respite from the day’s drive.

The Test

This isn’t the first road trip I’ve had in Project GC8. Some of you may remember I that I drove it home from Tokushima, a 12-hour trip, if not you can check out that story here. What I didn’t tell you was that, because of the aforementioned engine issue, I babied it, keeping revs under 4,000rpm for most of the way.

That’s why this trip was so much fun. I just stopped worrying about things and just enjoyed the drive. Knowing that I’d be replacing most of the engine, I wound down the windows and removed the exhaust silencer which drowned out the mild-but-ominous ticking from under the hood. I wanted to see how the suspension components had held up after years of track use. I was never going to really lean on it, because I didn’t want to be stuck on a mountain with a conrod lodged in my radiator, but I could at least hit boost every now and again and focus on the handling.

Admittedly, to really test the limits of an Impreza, it really needs to be driven on a track, but with very few cars on the road, I was able to attack the tight corners of these mountain roads with enough vigour to get an idea of how things are holding together. Surprisingly, the tired and worn Dunlop Direzza tires did a pretty decent job keeping grip.

Less surprising was the lack of body roll through these corners. The Cusco half cage and strut tower braces make the chassis and body very tight indeed with little-to-no flex. Steering is direct and basically the GC8 will just go anywhere you point it. However, left-hand turns induce an irritating squeal from the steering pump and right-hand turns invokes a lovely whir from the front drive shaft, or somewhere in that vicinity.

Once I started pushing the car through some serious corners it became obvious that each side of the car was handling differently; the left side hard and the right side soft. When you’re driving a car renowned for its balance and low center of gravity, having mismatched coilovers is like Usain Bolt running with a trainer on his left foot and a stiletto on his right.

The Verdict

Overall, despite the elephant in the room (or in the cylinder block), the little Impreza is in good structural and cosmetic condition and is an absolute joy to drive. It’s a very direct, visceral and sensory-tickling experience which will only improve with some attention to its worn parts.

As I’ve said before, these cars were never built from the factory as rally cars or track weapons. Basically, they were sold – especially in the case of the Type RA – as a base car for works teams, privateers and hobbyists to build into race cars as they deemed fit. Subaru were not, and still are not, a big company compared to the likes of Nissan and Toyota, so manufacturing costs had to be kept low in some places to make any profit. Considering that 99% of this car is stock, I think it’s held up pretty well.

Half of the modifications it does have are inside the cabin. There’s a Sparco bucket for the driver, HKS boost meter and a Lamco triple gauge set, a Momo wheel and of course an ETC reader who reminds you to insert your card every time you turn the key.

Being a Subaru, this one, like most, has lived a colourful life, and it’s been setup for light track work and spirited road driving. It came with some extra goodies, those I’ve mentioned already plus a Cusco rear diff brace and master cylinder stopper, as well as Endless brake lines and pads.

The weak points are definitely all the bits made of rubber. After 22 years and 170,000km it’s safe to say all the suspension bushings need replacing with OEM STI items. The engine, gearbox and rear diff mounts could all probably do with being upgraded to poly bushings too. Further inspection found a ripped open steering rack boot.

The Next Step

So, what’s next? Well, like a newlywed couple planning their honeymoon weekend away in Tahiti, I’m busy planning the purchase of all the new internal parts for the EJ boxer engine. It’s all very exciting, although I’ve never got as far as a honeymoon so I can’t compare.

The Cusco coilovers have to go because they have either not been looked after or have just given up the ghost of their own accord. Thankfully, one of Speedhunters’ fantastic Official Suppliers has stepped in to help in this department, and I look forward to bringing you that story in due course.

Toby Thyer
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tobythyer.co.uk

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When Homologation Ruled The Roads

October 17, 2020 admin

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When Homologation Ruled The Roads

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Dawn Raid

Homologation is the process of certifying or approving a product to indicate that it meets regulatory standards and specifications.

For a period though, homologation was a byword for some of the most incredible machines to ever grace our roads.

There’s an Evo VI. And another. I think that white one’s an RS? Better go for a closer look. Yep, manual windows, no parcel shelf behind the rear seats. RS. Oh, it’s got 6-pot AP Racing caliper, big discs, and semi-slicks too. Good.

More 4G63 rumble reaches my ears as another Lancer trundles past. It’s an Evo III this time, red (rare for a III, some distant part of my brain recalls), and it sounds a bit like Tommi Mäkinen’s Group A car.

This is nice. I’m starting to get jittery, but that nice, excited sort of jittery that causes a smile to spontaneously spread across your face.

It’s 7:00am on a dry, crisp Saturday morning at a fuel station somewhere between Cork and Kenmare, Ireland. A fuel station that 10 minutes ago was deserted – aside from a van or two delivering bread and other supplies – but now plays host to nearly 20 homologation specials.

The sky is just beginning to lighten as people brim their tanks, chomp on sausage rolls, puff on cigarettes and sip coffee, all the while attempting to take in the scene around them, just like I am.

