My P1

Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:40 pm

I picked the car up yesterday and took it out to do some pics this afternoon.

Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:40 pm

Not my cup of tea but if i had to have an impreza it would be a P1.

How are you finding it so far?

Your car is famous BTW!

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Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:59 pm

Yeah it's the ex press car for prodrive, so has an intresting past.

I'm finding the car much more comfortable to drive around , which was one thing I was looking for. I've been out getting use to the car and I noticed the classic understeer you get with these cars , but the grip is rather daungting. The short shift and close ratio box is really nice and it's very easy to drive the car off boost.

I'm very cautious atm because it is seriously mint, zero rust , the painwork is flawless , 2 small scratches on the whole car! , mint inside. It just got a nasty chip in the windscreen over the tax disc.

I got the muffler for the exhuast today and thank god I did because it was embarissingly too loud without it fitted. Both my folks are pleased I got it with the cash I had and it seems to be a really good buy. It has a full Blitz set of guages inside a digital tuner which has a cooldown timer on it which when you turn the ignition off it runs the car for 60 secs and then turns everything off. I just want to remove the downpipe and fit a cat back on as going through the hastle of swapping stuff over for the MOT is crazy to me.

On a side note I had a really awsome call about the Alpina today. The guy who was the cars 2nd owner called me and we chatted for a good 30mins. I found out some really intresting things about how the car was in the 80's. He owned it from 55,000 miles to 109,000 miles. Even in that time it was being plauged with rot , but he has some very found messages and he was pleased to see it still going

Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:20 pm

Convince him to buy it!

Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:42 pm

That's a beauty of a P1 Dan

Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:47 am

Nice car

Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:41 pm

Looks special. Always liked the 2 doors.

Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:49 pm

not quite my cup of tea but looks nice , bring it to a meet down this way dan and take us for a boost

quality on the pina- did you ask him if he had any old pics etc ?

was in my disco the other week some old boy pulls up in a big motorhome thing says "thats my old disco,didnt want to sell it but she wanted a motorhome " and had a little chat about it

Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:12 pm

I blame GT5 for me going for one in the first place!

It's a very different experience , but it is so easy to potter around in.

Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:15 am

Looks good.

Sun Apr 24, 2011 3:04 pm

Please, change the maf frequently on this... Like every 1.5 years. They cause them to run lean without a notice in power loss etc. And will go pop. And look out for a md321h turbo. Brilliant turbo... What serial number is it? My brother has number 18.

Sun Apr 24, 2011 6:27 pm

It's 0007

Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:58 pm

Tested it round the country lanes yet?

Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:06 pm

Yeah I've had some good fun in it. Ive done over 1000 miles in 10 days lol.

These things are mega sensitive to different fuel brands. BP is shockingly bad and I will never use it , Shell V-Power is what the P1 owners recommend and finally Tesco momentum is the other reconmend fuel which is 99 RON too.

You can feel the understeer but the cars pushing out 315bhp so I am very warey with the throttle.

Tue Apr 26, 2011 1:33 pm

sold the e30 yet

as for the under steer, probably the nankangs lol

Fri May 13, 2011 10:18 pm

They are set up to understeer for safety, but apparently one is supposed to push past that to evoke slight oversteer into 4 wheel drift... One may run out of talent or road trying this!

Not my bag either, as they appear souless, but a weapon none the less.

Sat May 14, 2011 8:05 pm

I quite like tbh. The p1 is the only 2 door "classic" shape impreza isnt it?

Sat May 14, 2011 9:03 pm

The only official uk narrow body ones anyway. Plenty of jap import 2 doors about though.

Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:33 am

Little update on the P1 thus far ,

It's been pretty darn good , even the fuel been reasonable , but as las the curse of the P1 bottom end struck for the 2nd time in the cars life and some carnage happened. Luckily no other damaged that a mechinc checked for me was found but it needed a proper scpecalist in perticular to P1's. Thankfuly due to P1 engines been such a commong issue there was help at hand , a company called Scooby Projects have been running little over a year but after speaking to various people they came highly reconmended. The owner a guy called Keith actually owns the sister car to mine 006 and has been mega helpful and has gone over things with both myself and dad so we could understand in better laymans terms about the issue.

