The big question - should I scratch that itch ?

[mcandmar]

Another approach, more likely if I can't keep it properly watertight, is to swing this car into more proper 'fun' and prep it for the odd trackday - not that there are many over here - but it would be nice to do a few.

What, Track days! I always had you pegged as a wellie wearing rally fan..

[S2central.net]

Sure I'd love to rally it - on tarmac - but that takes proper organisation, wadges of cash and two big hairy balls to go 'flat' when the ballast beside you says 'flat'. I fear that I am just too old to do that anyway competitively but for sheer fun it would be a goal alright - like the Tour of Mull. Annoyingly the S2 is illegal for navigation rallies - AFAIK - nothing with 4WD allowed last time I checked.

One step at a time

[mcandmar]

I never knew 4WD wasn't allowed, thought it was just down to age. I always wanted to prep my old 2002 BMW and do classic/navigation rallies just for the fun of it, then moved onto the idea of using the CQ someday. ******.

At least you have a few options up your way for track days, we only have Mondello which does nothing for me. I always had a soft spot for nutscorner after driving my dads 90Q around it years ago. Tiny little track so its all about car control without silly speeds. It was also the day i got a drive in a UR quattro, maybe thats why i have such fond memories of the place

[S2central.net]

Nutts Corner is good, but there is also Bishops Court and Kirkistown... There are also lots of great B-roads up here so thats where the real fun would be with a crash diet on a street legal S2 with a sorted chassis.

I used to do the Nav rallies years ago - as navigator - but my stomach was rather more variable than my ability to do reverse herringbone on the move. On a good night would be top five in Class 2. On a bad night (sadly all too often) - boke city.

[andy10v]

Well you have another quattro you can daily so i would say build a fast road car that can be taken on the track, but is still fun to drive at the weekends.

[S2central.net]

Done some quick numbers - it took a cuppa coffee and a mug of tea before I was happy with a quick swag.

In summary, the ball park total spend I guesstimate will be circa 8500 as per this rough list...

Ball Park Bought ? To Spend Remove ? Non-Essential
996 front monoblock calipers 200 Y 0 0
A8/S8 discs (314x30) 70 Y 0 0
Carriers for 314mm brakes 150 Y 0 0
280mm vented rear conversion 350 Y 0 0
Datalogging - ZT2 & such 400 Y 0 0
Gtech RR 150 Y 0 0
4 x Spare wheels 150 Y 0 0
RS2 IC 150 Y 0 0
RS2 AB 150 Y 0 0
RS2 MAF 130 Y 0 0
Stud conversion 20 Y 0 0
ARP head bolts 70 Y 0 0
Bosch 044 pump (5bar) + assorted bits 150 Y 0 0
Variable FPR 60 60 0
Catch / Cyclone tank 100 100 0
Decent downpipe & exhaust 700 700 0
Wagner or RS2 EM 450 450 0
Engine Gasket Set 150 150 0
New Coil packs 300 300 0
Turbo refurb (K24) 300 300 0
Dual mode handbrake 100 100 0
Seats, Frames & Harnesses 400 400 0
Bolt-In Cage ? 500 500 Y 500
Brake bias adjuster 50 50 0
Fuel lines 50 50 0
Brake lines 25 25 0
Extinguisher System ? 300 300 Y 300
Master switch & electrical bits 100 100 0
KW V3 coilovers 1000 1000 0
7A or 3B flywheel 75 75 0
Clutch for 550Nm 200 200 0
New slave cylinder 50 50 0
Sump guard ? 150 150 Y 150
FARB & RARB upgrades 200 200 0
Track density / solid mounts all round 700 700 0
Street legal track tyres 400 400 0

TOTALs 8500 2140 6360 950

%age spent already 25%

%age spent already wrt mandatory build 40%

Over the past few years I've spent about 2k on various things that contribute to that total. I've just gone with gut feel numbers here, but I am ~25% there already and actually nearer 40% if I ignore some big ticket items like the cage, fireaters and such. I've included nothing towards paint and assumed minimal engine work for the 1st Phase.

The bigger investment will be on time of course - stripping everything down to the bare shell before a laborious, structured rebuild.

Some chunky questions are around things like the rollcage - if I do that, then road insurance could be a nightmare unless I can wangle some really cool policy that doesn't punish me for wanting to make myself safer when I'm doing a track day, closed stage or whatever.

I'd like to target next summer for completion, but I know thats not going to happen unless a lottery win is involved. Summer 2011 will have to do - as a 45th birthday present to myself - hows that for a target and midlife crisis all rolled into one ?

But the more I think about - it has to be repainted - I kind of have a vision of how this thing needs to look (which I know is much less important) but it seems crazy to go to all the effort of stripping it down to rebuild it on that boring emerald green canvas. Gonna think long and hard about that as the logistics of getting a bare shell painted aren't trivial... I suppose I could keep the costs down by doing the bulk of the prep work, then let an expert finish the prep and apply some yummy new paint.

[GazzaG60]

nice list that paul.

i thought in your neck of the woods you could just find wrc subarus here there and everywhere for rallying

could always put the s2 lump in one of those.

[s2driveruk]

get it track ready and get it over the water Paul and 280 on road legal track tires in an S2 with a diet is plenty fun believe me

[S2central.net]

I'm not even going to rise to that suggestion Gazza !