A red Tommi Mäkinen Edition Evo VI sits quietly beside a Quattro. Three E30 M3s (one of which is an über rare Sport Evolution model) idle impatiently. One has its bonnet open and the moonlight and floodlights glint off the carbon fibre DTM-style air box. It’s also got yellow-tinted headlights, and a sticker on the rear window that reads ‘MOTUL, Partenaire Competition De BMW France’. I could spend the morning just looking at this one car alone, but it’s time to go.

Many people in the country aren’t yet out of bed, but most of us have been up since 5:00am, some even before. There are still more cars wending their way down the country to our main meeting point, located 30 minutes from here. I’ve been awake since 3:30am, unable to sleep with sheer excitement.

Our mission? To catch the sunrise on one of Ireland’s best roads with as many homologation hero cars as we can muster. Already, it looks like we’ve hit the jackpot. What started as a conversation between Cian and I and some exploratory messages to people we knew has led to something we’ve called ‘Rallye Omologato’, and to do these fantastic cars justice Cian, Ross, Ruaidhri and I are capturing it for Speedhunters.

The Joy of Driving

What follows is one of the best drives of my life.

I’m lucky enough to have been entrusted with Cian’s pristine Peugeot 106 Rallye for the day, one of the coolest homologation specials ever made. Its singular purpose was to rally, and creature comforts like electric windows, central locking and even power steering were deemed superfluous to that cause. What it does have is a screaming little 1.3-litre engine that makes what feels like 95 of its claimed 100hp arrive in the last 1,000rpm of its rev range, a close-ratio gearbox to keep it on the boil, and such low mass that you genuinely don’t need to brake for anything but the sharpest of turns. Oh, and deer. Better make sure to brake for the deer.

The road from Kenmare to the foot of Tim Healy Pass starts out by running alongside Kenmare Bay, before cutting inland and climbing, then dropping back down on the run to Lauragh, where we’ll meet the rest of the group before scaling the pass itself.

A gaggle of Subarus and their headlights that I could see in my mirrors leaving Kenmare become fainter and fainter, and without any giant effort the little 106 is out on its own. It’s so small and agile that you can carve out a line even while sticking firmly to your own side of the road, the uncorrupted steering telling you exactly what the front tyres are doing while a little throttle lift gets the rear axle moving slightly and tucks the nose in even further when needed. I don’t want this drive to end, but in what feels like mere minutes I’ve come across the remainder of the group.

More Imprezas and Celicas catch my eye as I park up. The blue Impreza STI that had been immediately behind the 106 parks up a short time later, the driver and passenger questioning my sanity as they recount failing to see the Peugeot’s brake lights once and struggling to keep up in their vastly more powerful AWD weapon. What a cracking little car this Rallye is.

Homologation

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At this point, it’s probably worth speaking a little bit about homologation. Defined as ‘the type approval process through which a vehicle, a race track, or a standardised part is required to go for certification to race in a given league or series’, in relation to competition cars it meant that a certain amount of closely-related road cars had to be built to qualify or ‘homologate’ them for racing and/or rallying. With the FIA’s various alphabetical Group regulations (Group A, Group B, Group C, Group N and the stillborn Group S) taking over from Groups 1 to 7 in the early 1980s, and Group B’s wild and short-lived reign coming to an abrupt end in 1986, Group A became the premier category in world and domestic-level rallying.

It’s cars that were built to qualify their competition cousins for those regulations that are most in abundance on this particular morning, though there are a couple of delightful outliers (Alpine A110, a brace of Quattros, an Evo VIII and ‘hawkeye’ STI) also in attendance, along with some tasty modern road cars driven by friends who are down to watch and help out.

Group A initially mandated 5,000 road-going cars be built with 500 ‘Evolution’ models allowed, though this was later reduced to 2,500. Expensive this may have been, but for manufacturers who wanted to win it was expense worth every penny.

Group A gave us the Escort Cosworth, Lancer Evolution, Impreza WRX STI and Celica GT-Four, but before any of those, Group A gave us the E30 M3, a touring car that also happened to be quite a fantastic tarmac rally car.

Rallye_Omologato_Pic_By_Ruaidhri_Nash (27)

Reaching the top of the Healy Pass with the sun rising over the hills in the distance, I step out of the ticking and pinging Peugeot and barely have time to catch my breath before I hear the unmistakable induction sound of the carbon fibre air box-equipped M3. There isn’t a puff of wind, the temperature is more than agreeable, and the road below glints in the light, twisting this way and that between rocks and streams. The surface is perfect, though some loose gravel sits on the outside of the tighter corners, ready to catch and punish any misdemeanour.

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I can’t believe how good this E30 sounds, and wonder if it’s possible for carbon fibre air boxes to be made mandatory for owners to fit. Thankfully, Ross was on hand to capture the noise, as well as create a stunning video of the day.

