My brother has started looking for a play/ track car and really likes the 1st gen 93-01 imprezas, what does the collective grm brain think of these? Nuke do they handle stock? How much after market support is there? Common problem areas? How much difference is there between the various engines offered? How hard is it to swap in a turbo jdm engine? How do the trans hold up?
In reply to icaneat50eggs:
I owned a 1995 or maybe 1996 LX 4 door 1.8 fwd and put nearly 100k on it. I had to replace the transaxle once and the second one was near death when I sold it to a guy who said he was going to pretty much bolt in a wrx drivetrain.
I never modded it but put good tires on it and it handled well. The steering was very good, the brakes so so, the chassis was very good and very rigid. The interior was incredibly cheap. I remember getting into a similar year civic ex and just being blown away by how much better the seats and everything else were.
The motor never needed anything, made good torque, was very willing, and was very much alive when I sold the car at 160k. it made 28 miles out of a gallon religiously.
The guy who bought it was a Subie tech and really into them and said the FWD trasaxles were a known problem but the stripped down trim level was desirable for his purposes.
The 1.8 fwd ones are worthless. There, I said it. 
Get a AWD with the 2.2. Near bulletproof drivetrain, "good enough" power (135 hp if memory serves), nice gearing and parts from darn near every other Subaru will swap around as you desire. This is a '96 2.2 Impreza I made into a RS with slightly newer front end parts, wheels and Legacy brakes:
This thing did 225,000 miles for us and ranks as one of the best cars I've owned. Downsides: interior is cheap, especially the carpet and the non-RS/WRX seats could be called crap. It didn't help that the foam was beginning to give up on ours. The stock brakes are wimpy but a simple caliper/bracket/rotor upgrade on the front solves some of that (rear discs are only slightly more work). I would not bother trying to modify a 2.2 or frankly any of the naturally aspirated engines; it simply costs too much for not great gains. Turbo is the way to go if you want power, but the N/A motors have pretty high compression so they don't take it well. Better to simply buy a WRX as a starting point. Avoid the "DOHC" 2.5 if possible.
I would buy another GC8 Impreza in a heartbeat.
A little while ago I was talking to a master/national tech rep (or something like that) for Subaru of America. Anyway, he said the only way to kill the 2.2 is a direct shot with a .357 Magnum.
Our rallycross 2000 Impreza now has 168k miles on it. Not to jinx anything, but so far, so good. I'd still like to run a track event in it. I know it's slow, but it's still fun.
My understanding is that swaps are pretty dang straightforward. I had an old friend with an Impreza wagon (Outback?), '97 or so, and he bought a wrecked STi at auction and swapped the whole drivetrain in without too much trouble.
I had a 98 2.2L coupe. I'll be honest, it never did anything for me. It handled alright and was very reliable, but I never found it as exciting as the FC RX-7 I picked up around the same time. Thinking back, I might have liked it better if I had rallycrossed it. The seats were horrible even on short drives.
Watch out for rust! I know OP lives in TX but you might come across the odd escapee from New England or Seattle, where these cars often do winter beater duty on heavily salted roads. I was planning to do a WRX swap (1992-2007 Subarus were built like Lego sets, so swaps are pretty easy and well documented), but then I saw the rust. The body itself wasn't bad, just some surface rust on the rear fenders, but the suspension looked like it was dredged up from the Titanic wreck. For example, the rear LCA bolts looked more like bloomin' onions! Rocker panels are also a rust gathering spot, though my car's rockers were OK.
I currently have a 97 Impreza (2.2L AWD) for RallyX (and a FC RX-7 for RallyX).
I got it this winter with 225,000 miles on it and it does not have a single straight panel on it but the price was right and it is running pretty well.
I've had a couple. Rear sway bar and tires make a world of difference. rust is the big problem area. You'll want the 2.5 sohc motor, or swap that one in(if swapping a turbo motor is cost prohibitive). Very much a jack of all trades car. Leaving the suspension stock, with just an adjustable rear sway gives you a car that is comfortable at an autocross, rally cross or track day. It won't be ftd, but it will do darn well.
About the 2.5L engines: The earlier versions had head gasket problems. I think by 1999 or 2000 Subaru had redesigned the gaskets, so try to get a later model or an earlier model that has had its head gaskets replaced.
If we can find one here rust shouldn't be a problem. Most of the interior will probably be stripped to lower weight. You can get jdm ej20 for real cheap so that would probably be swapped eventually.
My ex-wife had a 96 Impreza L, 2.2, AWD, 5-speed. A week after she got it we took it, bone stock on all-season tires, to a Cumberland Motor Club autocross. She took 3rd in H Stock, and I won the class. And don't get me started on how much fun we had with it at Boston BMW's Ice Races or you won't be able to shut me up.
I always liked that car. I miss it. Even after we split, I had the right of first refusal when she decided to sell it. At the time, I had my RT4WD Civic wagon, and no need for the Subie, so I let it go. Still, a car very much like that one it still high on my list of cars to have someday.
I co-drove a friends ~96 2.2/auto/awd 2dr at autox about 2 months ago. Also have done some work on it for him (and will again on sunday, in fact).
I liked it well enough. The 2.2/auto thing worked a lot better than i thought it would. It's a torquey 2.2 and probably reasonably fun as a 5spd. Im kind of surprised to hear people talk favorably about base model handling here. I would say it was slightly less understeer prone than some other stock FWDs i have driven, but if i was going to describe that car to someone i wouldnt compliment the handling.
I like the car, honestly. With a 2.5 swap and a looser converter and a rear sway bar, it would move from 'it was ok' to 'its a fun car' in my book. 
Buddy of mine has a GC8 STi-R grey market-ish car. Most fun i've ever had in an AWD. Light, tossable, mechanical AWD with selectable power distro..... ooooh that's a spicy meatball. Also the GC's are probably the most badass lookin' of em all.
They're so easy to work on it will spoil you and ruin most other cars for you as far as wrenching goes.
I have a '97 Brighton coupe that originally had a wheezy EJ18 but now sports an EJ22; oh what a difference .4 liters can make!
It also has '04 RX rear struts, springs and mounts and '05 STI struts, springs and mounts. (I'm still looking for some 1" spacers for the front since it has a bit of rake that I no likey.) It handles very well with the stock FSB and no rear bar but it would really benefit from some low profile, sticky tires for the tarmac.
I recently sat in a friend's Bugeye and fell in love with the seats. My seats by comparison feel like they were sourced from a truck!
RexSeven wrote: I had a 98 2.2L coupe. I'll be honest, it never did anything for me. It handled alright and was very reliable, but I never found it as exciting as the FC RX-7 I picked up around the same time.
Yeah, that's a valid comparison. (rolleyes emoticon goes here)
2.5 head gasket issues are well documented. A lot of them have been fixed by now, but a little education goes a long way. 2.5 Phase 1 and 2 head gasket issues
I have 2, a '94 auto that my daughter drives and a '98 I converted to a stick. Both AWD 2.2L, rallycross the '98, has been known to put turbo Subies to shame. The '98 has >225k miles have not figured out how to get speedo to work after swap. Had to use loctite on the crankshaft keyway to fix loose pulley on the '94 when I bought it and has been no problem ever since. Only problem apart from speedo is keeping the alternator belt tight and not screaching
You'll need to log in to post.
