Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

i'd love to buy a fucked one and chuck it in a garage for 10 years

Roughly the same as the RRP on the MTB I want to buy ;), it’s been off the road at least 5 years. It belongs to a neighbours family friend so we’ll have to see if the offer even still stands when I get back.

What's the parts availability look like for the Cosworth these days? I'd imagine that you'd be looking at around 20k to restore it, if parts are freely available.

......... and I thought my Alfa might turn into a money pit!!

How tuned/messed about with has the engine been?

The unique cossie bits still on the shell.

Why has it been off road...

Owners club been contacted to see who they use or have a scheme?

Think about that, how can it be a barn find from a garage ;)

For mechanical stuff, excellent, for trim and body panels, not bad due to the numbers that were produced but can be expensive for Cosworth-specific bits.

Urgh car woes.

So the 500 twin air has to go back to garage as running rough at idle.

Still under Warranty tf.

Anyone interested in a rapid all weather car? I'm considering selling my 2006 Forester XT.

Red
80,000 miles
2.5 XT

Mechanically the car is in very fine condition, bodywork is good with a couple of small patches of corrosion.

Engine
The engine has been built by Steve Whitson (same guy that builds engines for Andy Forrest's insane time attack car and Scotland's top Subaru engine specialist) with forged pistons, blueprinted rods, new crank, race bearings, uprated oil pump, cosworth head gaskets, tumbler delete, new water pump and all other gaskets etc around 3000 miles ago.

It's had a 200 mile and 2000 mile oil change with fully sync oil.

On the cooling side it has a Mishimoto uprated radiator and silicone pipe. Air cooling is taken care of by a large top mount intercooler from a STI hatch and again silicone pipework. The turbo intake pipe (a common failure) has also been upgraded with a large bore silicone pipe from RCM.

It has STI blue injectors and uprated fuel pump (again from RCM).

On the exhaust side it's a full Hayward and Scott 3" system with sport cat, spot on noise wise with no drone but plenty of character. Headers are wrapper with ceramic exhaust wrap.

PCV system has been replace with an RCM return to sump catch can setup.

The engine is running around 290bhp on a TD04 turbo, rebuilt less than 1000 miles ago by a specialist in Glasgow.

The engine was mapped for midrange torque and needs to be run on 97 RON fuel. The mapping was done by Andy Forrest, Scotland's top guy for mapping. It runs a switchable map that can be switched between the two maps. In the full boost map it also runs auto throttle blipping when you are braking, a very fun feature.

Suspension

It's running standard WRX ride height on Pedders shocks and springs, with uprated anti-roll bars front and rear including well greased polly bushes (24mm front and 21mm rear) this gives a compliant ride but great handling if you load up the suspension a bit.

Front wishbones have been replaced recently and the rears are the uprated STI versions to support the increased anti-roll bar loads.

STI front strut brace is also fitted.

Brakes
The front brakes are the 4 pots with Godspeed kevlar pads and grooved disks, the rears are the standard calipers and disks with Godspeed kevlar pads; TBH the rear calipers could do with being replaced at some point soon. All the rubber hoses have been replaced with goodyear braided lines.

Wheels
The summer wheels are Minilite 17" in grey, they have a couple of chips but really suit the car, these come with Vredestein Ultrac Cento 215/55 R17 . The winters wheels are standard subaru 17" 5 spoke design, a bit tatty but with great tyres; Nokian WRA3 Nokian WR A3 - 215/55 R17. The car would include one set of wheels with the others negotiable.

Body
The body is pretty good, one slight dent on the top of tail gate and few scratches here and there. There is a small corrosion patch on one of the rear arches. It's not show condition but looks smart when cleaned and polished.

I have also fitted nice black mudflaps, not too chav.

The front grille is the 'sport' version which looks 1000% cooler than the original.

Interior
The interior is mid naughties Subaru, so not a modern Audi in terms of soft touch materials. I've upgraded the seats to the heated Impreza spec D leather buckets and the gear knob is from RCM.

The stereo has been upgraded with a double din kenwood unit, the has bluetooth and DAB. All the speakers and wiring has been upgraded and there is a subwoofer under the drivers seat. The sound is great!

The rear seats are also leather.

The boot comes with a retractable load cover.

I'm thinking about asking for £6000, the engine work alone is work £4500.

I've attached a few photos (will look out better quality ones later, these are from grainy old expired film).

Anyone interested? It's such a great car, I'm sure I'm going to regret selling it!

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https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/ford-sierra-lx-3-berth-campervan/1314840193?fbclid=IwAR3lLPcvZyRPUq4ez8K-OTr3m9Nf0lD_9zLJLastVGovUle9mo5ETdEKH58

Arghhhhhhhh.

Just got rid of my old forester, and was planning to buy one a better one in about 6 months time, this is literally my ideal car!

It's mine too, I just need the money.

Fucking dream car, if I wasn't a student, skint or unable justify owning something like that. GLWS

Definitely shop around if you can as you can get huge variation in prices.

Avoid anything like winrun, good ride etc. Will be cheap, but bad.

Something like a continental premium contact 2 would be good.

Or Michelin primacy. Yokohama is normally good and so are pirelli and even hankook.

I wouldn't spend more than $130 per tyre including fitting and get an alignment too. Normally $60 when fitting tyres.

I also wouldn't spend less than $90 a tyre either.

love this. and really need a 'main car'. but this is simply too much car.

awesome build though.

It's not highly strung at all..... TBH it's kinda criminal to only have it making 290bhp...... this sort of build will easily support 400bhp with a bigger turbo.

In other news picking this up tomo.

Hoping for more reliabity than the Italian Thoroughbred. 😎 💪

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At 290 you can drive the car, have fun and not lunch the driveline. Nice fozzy, I'd buy it but I'm in aus 😋

I was all set to go to Bob Jane until someone I work with reminded me about the Bridgestone place that recently opened up down the road... Gave them a ring and they've got a 'buy three get one free deal', so $360 for a set of top of the range touring tyres and $50 for the alignment, $200 cheaper than Bob Jane and they're right by the water so we can drop the car off, cross the street and walk along the waterfront to our favourite smoothie place, saunter back and the new boots will be on!

I need to get our window tints replaced now, been quoted $600 to remove the old and replace with bog standard... Not cheap... Maybe I'll spend the weekend getting rid of the old stuff myself and save a couple of hundred bucks...

@mi7rennie is it ULEZ compliant?

ULEZ...... erm it emits 99% unburnt fuel at idle....... I doubt it is compliant. On the other hand if you pin it down a very bumpy b road it's extremely compliant!

Fascinatingly the JamiroQuai is diesel but only warrants £20 Road tax. 💪

But it costs you your soul :(