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Hey everyone! Guess what the latest addition to my coupe is? A defect notice!!!

Yes that's right folks, 2 years, 4 months and two weeks from when it first tore up my street in turbocharged form it has been given a canary. I've taken it pretty well, I figure it is about time all the fun caught up with me and brought me back to reality.

This morning I slept in about half an hour over my alarm. I normally ride my bike to work, but because of my lateness I jumped in the coupe and took off. The funny thing is I wasn't even really giving it that much when I sparked the cop's attention, I had put the foot in a little, enough to come on boost, and due to my clutch slippage the motor shot up to around 5500rpm. Through the fairly open 3" exhaust this made quite a noise and although I backed off it straight away it was enough to let the world know what was under the hood.
Anyway they pulled me up right outside my work much to my embarrasment and began checking out my car. I complied with them and stayed calm through it all, at this point I figured I had it coming so all I could do was sit back and watch. They got me on 3 citations (I think they only look for 3 btw). Apparently I have a "new turbo engine fitted" (13 years old... lol), "loose dash wiring" (one wire hanging down enough to see) and "battery not secured" (it's in a box, but not secured). Never mind I don't have back seats or reverse lights. :P.

So, this leaves me at a turning point in my Subaru world. No matter what I'm taking it in to the first inspection, going to see what they hit me up for down at the pits. I will be fixing some minor problems, and deliberately leaving a few hoping they focus on those rather than hunting for more. However if it's going to be too hard or costly to get it back to a roadworthy level it looks like bitsa time! Brakes going to the wagon, front axles, gearbox crossmember and fuel pump to the sedan, engine and gearbox to the garage floor for my next insane idea and shell to the crusher.
So I want your vote! What should I do?

Bad luck dude... how smart are the guy at the pits over there... do you think thay would know how far the car is from being stock>? stud pattern ect?

i think prehaps cube it and start a fresh on a new toy... you have a sedan there that wold be more likely an embarresment tool...

i dunnno... it would prob cost heaps to get the old girl all ridgy didge..

mmm grrr.. what ever you do it must be a sleeper...

got some info on it?

(I'm thinking...)

Tough break Tim. Your living my worst nightmare.

Dave

Tough break Tim .
Sorry you got sprung ..As a former GLF coupe owner i would say keep it and try to get it over the pits.
But thats only because of the rarity of the car ,theres only a few left.
If theres any help i can give just holla.
Cheers Pete

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes, Tim.

My idea... if you decide to ditch the coupe, then its time for a monster wagon project.... find a virgin MY or L wagon, and shoehorn that EJ20 of yours into her. 3" of lift, but before that, seam weld and reinforce EVERYTHING!

smoov wrote:Sorry to hear about your misfortunes, Tim.

My idea... if you decide to ditch the coupe, then its time for a monster wagon project.... find a virgin MY or L wagon, and shoehorn that EJ20 of yours into her. 3" of lift, but before that, seam weld and reinforce EVERYTHING!

I've had similar thoughts myself Alex. Benefit of MY is I already have a crossmember to suit. Benefit of L is no strut top smashing. I've also considered the above but with Impreza, although this is very unlikely.

Thanks guys, still umming and aah-ing, time will tell though. Interesting to see all the votes in my poll so far are telling me to keep it. Realistically, for this shell anyway, the outcome lays in the hands of the guys at the pits.

Another idea put to me has been to hunt down another GLF5 and do panel & paint on it then swap my driveline across. I am a big fan of the little Suba-coupes, so I'm taking that one seriously.

that sounds like a sweet little proposal.

having never seen the coupe before, i take it she's a tad rough? could it be worth putting the elbow grease in and tidying her up? would it be possible and feasible in finding another GLF5 coupe?

how does a vortex tickle your fancy?? what about that sweet little 2 door L series in SA?? EJ20G + 3" Lift + STI RA S201 Driveline (ok, im dreaming now) front and rear LSD = bye bye commonwhores, AND pootrols You could run 26" Bling Bling Wheels and 35 series rubber for weekdays (for mcdonalds happy laps, make all the honda boys cry, yo!), and 28" Mud terrains on steelies for weekends!!

coupe wrote:Tough break Tim .
Sorry you got sprung ..As a former GLF coupe owner i would say keep it and try to get it over the pits.
But thats only because of the rarity of the car ,theres only a few left.
If theres any help i can give just holla.
Cheers Pete

I agree, just do it up properly. The guy that is about to approve my new engine, basically said that if there is an effort to do a good, reliable job of any mods and as long as you dont try and stuff a V8 sized engine into a mini minor, that any combination is fair game for approval. Seems that shortcuts are what they principally look for. ( and blatent disregard for safety wonder why??)

Tim, dont know if this applies to your taste, but that red Jap import RX I posted in the For Sales is just begging for an EJ conversion.

Plusses are is already a turbo on rego etc, crossmember etc and rear disks, LSD I presume. But it is an AWD auto, could benefit an EJ box too??

Yeah that could be a possibility too Roger. I might look into that should the need arise. I do like RX's - especially lifted turbo ones

Yes Alex the coupe has gotten quite rough around the edges. Same story as my wagon really, when I bought it it had very nice paint and not a scratch on it. Unfortunately sitting in a small garage while being converted, sitting in the rain for 2 winters and being the victim of many shopping centre carparks has taken its toll.
There is an L series RX coupe in WA, it's silver as well. Bit too rough for my liking though
A mint Vortex would be the cream of the crop. Lift would be definite. If one were to fall into my hands I think it would replace my wagon and my coupe.

Easy...

Just transfer everything into another registered Subaru. You'll most likely get another few years out of it before they get you again.

There's that Coupe I told you about possibly comming up soon which I beleive the body is in abit better condition than your current one so thats a bonus.

Either that or you have the perfect opportunity to move into a different body type - I don't know mabey your bored of the Coupe shape...?

Basically if it's going to be a big drama to get it over the pits who cares.... you can pick up a good registered Subaru body for very cheap and it's only going to cost getting somebody to cut&shut the rails and one or two weekends to transfer everything.

I don't think this is a major set-back for your EJ20G fun....you just can't drive it for a little while

Hmmm, Decisions decisions sorry to hear that Tim we know you will BYB something up let us know when we can help.

You have a few options open to you now, easiest way would be to remedy the canary and see where that leads you, should this not be able to be fixed the Vortex (jet hopper) lift and play would be a good option as most of the wedges where turboed anyway. You could alway find an early Imprezza hatch and monster it though.

but but but i haven't been able to race you yet!!!

actually i have to be careful too.

i have a LOT more to be concerned about than your car believe me.

Although I don't really worry about noise, as my car is quite quiet, i think its the 5% tint, and the fact my exhaust and diff are about 3 inches off the ground.

i think i beat u...
i had my standard looking wagon for only 9 months then when i blew the head gasket and was travelling to the mechanic (this was at leavers btw) some cops on bikes pulled me up for the smoke out the exhaust and gave me a yellow. they mainly got me for poisonous smoke but ironically it was only steam as i later found out. any ways i wont go into the details here, but in the pits they look for everything.
i had degreased the engine and cleaned everything hoping to give a good impression but they still check all their list, twice. Even the second time back.
its $55 the first inspection and $40 the second and be prepared to wait a while.
feel free to ask me anything else on it