DETAILS :: Street Kings, Bugeyes, and an Impreza

Darren bought his Subaru Impreza back in 2007 and little did he know that it would leave an everlasting imprint. Talks of “I’m going to keep it standard” quickly got way out of control.

Like all good plans they start out relatively well. A frosty December night in 2007 sorted out those plans pretty well. Darren was a little bit adventurous with the throttle pedal when he entered a round about and unfortunately did some extensive damage to the bodywork of the UK spec “bugeye” Impreza.

Having your family run a body shop is pretty handy though and his brother Chris set about the repair work which involved new rear doors and quarter panel repair. The car was resprayed in the original black, but with an added gold “flick,” the paint in the sunlight looks golden!

Rota Formula mesh wheels followed along with the Tein Super street lowering springs. With the outside sorted for now, Darren decided to do some subtle mods under the hood. An HKS BOV was added along with a Walbro fuel pump. The clutch was also changed to a paddle style due to Darren’s concerns about the OEM spec clutch.

June 2008 and Darren entered the Modball. For those of you who don’t know what Modball is, it’s basically a “Gumball” style event with modified cars in mind. Extending a week long, cars blast across the majority of Europe, a reward in exchange for your hard earned cash. However things didn’t go too smoothly in Germany. Caught at over 136MPH on a restricted autobahn resulted in Darren being 1500 Euros lighter and banned from driving in Germany for LIFE!!

Once he was home it was time for some more modifications, a FMIC, APEX’i air filter, AVCR, full exhaust system and an Andy Forrest map got the car a respectable 340BHP.

With all the new found power, the car started to suffer on the wonderful roads we have around Scotland and so in spring 2009 Darren set about changing that. Whiteline ARBs, an Anti-lift kit, BC Coilovers and Summit racing strut braces were added to the car. Darren was now bored of the gold Rotas and decided to paint them the anthracite you see in the pictures.

The 2009 show season was upon us and Darren decided to freshen up the front end a little bit. The bumper was removed and sent away for the one off splitter you see on the car (love or hate the pink lol). When the bumper returned the whole front end was resprayed. As anyone with a black car knows they suffer terribly from stone chips and this black Impreza was no different.

The power coming from the car again became an issue as well. Darren decided to go “all out” with the addition of a moderate Turbo Dynamics MD321H Turbo. The inlet and exhaust manifolds were modified to suit. Inlet piping had to be changed and 800cc injectors were added to an all new parallel fuel rail. Once again the car was mapped by Andy Forrest, the outcome this time…430BHP! A very nice upgrade for this street spec Impreza.

The added power was nice, but the brakes were starting to have serious adaption issues. In came the 8 pot K-Sport brakes with Ferodo DS2500 pads setting the car up to stop perfectly.

Darren decided to do some extra bodywork. The side markers in the front fenders were deleted and the whole lot smoothed over. Again, a front end respray was issued to rid the paint of the dreaded stone chips it had managed to accumulate up until summer 2010. The car made some trips to various shows throughout the UK, but deep in his heart Darren knew it was time to let go. With the daily increase of S-body’s in Scotland and the fact a lot of his friends were now lodged in the drift scene, Darren put the car up for sale. The aim was to get a “skid car” and a trailer to go along with it.