An engine rebuild with a new block was not a realistic option as I just didn't trust the head after I found out that there has been several issues with Subaru Worcester , who did the rebuild before. So intally I rebuilt P1 engine would be swapped and all the gubbing that went with it , they would also make sure they knew 100% for sure what cuased the fault , do a remap to my exhuast set-up and bobs your uncle. Then lady luck came my way and a guy was breaking his P1 as he couldn't sell it and even remotley reclaim alot of the ocst he outlaid. So the lovely engine which had just finished it;s run in period after a rebuild and only had 54k on the clock was offered. I thought it rude not too so the specs are as follows...

full engine rebuild by tim (ex zen) using
lateral big oil pump
ACL bearings
ARP studs
sti9 nitrided crank and forged rods
cosworth gaskets
EJ20 Forged Block

The car it's come from was producing 328bhp with a CAT installed , they recond once it's all remapped to mine which is decatted and running the Blitz NUR spec exhuast which they beliave is going to put the power up to around 360bhp. The car and it's history is very carefully documented so Keith from SP was happy to give it his thumbs up.

Hopefully I will get in back by the 26th as I am moving down to Brighton to study computer networking ( if I can get a spot on this years courses ) and get well away from Oxford. So as usual got some hectic weeks comming up , but at least the P1 is practical to use for a bit of city driving and motorway driving. Got a few mates who live in the Brighton area and two of them are real petrol heads , so look forward to getting involed with meets and shows while I am down there

Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:07 am

Bad luck about the bottom end, but perfect timing really to grab the other engine

360bhp would be rather pleasant for a daily

Missing your alpina much?

Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:17 pm

bring it to a meet up the hill dan , would like to see

again- any news on the alpina and its resto ? shame the new owner hasnt joined the zone

Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:14 pm

TBH don't miss the Alpina that much. Bar the more sutle looks of it over the P1 it was showing it's age. Not heard a thing from the guy , he has a few projects which he does ( got a skyline he's modding )

The engine just came up at the perfect time as a new forged lump is £7000

and the specs of the engine should make it pretty solid , and I beliave it's rated to go 400bhp + but that's when the big big bucks come in and pointless with me not doing track days ect with it.

Karl with me moving down to Brighton soon it will be a lot easier for me to make the Hill meets and fewer miles too boot!

Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:57 am

And you thought your alpina was expensive and you didnt want to spend/waste any more money on it

you should be in a straight jacket, locked in a padded room with lights off

Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:53 am

Kos get off your little soap box for a min will you? The Alpina has gone you need to move on with the bully boy comments about it.

A standard v5 engine will not have the forged block , a standard one is only around the £400 mark add a few more on top of that for gaskets ect. The engine that Scooby Projects have for me is a very well built and speced engine with the all important forged lump/bottom. I had been offered a STi 6 speed box to go with it but I prefer the 5 speed that the P1 has as I like the ratios alot ( not as agressive as the Type-R's and a longer 5th ). Due to it being one of the two press cars it had all the other options on it which means I don't need a brake upgrade , which is one of the first thing you should normally look into when getting a classic in a 2 door.

I got rid of the Alpina because I was tired of putting money into it and the car not getting anywhere. I don't recall me saying it was down to being too expensive on my part. The P1 is worlds apart from the Alpina and it is the change to something more modern I really wanted.

The Alpina gave a return of 18 to 22 mpg was an issue more down to it being a pain in the arse of having to keep filling it up after 240 miles. The P1 is returning 26 to 28 mpg , and even though RON99 is more expensive than RON95 fuel it's a more practical option. If I drive really carefully I can hit 30 mpg but to get that on the motorway the car keeps wanting to go faster.

If I wanted to seriously pour money into it the only way I could go is on the engine / turbo / intercooler , but with me not doing any track days in it , it would be really a pointless excersise in having a 400+bhp to potter around in , even though my annual mileage is going to shoot up from next month. Most P1's with a de-cat and bigger exhuast system will easily hit the 320+bhp mark after having a remap. Obviously alot of power is lost through the transmission so I guess once all the works done it will be about 300ish at the wheels. Bar me installing a much higher standard headunit there is little else I can do to the car. I am tempted to get the 18" Gold wheels , but for me I find the tweats and styling great as they are so I'm unlikley to put carbon mirrors on or put rally vynals on it. The only thing I have done is put a Felix the cat on it , as it is my own little twist on the pig that you normally see in homage to peter solsberges co-drivers helmet. Other than putting new tyres on as I was concerned about the tyres that were on it ( as you and a few others had a pop at ). I am running Michilen Pilots atm as I couldn't get Falkens in the size , and I didn't see the point in going to Toyo's as again it's not used for tracks and the soft rubber would just ware out pretty quick to a slightly hard more durable compound.

Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:21 pm

after only 4 months you've bollocksed up the engine lol you shouldnt be allowed near car

you clearly have no idea do you
falkens 452's wear our almost as quick as toyo's t1r's , the toyo is not a track biased tyre unless its 888's or the new R1R, and the pilot sports will wear out pretty quickly too. check the tread wear rating, the toyos have a better tread wear rating of 280 compared to the 220 of the michelin pilots sports ( if they are the ones you got )

you were sick of putting money into alpina and it not getting anywhere, well you shouldnt have let stevie wonder at it and given it to animals to work on. 3 more bags and you would of had a nice mechanically sound car with most of the body work issues sorted. as for you poor mpg, did it improve after pete sorted the timing on it ?

how much have you poured into this new engine for the scooby ? a car like that to retain it value should be a numbers matching car, chassis and engine. now you've binned the engine means it lost some of its value. then again your alpinas numbers never matched up after its re shell, so hardly a concern for you.

this is forum, i will say what i want when i want

finally, a V5 engine ? i think you'll find the scooby has a flat 4 EJ20 series engine. as i said you have no idea.

Thu Aug 18, 2011 3:20 pm

I am only going to go over one point for now , v5 is actually vertion 5 egnine , for example the 22b is based around the v4 ( vertion4 engine ). Hence in the specs you should see mentioning of v9 components.

With regards to most of your other comments , I think you have stepped well out of line and noone has the right to speak to anyone else like that , and I am not happy about it being used towards me. I have just as much right to some respect and decentcy as you do with your freedom to post.

Thu Aug 18, 2011 3:25 pm

Felix79 wrote:It's 0007

bond

Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:58 pm

Blah blah blah

You're delusional as steviebmw

So how did you manage to throw a rod out of the block ? This scooby will end up owing you 20 bags with in a year, you were better of with a boring relible car that's idiot proof. But oh no you wanted to have a car you can talk about and use it to make your self popular

If my posting offends you, well I'm sorry but I have every right to post what I want. Don't like it then tough, your an adult, be a man and grow some, I'm just being honset.

Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:34 pm

Who would like a cuddle?

Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:24 pm

I think dan needs to give one to his bank manager

Fri Aug 26, 2011 12:32 am

Got pics today of the carnage that happend withthe engine. They think it was some debris that may have caused the start of the chain of event in the engine. Going with something Kos mentioned about engine numbers and matching the log actually was valid. A new option of rebuilding all the head and installing stronger internals was worked out. Unfortiatly the mess that happend inside ment nothing was salvageble.

Anyway here's a copy of what was put up on the P1 forums for me ,

Dan, with the photo's below you'll soon start to believe it LOL

As you can see, major engine damage

One the drivers side cylinder head in the combustion chamber if you look close enough (not sure if the photo will show it), you can see where something has been in the cylinder smashing against the head. This has obviously exited the engine as nothing came out when we removed the cylinder head, also the inlet ports on cylinder 3 are bent and not fully closed in the head. The cam lobe to bucket clearances were massive here also, so we knew that the valves had been in contact with the pistons before removing the heads.

Also by looking through the new inspection hole in the top of the block you could see that Piston 3 was near Top Dead Centre and also that the rod had been bent around the block casing towards Piston 1.

Anyway hopefully you can see some good detail in the pictures,

So now to replace the old engine with something else, thankfully we have Tandy's engine available and after a few more conversations and emails Dan and his Dad have decided to use that route.

So we will clean the car down tomorrow, under the bonnet, as there is so much oil and engine casing everywhere. Also the clutch was covered in oil, so this will be replaced.

More to come tomorrow

Fri Aug 26, 2011 12:36 pm

Reliable stuff this japcrap..

Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:01 pm

That is a total and catastrpohic engine failure, not good, additional expense. worth spending he money on a strengthened lump for peace of mind and before much longer modifications.

Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:17 pm

In fact.. What the feck were you doing as it went pop?! No signs whatsoever?!!!

Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:07 pm

Jhonno wrote:In fact.. What the feck were you doing as it went pop?! No signs whatsoever?!!!

I was easing the car down to 70ish on a bit of the A34. Engine warning light , smoke out the back and then the oil light , pulled over right away and then heard the sound of grinding and destruction. As I was slowing smoke started comming from the engie bay as a small fire started. Was lucky the fire service got there in like 2 mins flat.