GravelBen

My old '86 Leone was on a 236k and still going strong when I sold it.

I once had to drive a '96 Hyundai Lantra for work, it was the single most pathetic excuse for a car I have ever experienced. No power, crap brakes, clutch like a damp sponge, gear lever felt like it was about to snap off in your hand (when you managed to find the gear you wanted), steering that somehow combined being incredibly heavy with having no feel, in fact none of the controls really had any feel or feedback at all. Hopping into my '86 Leone at the end of the day felt like a sports car! Also drove a 2001-ish Getz for a few days at a different job, it drove better but still felt like it was made primarily of plastic and bits might fall off at any moment. I'm sure they're improving though, they seem to be selling well enough.

Good tyre life indeed, I only get about half that! I clock up plenty of sideways gravel miles though which I don't think helps very much.

Out of interest, what other tyres have you compared them to?

I can't believe someone recommended kingstars... had some on the old MX5, ok-ish when dry but turned to greased teflon in the wet... Sideways in 3rd with 115hp! The only good thing about them is they're cheap. I like Bridgestone RE001 on the Legacy, also tried Eagle F1 and Toyo T1R which were similar grip-wise but sidewalls were way too soft/weak and really vulnerable to punctures.

Am selling my turbo MX5 actually (to be a boring fart and do stuff to the house) - weighs under a ton with 235rwhp @ 12psi, 255rwhp @ 15psi. Not a Subaru but more fun than one! Plus cheap 15" tyres and economical when not caning it, I've seen 6L/100km on boring roads. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=385928032 Heading away for weekend but can give more info when I get back if you're interested.

About the same weight as a newage STI and the 6-speed adds a bit of weight too so that wouldn't help.

Not sure if this has been mentioned already (just skimread the thread) but if you're looking at the two car option its not hard to get a cheap to run road/track car that just as much (or more) fun if you don't mine sacrificing a bit of speed - something like an early MX5 or MR2 can be picked up for $3-4k in good mechanical condition and are great fun to drive, plus the lower weight and power makes them a lot easier on tyres, brakes etc. I considered an STi-RA then went for a GTB (Rev-D E-tune incidentally) and a $3.5k MX5 instead. Then I swapped to a 250rwhp turbo MX5 which is great, but to be honest I probably had just as much fun in the almost standard one. Nice wagon for space and long trips which is still fun to hustle along + sportscar for play, to me its better than one car which compromises both to be somewhere in the middle. Costs a bit more in insurance+rego etc though I guess. My Rev-D runs ok on 95 but smoother, more powerful and 10-15% more economical on 98 - I hear rumours about them having det issues but generally not from anyone who has actually had problems themselves... take from that what you will. I have felt the ECU pull timing a couple of times on 95 (hard driving on hot days) so generally I go a bit easier on it on 95 to be safe, I'd run 98 all the time if I could get it down here. Never had any hint of det on 98.

I'd expect a difference in the rear of a BF/BG wagon but it probably wouldn't achieve much in a BH/BP as the multi-link rear suspension won't put the same forces on strut tops that a mac strut setup does. They're all mac strut front though.

Just correcting the crap reporting in the article!

+2 There is significant potential for head-cage contact causing serious injury/death in otherwise minor crashes if you use a full cage without a helmet.

It was done during the TT (bike race) weekend as Subaru were sponsoring the TT and providing course cars etc. They had in-car cameras etc and American 'Road and Track' magazine were sponsoring as well so the full in-car video should be released at some stage. He did two runs, the first an average of 113mph (182km/h) and the second 115mph (185km/h). Incidentally the Rover that held the previous car record (they haven't let anybody try to break it until now) was rather non-standard, and used slicks as opposed to road legal tyres on the Subaru.

What he said. AFAIK exactly the same mechanically, just shinier.

+1 Unless you're going for big power gains there isn't a lot of point.

2002, the Rev-D facelift came out mid 01.

My 5-speed (BH5-D GTB) is around 2600rpm @ 100km/h, which works out to a theoretical 298km/h @ 7750rpm. Would run out of power well before it gets there though, can't argue with physics!

Ah well, guess you're the exception then! ;D

I prefer to use fully synthetic oil with turbos, but magnatec is decent enough gloop for the money. I found Edge 5w30 gave a bit more turbo noise so using valvoline 5w40 full synthetic in the GTB now.

Naahh... not really. At least with hubcaps you can pretend you can't afford nice wheels, but with chromos everyone can tell you spent money on making your car look like sh!t. Bet 90% of them have budget ditchfinder tyres too, triangle or wanli or something.

Yep, mine had a mongoose unit fitted by Subaru NZ from new.

Mine runs ok on 95 (can't get 98 down here) but makes it feel pretty sluggish, is a lot better on 98! And a good 10% more economical on 98 as well.

They did make a wagon! Maybe it was the s401 I was thinking of that was sedan only.

Other way round s204 is Impreza (following in footsteps of the s201, s202, s203) s402 is Legacy, I just wish they'd made a wagon version!

You mean like I told the OP right at the start of this thread? : I was giving engine number as well so he had something else to compare.

Engine number of my BH5D is EJ208DWEBE if that helps. Rev-D was introduced from mid 2001.