Fulfilling a teenage fantasy...

[Lefty]

And it's not about Gillian Anderson.

I have fond memories of working in my local garage during the Jim Clsrk rally back when it was closed roads and the town was full of imported Evo V's and 2-door Impreza Sti's belonging to drivers making their pace notes. They were expensive, rare, exotic, focussed, mental things. As a 17yo I think I would have chosen one of those over any Ferrari, Lamborghini or other supercar exotica of the time. Then, of course, came the PS2 and Gran Turismo.

I've had an Impreza P1...and it was awesome. Had it for 3 years, did 30k miles in it in sun, rain and snow. it was fun, it was fast, it felt "special", it was practical, it sounded good.

I've just sold my Honda Elise and have some spare cash burning a hole so I've started looking at old Evos again.

Lots of options out there...

1. TME. I'd love one but red ones are probably out of my total budget (say £15-18k Max) and I wouldn't want to hurt it's value by using it as much as I'd want to. I could get a blue or silver one for £15k...
2. Fresh import. For £12k I can get a newly imported VI GSR with absolutely no rust and bog standard.
3. Older import, maybe £8k, probably rusty. But for that £4K saving I could do a lot of underbody restoration...

My plan would be to do a mechanical refresh, make sure everything is oem tip-top and maybe a stage 1 for 330-ish-bhp.

I'll probably do 10k/year in it, on Scottish country roads. It won't be an only car but I will be using it all year round.

So...is it worth spending the extra on a new import? Or the extra again on a non-red TME?

I'm currently swaying towards the new import i think. Proper big service, maybe refresh bushes, dampers, brakes, tyres etc. Stonechips and paint underside and lots (and lots) of underseal.

Edited by Lefty on Tuesday 14th February 08:56

[Lefty]

Awesome things.

[AlexIT]

I would go for a non red TME, but the problems 15 (ish) years down the line is that you absolutely cannot know what the engine has been through. Despite being solid lot of people have modified them without any knowledge and this is what would put me off from buying one.
I would rather look around for a VI, if that's the version you want to go for, TME or not where the engine is standard -very difficult- or at least with known modifications.
Back in the days there were an awful lot of people who simply increased turbo pressure and did a quick remap, so I wonder what the state of those engines is now.
Maybe an import could be a good solution, but -as said- I would make sure that the engine is 100% standard and to be honest I would want to have solid proofs of that before buying it.

Anyway whatever route you'll go, it will be a great fun

[Lefty]

Good point, can be hard to tell an unmodified car from a slightly tuned one. What's an oem engine rebuild on one of these? £3k?

[Dan_1981]

You do't need a Tommi for what you want.

I'd save the cash go for a VI - probably a new import or very recent one.

The saving will easily pay for stage one & a years maintenance.

I had an VIII with 380bhp - it was hands down the most capable, amazing thing i've ever owned or ever likely too.

I still keep browinsg over getting another one.... i'd also like a VI but it'd be a weekend only car and I keep telling myself i'd prefer two seats and no roof....

[TommoAE86]

I imported my Skyline GTS-T as I couldn't find a standard car over here. I only have good things to say about my importer Torque GT (heard JM Imports are also good) and I got exactly what I wanted. They also looked after me when the HICAS ECU when kaput which is nice of them, especially as it was a 22yr old car!

I'd go with the above, you could sign up to jdmauctionwatch and have a look around, they do offer an import service but I don't think it includes all the DVLA/MOT sorting stuff that the above guys do (I may be wrong though)

Whatever you do if you get one then be sure to post up a reader's ride, when it comes to JDM goodness

[Lefty]

Dan, Honda elise is what you need then

I know what you mean about the TME. But I do like the idea of zero depreciation.

Edited by Lefty on Tuesday 14th February 09:19

[Ahbefive]

Find a red TME.

[Lefty]

I'd love a red TME but they're >£20k these days...and lots of fake ones about I think

[Lefty]

Dan_1981 said:

You do't need a Tommi for what you want.

I'd save the cash go for a VI - probably a new import or very recent one.

The saving will easily pay for stage one & a years maintenance.

I had an VIII with 380bhp - it was hands down the most capable, amazing thing i've ever owned or ever likely too.

I still keep browinsg over getting another one.... i'd also like a VI but it'd be a weekend only car and I keep telling myself i'd prefer two seats and no roof....

Dan, I took your advice...bought a new-import VI. It's absolutely rust-free, seriously it looks a year old, not 18 years old!

[Lefty]

Standard apart from an HKS superdragger and an HKS mushroom air filter.

Edited by Lefty on Thursday 16th March 12:07

[Lefty]

Nasty chrome works wheels but I have a set of oem alloys incoming.

First things first:

Full service, engine oil, gearbox, diff and ayc oil and filters. Needs a track rod end and the geometry doing.

Interior is nice, very little wear to the seat bolsters but the steering wheel is blistered from the heat. I've bought a spare wheel and sent it to these guys:

http://royalsteeringwheels.com/

for a retrim in black alcantara with a blue band at 12 o'clock and blue stitching to go with the blue on the seats and the blue dials.

[Lefty]

Interesting insurance quotes.

My recent "interesting" car history:

Heavily modified P1 (2.5 450bhp) with all mods declared: £500
RS6 V10 (remap, pipes, 727bhp) mods declared: £600
E92 M3 (standard): £350
Elise S1 (Honda k20, mods declared): £550

All with the same insurer. They then quoted me £4,500 for the Evo

I'd already paid a deposit on the car, foolishly thinking it would cost around £500 to insure - similar to the previous cars. A***

I tried a "import insurance specialist" directly and got a quote of £1200. F***.

Mate suggested I just stick it in to confused dot com and see what happens. Lefty scoffs at such a suggestion, assuming the normal insurers wouldn't even look at an import and lo and behold, admiral of all people come back with a quote of £350.

Crazy.

[james_gt3rs]

Surprised you still have a driving license with that history

[Dan_1981]

Good work Lefty - looks great.

Was it already in the country? Mind giving a ball park price?


When I had mine I insured it through Sky they were far cheaper than any of the specialists!

[DanielSan]

I'd go with a fresh import. I looked for a 5/6 before I had my blobeye Impreza 2 years ago and the level of hidden rot on cars that have been in the UK for a while is genuinely frightening. It's done a good job of putting me off owning an Evo pretty much for good now sadly.

[Lefty]

james_gt3rs said:

Surprised you still have a driving license with that history

The wee roads up here aren't heavily policed

[Lefty]

Dan_1981 said:

Good work Lefty - looks great.

Was it already in the country? Mind giving a ball park price?


When I had mine I insured it through Sky they were far cheaper than any of the specialists!

Thanks! It was just imported at the end of last year, I'm the first U.K. owner.



I've just powerwashed it very thoroughly underneath and given it a clear underseal. The turbo actuator was rusty and a bit stiff so fitted a new one. The rocker cover and manifold heat shield look a bit scabby so they're next for a refurb. I paid £11k for it which is probably a bit in the high side but it really is perfect underneath so a good start point for a car I intend to use quite a bit. I aim to keep on top of rust!

[Podie]

Lefty said:

james_gt3rs said:

Surprised you still have a driving license with that history

The wee roads up here aren't heavily policed

Who said he has a licence?