Loren

I think the quality you get from mag and turbo is fine. Anything really nice and expensive will either get smashed against a curb within a week or be stolen within a month.

highly debatable... how many wheels do 10,000 km per year on a race track? How many race tracks have kerbs and pot holes?

Replicas could be cheap knock offs, i.e. a wheel labelled as a Volk but not a Volk. You won't find those in a legit NZ store, but you will def find cheap wheels that are copying the style of a better quality wheel. I also think that if you are buying cheaper (made in china) wheels from Mag and Turbo, that the quality should be ok... but I don't know for sure. I tend to stick to Subaru wheels or cheap used good quality wheels... I have had subaru wheels, compomotive wheels, speedline wheels, volk wheels and maybe some OZ racing wheels. A good list of wheel brands is here. https://www.demon-tweeks.com/nz/performance/wheels-accessories/alloy-wheels/ Good wheels locally here https://www.allports.nz

Palmside have decent wheels. https://palmside.co.nz/collections/18-inch-wheels

I know, super disappointing. I guess they think "the fans" means "25 super rich assholes". The upside is that they are perpetuating the desirability of the chassis... and maybe one day it will reach the levels of the mark 1 escort chassis, and someone starts to produce them again, and in an affordable manner.

lol. Now they are having to tell everyone on social media that it isn't a carbon fibre chassis, just panels.

And.... PRODRIVE REDEFINES AN ICON WITH THE P25 25 years since the first Subaru Impreza World Rally Car (WRC) made its winning debut on the stages of the World Rally Championship, the Prodrive P25 recaptures the essence of that very Impreza, while taking inspiration from the 22B arguably the most iconic Impreza. Modern technology ensures the P25 is more powerful, lighter and with better handling. This time it will have a 2.5 litre flat four ‘boxer’ engine producing in excess of 400 bhp, a six speed semi-automatic paddle-shift gearbox and, due to extensive use of carbon fibre, a lightweight chassis. The P25 will be produced in a limited run of just 25 cars, all built at Prodrive’s headquarters in Banbury, UK. Peter Stevens, who styled the original Impreza WRC for Prodrive, has defined the design, while the engineering of the car has been overseen by Prodrive technical director, David Lapworth, who was responsible for the original Impreza WRC. The P25 is the idea of Prodrive chairman, David Richards. He said: “The original 22B Impreza is considered the most iconic of Subarus and highly sought after. We wanted to enhance everything that made that car so special by applying the very latest technology to create our own modern interpretation of a car that’s established a place in motoring history.” The Prodrive P25 will make its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June. Prodrive is now taking expressions of interest and the first of the 25 cars will be delivered to customers later this year.

A full carbon fibre 22B that costs 5 million pounds... for the fans.

That is sad. RIP Debbie.

There are loads of places in the firewall that you can use. Stick a hole on one of the wiring loom boots and shove it through.

just put a quiet exhaust on and get it rechecked. do whatever you have to after you have a wof. find a mechanic that doesn't hate you for future wofs. end of story.

maybe a bearing getting tired.

I worry about earthquakes while being under there... mostly I should be worried about banging my head, because it happens all the time.

exhaust leak? do you see, smell or feel any leaks around the exhaust?

That is dropping randomly in my book... I have had jacks that do that, and they need to be replaced or fixed. If you look at how the provided scissor jack works, you'll see that the pinch weld is used to locate the jack only. The weight goes on sill, both sides of the weld. I have wooden blocks with a cut out to fit over the weld... then I used a stand under the that. Sometimes for the front stands I will use the rear bush of the front A-arms. It's stable enough, but I'm not that keen on using them. For the rear you could use the bushes of the front of the rear diff carrier (the big T shaped thing that stretches right across the car). The sills with wooden blocks (and cut outs) is best though. If you can't see any damage where the car hit the stands, I doubt anyone else will be able to. They will creak and make noise when the weight settles on them... could have just been a violent version of that?

Jacks that just drop randomly are dangerous. Buy a better jack or get yours fixed. There will be sill damage from a 10cm drop... probably just some dented sills or pinch welds (which are not designed to be used with jacks stands btw). If your floor is a bit uneven, then adjust the height of the stand rather than move the stand to a different place (imo). Often one of the rear stands won't have quite as much weight on it as the other (if the floor is a bit uneven)... it doesn't matter as 60% of the weight of the car is at the front anyway. You can lift or lower the car in stages if you think it's safer... it can be quite scary putting a car on stands when you haven't done it many times... plus when you have a dodgy jack and then also when you are in a small garage and don't have a lot of space to get out of the way of a falling car. Always check each stand has all 4 feet squarely on the ground and that the weight on the stand is directly above the stand... no lateral load. Always check every stand before you get under the car, and give the car a good shake too. Never take any risks or short cuts... you will die.

If you look at external wastegates they have two ports. One port pushes the gate open, and the other holds it closed. So operating in a situation where the spring pressure is too light to hold the gate shut in order to meet the desire boost level, is normal in a lot of situations. But not with a factory setup.

That's what I was saying, but with less words and civility.

So you want to hear from someone that changed their spring pressure and/or actuator for no reason? Probably not the person you want advice from Unless you are having a boost control problem, there likely isn't anything to improve.

That's different, factory tints look darker from the outside. Aftermarket tints look just as dark from inside the car. As for exhaust noise... I live on a very busy street and hear extremely loud cars, motorbikes, trucks and even Utes ... all the time. No way they are legal, but still common.

If you remove the wing, I think you still need to put a high stop light on the rear parcel shelf anyway.

Is it a bolt in or weld in?

If it's the valve seals it will also smoke when you come off throttle as as engine vacuum sucks oil past the seals. If there isn't any smoke, then either it's not the seals, or not enough of a problem to worry about it. When my turbo seals were going, there was visible oil in the rear housing, but thinking about it, it smoked continuously not just on start up. Also, it might just be nothing... the engine is horizontal so maybe oil is running off the sides of the cylinders and pooling at the bottom... and just gets burned off when you start it up. Probably best not to worry about it if it's not using a lot of oil and you don't have to top up all the time.

valve seals or turbo seals.

Yeah oil pans are a bitch.