[GazzaG60]

lol

in all honesty we thought about something similar.

a few years back my mate bought an RA and another mate fitted a roll cage, seam welded it etc.

the torque of the s2 engine would stretch an impreza about 2 inches longer than it already is id expect.

nice list anyway. will be good to see what your 45th brings

[S2central.net]

Been thinking of ways to get a cheaper route here - without compromising too much on the principle of a trackday capable S2.

The KWv3 setup gets great reviews but its an awful big spend, unless I get lucky 2nd hand... Thinking that HnR or Koni springs on adjustable Koni or Bilstein dampers is equally well proven - though lacks full adjustability of course - for a fraction of that price.

Also thinking that routing of fuel & brake lines might be a bit hard core - along with the cage & other safety stuff (that I really like but you generally only see on 'proper' racing cars as per MSA regs).

So in essence, the minimum work I need to do for this is as follows

1 - crash diet to remove unwanted trim, sound pads, aircon etc

2 - refresh / upgrade all chassis & suspension mounts

3 - HnR springs plus Koni dampers and a proper alignment job

4 - 996 monoblocks and A8 brakes for the front

5 - Added instrumentation for logging etc (have almost all of it)

6 - Trackday friendly tyres

7 - Engine & Turbo refresh to replace tired items such as coilpacks

8 - One decent seat, rails & harnesses

9 - Stainless, decatted zorst (not too loud)

10 - One important thing I forgot and nobody picked up on - upgraded windscreen wiper motor - wherever one gets such a thing !

That reduces the spend required to something in £2.5-3k territory - of which an awful big portion is for renewing the tired old mounts, dampers, turbo, coilpacks which are all overdue anyway... Meaning the only real spend specific to the desire for making it trackday friendly is the tyres, seat(s), harness and cost of time required to strip out unwanted weight.

I'm not sure if this makes the goal any more achievable for Summer 2010 - its still a lot of money and the bulk of time is going to be getting the chassis sorted out with lots of bits to be blasted, painted etc Somewhat depends how many buckets of midnight oil that I can apply to the thing - and there are space issues at the garage which complicate things somewhat - so that needs to be solved too.

[Rusty]

I think you should install all the interior, put lots of Dynamat in there to get it nice and quiet, fit stock chips and remove all modifications, have it resprayed and polish it all week long...

If you want to know what the above setup will feel like then pop by Bristol some time At least 75% of the top list describes my car, the rest is just garnish

[S2central.net]

Aye well pardon me for tryin to compromise / save money / save time / reduce complexity. My point is to remember how much time and money you have spent getting to '75% of that top list'. I won't have much of either so thats why I'm trying to think minimal... that and I know if the target is set too far in the future that I will fall into the time tunnel trap and things will slip out... Then if I enjoy the 'fun' with it next summer (assuming I havent trashed it into some armco) I can decide to swing back to carpet for more sedate operations, or swing on over to a caged white shell on coilovers with 100bhp per corner.

[Rusty]

I think you've misunderstood me there Paul, not poking you at all, top line was me being mischevious. The second list you have written should achieve what you desire within the budget that you've set.

If my mistakes or experiences can save money for others or help with difficult decisions that cost money then they were worth the effort. I love my car and you'll love that setup too, it's nice and cost effective and is all about driving enjoyment rather than pub figures, something that you have stated a strong desire for. It uses a lot of stock parts so is reliable and give you the grins like this ->

My car has been / is being built for a GT3071, the bonus is that the stock setup gets a lot of extra oomph from the toys I've added, I could have done things slightly cheaper in a few areas but not many, mine really is the most basic of S2+ setups, there's Chef and Jamo for the monster build and many more besides. I too am severly constricted by budget, especially at the moment, I've not spent that much on it really as I've got lucky with second hand parts and funded a lot of the parts by selling off other parts... A lot of my threads are trying to find out what's best and then I look for those parts or equivalent and the best price for it, if something is the must have part then I save up for it, sell off what I have left, wait for secondhand etc. etc. the same as you I think.

I've learnt to drive what I have to the best of my ability and I'm happy with it, some do it better still, HPMuirt's car/driver combo is formidable and Stiglet is seriously fast too from what I've seen. My aim was to get the basics right first as there's no point having a point and shoot machine on track and I'm nearing a point where I think that's been achieved. Just looking better to be well enough to enjoy it...

You'll like a lot of the toys for sure The freer breathing exhaust is just great, 100CPI sports cat is a good investment for the MOT man.

Not sure you'll need an RS2 IC for 300bhp?

Small hybrid is a very interesting prospect. Does it require an RS2 EM and injectors? Ideally something that can handle 1.5bar redline would be good, make the most of the OE MAP sensor.

[S2central.net]

Read mine back - it came across a bit pointyheaded - no the intention old chap - just very conscious of the ~10k you have spent on this route over the past few years. I can't be at that - as much as I'd love to, but then having a strict budget does keep things under control. I need to learn to drive the thing halfway properly before I go crazy anyway - so that is conscious in my head too.

I think I've more or less convinced myself to do it - will try to hatch an outline plan and more detailed budget over the weekend - but the 1st thing to be fixed is the pesky water leak !!!