Well this popped up on one of the facebook sites I frequent yesterday for $300 with a clean title and a busted slushbox, went to look at and yeah its rough but it runs and aside from normal GC8 rust areas is not in bad condition overall, so having it towed home this week and the project of the rally pig will begin, also already talking with DC area folks for 5speed swap parts and will document that as time allows.
So here we go with old subaru content!!
Soooo, your gonna cage this and take it to stage, right?
In reply to Gaunt596 :
Will have to wait and see once I start the transmission swap to see if cancer has spread that much, pending a good frame its possible.
I see that our MR class scared you off, Tom ;)
irish44j said:I see that our MR class scared you off, Tom ;)
Lol well it’s still possible I could turn it in to a RWD with little effort lmao.
Orion Fairman tried it with his. Said the handling was godawful and he switched back after doing 1 event ;)
irish44j said:Orion Fairman tried it with his. Said the handling was godawful and he switched back after it broke twice.
FTFY
irish44j said:Orion Fairman tried it with his. Said the handling was godawful and he switched back after doing 1 event ;)
It was just a matter of right time right place, and if I was going to go MR I would have to go with an FC just to stick with what I know and you know be different from all you E30/Volvo/AW11 folks lmao.
So Mr pig was delivered last night and it looks as bad here as it did there but there in lies the fun, after cleaning off all the tree gunk and years of sitting in southern VA I was glad to see a reasonable looking body so forward goes the project, the lists are made and now to go head first in getting parts and disassembly .
irish44j said:Orion Fairman tried it with his. Said the handling was godawful and he switched back after doing 1 event ;)
I can't speak for him, but I drove it after he did the change to see how it handled. (He couldn't drive it because he was recovering from a neck injury) It.... sucked. A lot. I think it could have been better with a better rear diff, a lot less front brake/more rear brake, and much stiffer front swaybar (he had none). Basically, you know how when you're accelerating a RWD the car feels like it's on a bubble between spinning out and washing out? The bubble on that car was VERY small, you had to be very deliberate to keep the nose behind the thrust line before applying power. Meaning you could NOT apply power mid corner, and the brake bias meant you couldn't dive into corners too easily either.
And then like Evan said, it broke.
I don't think he ever de-converted it, he just bought a WRX instead. IIRC also an STI that I wanted to buy but he swung the money faster than I did.
Pretty haggard, but I like it. 96 is a little weird to source parts for since it's kind of a transition year, but you should be able to make everything work well enough to sling it.
Really like the wheels. Slushbox removal isn't too bad, mechanically. Don't turn it into an RWD.
Ladies and gentlemen progress is being made, entire exhaust is off, rear driveshaft off, and shifter stock is mostly out, just chipping away, honestly I am surprised that things are coming apart without breaking lmao, hopefully it keeps up!
In reply to ssswitch :
It came with a set of spare 15"s which im guessing are the stock steels, the ones on it are 14"s which i think would work out well for rallycross, we will see lol.
As for the RWD aspect of it wont happen, Josh (irish44j) just had been trying to get me to get in with the rest of the MR folks for sometime now and it might still happen here some day.
Cool project! My first nice car was a 95 impreza. Wonderful little car.
Progress is being made, busted slushbox is out and I trek up to Nova tomorrow to pick up new parts!
Score of the month/year is now here thanks to a fellow DC area rallycrosser Brian, with no thanks to Siri who decided going through GMU campus and at 745am was a good idea.
So the run down, trans & rear from an 02 wrx, Clutch hydro cylinder, complete shifter assembly, ACT flywheel and clutch, pedal box and driveshaft from a 96 legacy, rear trans mount, and all sorts of little extras that would be needed.
So now begins the actual processes of figuring out how to piece the puzzle together as well as ordering all the maintenance stuff.
UGH! A WRX trans is the last trans you want. They have the worst gearing ever. They are the reason why STIs are worth so much, their gearing doesn't suck. You are better off taking it to the scrap dealer for 7c/pound and getting a good used automatic.
For serious, an automatic in a Subaru is an awesome experience on a rallycross course.
In reply to Knurled. :
Isn't that really only the case on a TURBO subaru, so it will hold boost? I would think with a N/A, automatic would be less than awesome....
In reply to irish44j :
Arguably, the worst case would be a mega-tall turbo transmission with the ultimate in turbo lag.
Note that Ed and Jon were 2nd and 3rd place, and, IIRC, leading the event for a while, at Nationals one year with an automatic GC.
Ed still has an automatic WRX. I drove it a couple times, it's a lot of fun, and I think a looser torque converter would be $700 well spent. (Yay to Volvo for putting an already high stall converter in the S40.) He famously rolled his brother's automatic WRX in Omaha. No word on if Ed is allowed to drive Jon's Evo X MR.
Knurled. said:In reply to irish44j :
Arguably, the worst case would be a mega-tall turbo transmission with the ultimate in turbo lag.
Note that Ed and Jon were 2nd and 3rd place, and, IIRC, leading the event for a while, at Nationals one year with an automatic GC.
Ed still has an automatic WRX. I drove it a couple times, it's a lot of fun, and I think a looser torque converter would be $700 well spent. (Yay to Volvo for putting an already high stall converter in the S40.) He famously rolled his brother's automatic WRX in Omaha. No word on if Ed is allowed to drive Jon's Evo X MR.
Welp I guess I should look around for a turbo or supercharger lmao, I want to get the swap done first, get it up and running for at least a season and ill figure it out from there, for now we move onward!
In reply to JtspellS :
In hindsight it might work really well if you have tighter courses, because you have a 2.2 not a 2.5. The 2.2 had a much longer powerband, you could zing it right out to the rev limiter instead of running out of breath at 5500. So you might get the advantage of a long enough 1st gear that you don't need to waste time shifting.
High speed in 1st is one of the auto's advantages after all...
Car looks solid even though it has that surface rust near the back. That's the one thing I hate about late 90's cars in Michigan. They tend to be total crap buckets.
Found a pair of Impreza's near me for $600. Hmmm....
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/2-impreza/6471067162.html
What not swap the 2.2 out for a 2.5L?
I suppose that would push you into a different class, but isn't the fun running and not necessarily winning?
These cars look great going sideways & throwing dirt!
fornetti14 said:What not swap the 2.2 out for a 2.5L?
I suppose that would push you into a different class, but isn't the fun running and not necessarily winning?
These cars look great going sideways & throwing dirt!
Manual swap puts him in Mod, period. But seriously, i thought a certain 2.2l Outback Sport was a funner car to drive than a 2.5rs because the engine was so flexible... Maybe less power, but that means nothing if you're always in the wrong gear because the engine is so peaky.
In reply to Knurled. :
My old 2.2L was great everywhere up until you got above 5k or so. Like you said, very flexible engine.
Plus, it's an anvil.
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