Anyone who's read the articles on the other cars I've owned in recent years may have noticed a common theme. Track Days. I enjoy my track days. I'm lucky enough that the Knockhill circuit is only 40 minutes or so from me and I try to do at least 1 event per month. These can be events organised by the SIDC or by Knockhill's own Top Marques days.

I had been thinking about a track car for a few years, but it wasn't until a friend was selling his car that it finally came about. The car in question was a 1994 WRX ra. It had arrived in the UK with about 50,000 km (31,000 miles) on it, and more or less standard except for GAB adjustable coilover suspension with pillow ball top mounts and Cusco anti roll bars and chassis braces. A Suzuka Race Track sticker suggested it may have made it's track day debut in Japan. Once bought by my mate in the UK, he fitted it with 330mm 6 pot AP Racing brakes with genuine AP discs - not cheapo ones. (Why do people do that, spend lots of money on AP brakes then try to save a few quid by buying cheap inferior discs and then have to alter the brackets to get them to fit without rubbing. Stupid, just stupid.) He also added a set of new age 17" STi alloys to fit over them, complete with Bridgestone RE-70 tyres. A full Hayward & Scott exhaust system complete with decat downpipe was then fitted. Over the next couple of years it enjoyed various track days at Knockhill and while it handled and braked superbly, it lacked a bit of power on the straights. These early WRX ra's only had 240bhp as standard although the H&S exhaust would release a bit more. During this time the original WRX ra gearbox stripped itself so was replaced with a stronger STi ra box and uprated clutch, it was also an ideal time to lighten and balance the flywheel. Last year a combination of moving house and not enough time meant that the car wasn't being used, resulting in a call to me asking if I wanted it, come and take it away. A few hours later it was sitting on my drive at home.

As I said earlier, cornering, grip and braking, the car was superb; but with only 250+bhp a bit more power was a must. Since weight loss is as good as extra power, it was a good place to start. Since the car was only to be used as a track car out went the front seats, rear seats, carpets, sound proofing, boot lining and any unnecessary bits of trimming. Replacing all that was a pair of lightweight Sparco EVO racing seats and 3" Sabelt harnesses. A 1994 WRX ra weighs in at 1170kg as standard and with the diet effect, it now tips the scales at under 1100kg.

Before I started on the power, I fitted a boost gauge, knocklink and air/fuel meter to the centre consol - where the radio would have been. Okay I had them lying in the garage, but at least it put them to good use. As standard the car was boosting to 0.8 bar (11.5psi) and showing no activity on the knocklink. Pretty normal and healthy. The original angled intercooler was first to go. I did intent to fit a front mounted intercooler, but decided to try a larger STi 4 intercooler with alloy Y-piece first. Not the easiest of jobs to do, but using the samco hose kit and blanking of the dump valve pipe, it fitted with some new brackets.

I'm not a fan of induction kits on new age cars or late model classics, but on the pre-97 facelift models they do work very well if you get enough cold air to them. So a bonnet vent was fitted together with air ducting from the fog lamp cover in the bumper. Finally a DIY heat shield made from carbon fibre and covered on the engine side with heat reflective matting was added. Temperatures at an induction kit without a cold air supply can be 25 degree C above ambient, even the standard closed air box will be 10-15 degrees above. But with the scoop, ducting and heat shield in place I'm down to less than a 5 degree increase at the Pipercross filter. At this time a rattle from an exhaust manifold heat shield was really annoying, so I made the decision to take off the manifold to remove all the shield, porting it at the same time.

Finally a reprogrammed ECU was fitted, lifting boost up to a "playing it safe" 1.1 bar. Estimated power was now over 280bhp and with 80kg less weight, the performance gain was very noticeable. At it's first track day in March the car ran perfectly and embarrassed some big money Impreza's and EVO's. The only slight niggle we had was the intercooler spray bottle at 1.2 litres was far too small and we had to fill it up a couple of times. This was solved by spending £5 at a breakers and buying a large 5 litre rectangular shaped bottle from a VW and fitting it into the boot, Spec C style.

Over Easter, the STi 4 intercooler was replaced with a front mount. Not a difficult job to do, more time consuming than anything and it takes the best part of a day to complete. Because the intercooler water spray system was already in place, it made sense to relocate the spray nozzles to the bumper to spray down onto the intercooler. Although the car is a track day car, it's actually still road legal, taxed and mot'd. It makes it so much easier driving it to track days etc, than having it trailered about everytime it has to be moved. But it also has to have a front number plate fitted, and since I didn't want to cover the intercooler with the normal plate, I went for an EVO style one that fits over the nearside fog lamp cover. Since the first track day went without problems, and now with a front mounted intercooler in place it was time to up the boost from it's "playing it safe" 1.1 bar to 1.3 bar. But this also meant the Pipercross induction kit was near it's limit, and I've seen other makes collapse inwards around this point. So it was replaced with a very much larger Ramair filter, and an uprated fuel pump completed the job. Finally since the original bonnet scoop is no longer required to cool the intercooler, it was swapped for a reverse vent that quickly removes under bonnet heat. The same idea is used on EVO's and Subaru World Rally Cars. So now with an approximate 320bhp and 1100kg, it's time to enjoy the track days that are coming up.

Although the point of an RA model, is all about weight saving. A body styling company couldn't have a track car without adding a few styling tweaks. I already had a set of side skirts and rear bumper trims that were painted white, so these were fitted along with a P1 style front lip spoiler designed to suit the early bumper models. And finally to finish things off, a STi 5 rear spoiler was added.

So plans for the future. Well any Impreza will suffer fuel surge when on track, so to solve this a fuel swirl pot and external Bosch fuel pump will be added. A roll cage is a will also be added, which will not only stiffen up the body shell but will also add some peace of mind should the worse happen on track. And as usual with any track car, or any Impreza in fact more power is always needed.

2008 Update. At the start of the year I had a welded-in roll cage fitted. Fitting the cage added about 50kg back into the car so i tried to compensate with a major strip out. At this point the rest of the interior was stripped out; door cards, roof lining, etc. In fact everything that could be removed was, including the worse job ever, removing the sound deadening from the floor, but giving it weighed over 10kg's it was worth doing. It becomes difficult to find large weight gains, but lots of small things soon add up, and currently it weighs in at 1120kg's, the target is back down to 1100kg's - pre roll cage weight. So a lightweight boot lid with carbon spoiler will be fitted purely for track days, a 6kg competition battery mounted in the back will replace the standard 17kg one, and a lighter exhaust is under investigation. And finally worse of all, my wife has said I could do with losing a few kilo's myself, so she will probably have me on rabbit food soon.