I had owned a variety of so called "performance" cars, hot hatches, sports saloons and coupes. But in the Summer of 1997 I fancied a change. The only criteria was it had to be reasonably quick - preferably with a turbo and 4wd. I had owned a quickish 16v hot hatch and also a 4wd Audi quattro, so a combination of both with some extra turbo power would be ideal. After eliminating all the "duds", it came down to a Subaru Impreza or an Audi S2. I went for the test drives and bought all the magazines with articles I could find. Then I came across a problem, the budget I had in ready cash wouldn't stretch to buying a new one of either, and in 1997 both held their second hand values very well, so I bit the bullet and sold my Kawasaki motorbike. This worked out perfect, as the Impreza had just received it's facelift with new grill, bonnet and headlamps, plus some engine tweaks, and a new S2 was still way outside my budget, so a new Impreza it would be.

Now all I thought I had to do was walk into my local Subaru garage at the end of July and get my new car for August 1st and the new (R) registrations. How wrong could I have been. I was quoted anything from October to the following February for delivery depending on colour. Then I got a bit of good luck, the sales woman from Anderson Cars in Perth called to tell me of a cancellation - a buyer had cancelled his order for the Impreza and bought the Limited Edition Catalyuna instead. Even better his order was for a 4 door dark blue mica - a special colour for that Summer and not in the Subaru Brochure, it would later be a standard colour for the 1999 model year.

So August arrives and so does the new car, and what a car, how I lasted 3 weeks while it was run-in, I don't know. One of the first things I noticed was that everyone else also noticed the car - other drivers of so called performance cars, kids everywhere, and pedestrians having a look wherever it was parked. In 1997 I had the only one where I stay, and it was only one of a handful in the whole region. But everyone who saw it knew what it was. It was a great feeling to own something so rare and so special.

For the first 6 months or so, I left everything as standard, but having seen the Prodrive WR car at the Motorshow, I started to look about for new parts, but at this time the car was still very rare and so were parts to modify it. Janspeed was the only exhaust I could find, but I wasn't too keen on the twin DTM tailpipes, but the car did have the proper sound now. I also bought a higher rear spoiler - same as the Prodrive option and also later fitted to the MY99 models. From a rally contact I bought a new set of 17" Gold Speedline Alloys, a true bargain at £400.00 for the set. To balance up the looks front to back, I added a front lip spoiler and had all the side skirts and mirrors colour coded. Now I was happy, and back in 1998 it looked different to other standard Impreza's, since they were now becoming more popular.

It was also in the middle of 1998 that I first came across the then new SIDC and the original Scoobynet, and it was through Scoobynet I bought a few items for the car. One of these was a Superchip - now there has been lots of bad comments and opinions about Superchips (usually from suppliers of alternative tuning methods) but in my experience with this car it never caused any problems, as it was never set above 18psi. That Superchip has now been fitted to 3 different Impreza's over 5 years and hasn't caused any problems on any of them. So long as the bleed valve isn't turned up too high to be greedy. Having said that I also know of a Clubmans spec Rally Impreza that ran for a full season with one set at 21psi, with no problems either. I later sold on the Superchip but only because a good friend was trading in his similar Impreza that had been fitted with the Prodrive ECU and we swapped them over. Just before the warranty was up on the Janspeed exhaust it started to blow, but Janspeed replaced it with a new one without any fuss. My friend had now bought a MY99 model and had also bought a Scoobysport exhaust for it. This had only been on his car for a month, when he saw the new replacement Janspeed lying in it's box, he asked if I fancied a swap. He thought the Scoobysport too bland, and I didn't like the DTM pipes on the Janspeed, so the swap was done. The Scoobysport exhaust has a fantastic sound but after 3 years it was starting to look a bit rough especially the tailpipe, but I'm not into polishing exhausts, so I suppose that's life.

Next on my list was to replace the fog lamps with Cibie driving lamps, but after a year of constantly changing blown bulbs, I threw them in the bucket, I wouldn't even sell them on. Definitely my worse purchase for this car. They were replaced with a set of PIAA's. I never had to change a bulb again. The car also had it's first run on a rolling road, 264bhp, (Scoobysport exhaust, Prodrive ECU, Pipercross Induction Kit) I also took part in numerous SIDC organised track days at Knockhill. To cope with this I changed the brake discs to Brembo equivalents and Mintex 1155 pads, stainless steel hoses and Castrol brake fluid, and they all worked very well for a standard set up. I also bought a set of 16" STi 5 alloys and fitted them with Dunlop slicks, more to save wear on the 17" road tyres, but they also provided superb grip for the track days.

By the end of 2000, I had owned the car for over 3 years, and hadn't seen anything I liked to replace it with. Then the new WRX was launched, and I was pretty disappointed in it's general looks. It was at this point I got the EVO 6, but I didn't sell the Impreza, my wife now had it. I didn't really intend to do anymore to the car, until fate intervened. I had a small bump on the motorway. Very light. I cracked the grill, broke the grill clips from both headlamps and scuffed the paint on the front of the bonnet and bumper; none of the  lights were broken. The insurance company was great. New bonnet, MY2000 front bumper, MY2000 front grill, MY2000 headlamps. Brilliant. I also added a STi 6 front lip spoiler, crystal indicators front and side, and when the car was in for the work, I swapped the rear spoiler for a STi 5 version.

And that, as they say was that. In the Summer of 2002, I fancied a new car, told some of my friends my plans, then without even advertising the car - it was sold, one of them had bought it and it was off to Newcastle. In the Summer of 2003 it was all change again, the new owner sold it for a STi 4, and I arranged for the car to come back here, and another friend now owns it. It's strange seeing it most days, and I've driven it on numerous occasions, but I never think of it as my car. Strange that I think. At the time I owned it, it really was the near perfect car, in 5 years it had covered 60,000 miles, was serviced regularly and it never had a single problem.