Pro Drive upgrade on Impreza

[simon clark]

Looking for an Impreza and considering a Prodrive upgraded car, talking 1999 so any idea about whether its worth it or saving the money and getting a standard car with less miles?

what BHP are they? whats mods do they make over standard?

Cheers

Simon

[shadowninja]

Apparently it's one of the better 'official' mods. Was in a Car review a few years ago. 240bhp, up from 218bhp iirc. I'd do it, as the mods carried out are only those you'd end up doing yourself anyway (except for the chip perhaps which would require a day's rolling road tuning).

[davidy]

When I ordered my 98 car, there were 4 Prodrive upgrades, buy all 4 at once from new and your car would be labelled a WR.

The upgrades:-

Power - minor engine mods, new filter, remap, revised exhaust backbox up to 240bhp (95 RON figure, probably nearer 250-255 on Superunleaded)

Handling - Uprated Shocks and Springs, harder Brake Pads and Quickshift gearbox lever. 16" or 17" rims + pirelli Pzero tyres

Interior - Fancy front seats + retrim of some interior panels

Exterior - Bigger rear spolier (became standard on later cars - so Prodrive went even bigger!) lower front lip, colour coded bits'n'pieces

I drove the Prodrive demonstrator and went for the Handling Option, in my mind a significant improvement over the stndard cars and WRX imports of the day. I would have gone for the power option, but mine was an everyday car (I did 53K miles in 22 months) and I felt the extra exhaust noise would prove intrusive on long runs. The harder pads on the front were too hard for general road use and I went slightly softer when they wore out.

IMHO the only two options really worth having would be the Power and Handling options. Cars fitted with the power option seem to hold their value a little better (but in turn are more csotly to buy). But neither of these options are worth having over Aircon, which was an option.

So firstly make sure the car has Aircon, then decide about which options are important to you.

There are also two Prodrive settings for the rear toe-in when their suspension kit is fitted, one for high speed stability and the other for twisty road handling.

Hope that helps

davidy

[simon clark]

Cheers Guys,

Both cars I've seen have aircon, sounds like the Pro Drive one is the best bet even with higher miles.

David, I see you had a 944, I'm going from an S2 to an Impreza, any comments?

Only doing it to tow my Caterham but interesting to hear comparisons.

[chuck_ster]

Went from a my97 impreza to a MY99 with PPP (Prodrive Performance Pack), it was a £1700 option IIRC and was remarkable more for the torque increase than the BHP really. The mid range grunt was pretty astonishing, up about 25% over most of the curve..
You'll need to run it on SUL to make the most of the upgrade...it's mapped to 97ron and running 95 will cause ECU to retard the timing and lose you grunt.
Power upgrade car needs to come with a certificate from Prodrive to prove it's pedigree..you can get equal or better performance much cheaper nowadays, so premium over a standard MY99 has to be no more than £750 IMHO..otherwise get a nice standard car with lots of service stamps and take it to one of the many aftermarket tuners out there.
(However mind the insurance, official PPP may be better recieved by some insurers than other tuning methods...)
Rgds
Chuck