Shortly after that two Evos arrive, followed by what could pass for a pretty decent entry list on any 1990s rally you care to mention. I lose count of the Imprezas, three of them looking especially works-y on wheels remarkably similar to what Colin McRae would have used on L555 BAT back in the day. There are Celicas including the delightfully retro-futuristic ST165, a brace of Delta Integrales, and a Clio Williams that instantly reminds me of Jean Ragnotti doing amazing things with little more than a handbrake and a strong pair of driveshafts.

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Snappers Cian and Ruaidhri and videoman Ross have taken up position further down the road, and it’s time to get things moving in order to make the most of the glorious morning light and traffic-free road. Lining up cars in queues of eight, we let them off one at a time with gaps between to ensure everyone gets a nice run over the Healy hairpins. The cars turn at the bottom and make their way back up before the next group are released, and the smiles on the occupants’ faces say it all.

It’s a surreal morning. As cars make their way up and down to be captured in video and stills, people mill around admiring each other’s machines, talking about this and that and reminiscing about the old days when these road racers were ten-a-penny. Coupled with the smell of fuel lingering in the cold morning air, I don’t think there’s anywhere else I’d rather be in the world at this moment.

Rallye_Omologato_Pic_By_Ruaidhri_Nash (18)

Watching an early Impreza WRX STI Type RA take on the road, its non-standard anti-lag and Group A-style exhaust making an awesome racket, it’s hard not to think about times past when Group A rally cars devoured this road in the hands of heroes like Fisher, McHale, Meagher and many more.

This piece of road is one of the all-time classic tests in Irish rallying, and has been used as a stage on the Circuit of Ireland and Rally of the Lakes on countless occasions. As rally cars evolved and got quicker and quicker, the road and its challenges have stayed the same. Its stunning mix of scenery, sight lines, surface and history means I cannot think of anywhere better in Ireland to celebrate the era of the homologation car.

A Change Of Time

As time has moved on for the heroic drivers mentioned in the previous paragraph, some tragically no longer with us, so time has moved for this type of car. Once Group A gave way to the World Rally Car rules in the World Rally Championship from 1997 onwards, the requirement was no longer there for manufacturers to build these kinds of competition-geared specials in order to compete. Subaru and Mitsubishi soldiered on for many years after, though they would be the exceptions.

We probably didn’t appreciate it at the time, but for a rally fan to be able to drive something pretty close in character to the beasts driven by their idols on the world’s rally stages was incredibly special. As one attendee commented, ‘If you’re into football or rugby or whatever, you can easily go out and buy a jersey or kick a ball. A homologation car is a bit more expensive to obtain, but you really get a sense of what the Group A cars might have been like to drive.’

In Ireland, the Celtic Tiger boom economy meant floods of special Japanese imports in the 2000s. Cars were flying in through the ports and car-mad young people with cash to burn were snapping them up and chopping and changing on the regular. Some recall going through over 10 Evos, for example. These days, prices on homologation specials are sky-high, and to find a decent specimen takes a fair bit of work. That’s what is even more impressive about today; the standard of the vehicles on show is incredible, but there are no shed or trailer queens here. Everything is driven properly, the way they were designed and built to be.

We don’t have an example of every homologation car made (amazingly in a country full of Cosworths of Sierra, Sapphire and Escort variety, not one was present), but that’s something to aim towards for the next time.

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With the filming and photography almost wrapped up, we head to a local quarry that the owner has kindly agreed to let us use to stage the cars for a final group shot. Yet again, it’s hard to know where to look. Seeing any one of these cars would raise a petrolhead’s pulse, but to have this many together is almost a sensory overload. A final run back over the Healy Pass and a long, relaxed lunch by the quay at Kilmakilloge (yet another famous rally-related location) allows people to unwind and try to take stock of the day. To a man, everyone is on a high. Other people eating and drinking aren’t sure what to make of this raucous bunch of cars, but more than a few go for a wander around the car park and ask interested questions of the owners.

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We’ve been in our own little rally dreamland for the last few hours, so coming back into the real world begins to make us realise how incredible that morning really was.

Driving back home in convoy with a small selection of the attendees, the last few kilometres coming up in the mighty 106, my thoughts turn to my childhood and seeing Group A cars on the rally stages and their road-going counterparts passing my front door sometimes that same day or week. I remember it so vividly, and it had a profound effect on my passion for cars and motorsport, as I’m sure it also did for countless others. Today’s youngsters won’t get that, and that’s really quite sad. Sure, Toyota is building the GR Yaris which is in the same mould as the cars we’ve gathered today, but one manufacturer doing that out on its own isn’t nearly enough. The era of the homologation special will never be repeated, and for that reason we should celebrate them for what they signify – one of the highest watermarks in automotive history.

Maurice Malone
Twitter: MaloneMaurice
Instagram: mauricemalone27

Photos by:

Cian Donnellan
Instagram: Ciandon
Facebook: CianDonPhotography

Ross Delaney
Instagram: Ross Delaney Media

Ruaidhri Nash
Facebook: Ruaidhri Nash Photography