Deliciously Stock
The stars aligned and I saw this baby for sale. A completely stock 1999 Subaru GC8 WRX. Sold my Starlet, never looked back.
Ah Subaru, the Sub, the Sub Dog, Subbie, Scobby, Rex, Rexy all names we call Subarus but I can finally call this one mine. From as far back as I can remember I always wanted a Subaru. When I was growing up I remember watching Colin McCrae tear up rally stages in his 2 door 22b STI GC8,I always wanted one after seeing him race. Also, I just love that boxer burble.
I don't have a very long or interesting car history got my first car when I was 21 or so, a 2 door 1999 Toyota Starlet Reflect, I spent the next 2 years or so converting that car to look like a Glanza V, my god it was clean.
The plan was to eventually swap the 4efe for a 4efte engine into it and boost it to hell and back but it was my daily and I couldn't really afford to have in a shop for long periods.
Then the stars aligned and I saw this baby for sale. A completely stock 1999 Subaru GC8 WRX. Sold my Starlet, never looked back.
It was perfect for a daily, it's stock so it's reliable, 4 doors and trunk space so it's practical and fast enough so i can still have a little, "responsible" fun.
I inherited a couple of issues with it though, some rear damage, nothing major and a massive boost leak from the top mount inter-cooler y-pipe. Once I got all that fixed, worked like a charm.
I do have plans to eventually modify it once I restore it to stock condition but right now I'm just enjoying it before I make the fuel economy worse.
I really enjoy the look of a stock car. I was never really a fan of ricing, when it comes to the exterior of the car I don't have any plans for it, maybe a front lip and a bigger hood scoop but that's a big maybe.
Delicious 4pot stock brakes. Just enough. For now.
Someone once described my engine bay as "Full" I can understand what they're talking about, not much room left in there. The space taken up is put to good use, according to my research from factory the turbo charged engine puts out around 214hp-220hp at 6400rpm and 250 lb·ft at 4000rpm though that was years ago, probably way less now (I would love to put it on a dyno). It is said to achieve 0-100 Km/h in 5.99s and a 1/4 mile in 14.27s. All this while the little turbo pushes out about 13.5psi of boost.
It has Subaru’s symmetrical All Wheel Drive System which causes it to tear my face off when it accelerates sometimes, you get a lot of grip surprisingly. It gives you a feeling of invincibility when cornering which has caused me to spin my car around a couple times.
“There is nothing more terrifying than losing control of a 4 wheel drive car. . . the horror.”
A triple gauge pod in the centre of the dash is planned.
When it comes to the interior of the car it's nothing special. It's very 90's JDM, hard plastics everywhere, function over form. Subaru added a few extra bits with the WRX and the WRX STI versions of the Impreza. A MOMO wheel, which feels great, a shift knob and boot with red detailing, along with the red and black bucket seats and the white background of the gauge cluster it really gives everything a nice look.
Vroom
I really love my WRX. I've had the pleasure of owning it since February 2017 and it hasn't let me down yet. I even met some really cool people in the Car Community, the Barbados Subaru Owners Club for example, maybe I'll get to do a feature with their cars sometime soon, they have some awesome cars.
Till next time.
-Maurice
A Classic Love Story
This 86 should be familiar, I spoke about it a few months ago at the "Vintage Car Show". It's nice to see some minor updates on the car cosmetically and mechanically, things that really hold the build together at this point.
“Well it’s simple really. The car has always been my dream car or “one true love” if you will. There is a classic love story like Romeo and Juliet called Tristan and Isolde. ”
Isolde
She really is gorgeous.
This 86 should be familiar, I spoke about it a few months ago at the "Vintage Car Show". It's nice to see some minor updates on the car cosmetically and mechanically, things that really hold the build together at this point.
The engine bay has changed a bit, first major change seen here is the strut bar, and the velocity stacks have changed from red to black. The stacks are bit longer as well, adding a little more torque. It's still the same 16v 1600cc 4-AGE.
The new engine map was also done with the engine, this was definitely noticed on the road, the engine still has to hit the dyno to find the output, but it's definitely within the range of 160 hp, about what a 4AGE should be doing.
The front of the car also received a new lip, bringing it further down to the road, it doesn't really affect the aero performance of the car, but it does look pretty awesome, giving the car a bolder presence.
It's really nice to see the build coming together, a few more changes are planned for the near future for the car, I will continue to keep an eye on how the build is going.
Tristan doesn't just keep his car for show though, he can set it through it's paces, check out this video of his autocross run at Vaucluse Raceway in St.Thomas, Barbados, click the image below to play the video.
Tristan's 86 run compared to an Evo X driven by Christopher Mcfarlane at Vaucluse Raceway during an Autocross event. Video by Woolf Sales Solutions.
- Alex, signing out till next time, happy motoring!
Freddie Mapp -"Escort Specialist"
A few weeks back we at Sleeper Forest had the opportunity to visit Freddie Mapp's garage. It's interesting how race car drivers never really leave the race track, they just "race" in an another way.
A few weeks back we at Sleeper Forest had the opportunity to visit Freddie Mapp's garage. We never got to meet him as a race car driver, his glory days were before our time in the 80's but we got to meet him as the mechanic. It's interesting how race car drivers never really leave the race track, they just "race" in an another way.
Archival footage from the "The Barbados Rally Club" & Kaieteur News
Our friend "Sicky Back", gave us the invite.
We got the invite to tour the garage from friend of ours, you may have seen pictures of his 1jz swapped Toyota Cressida on some of our Instagram post, it's pretty great.
We got to see just few of the cars on the outside, they were works in progress. We deemed it the inline 6 alley, every Toyota with the space, received the inline 6 treatment. Some twin turbo, some single turbo, these machines were being built for drift, they were definitely not lacking in power.
Among these cars was something a little different and special but that's a secret...for now.
Once on the inside we were greeted by the smell of oil and metal. The garage wasn't much different from any other garage except for the six pieces of Caribbean automotive history laying around in the form of six ford escorts. They were just taking a rest from the hard work they put in over the years, catching some dust, winning races is hard work you know.
Way in the back of the garage was this blue escort shell it once carried a single cam engine, however it was modified to be a twin cam engine.
The engine started with a single over head cam, that was driven via a push rod method from the crankshaft, but with this conversion, the first cam, spun a second cam via a gear, and this allowed more airflow into the head, more air = more power, and more power = more fast. This was automotive magic and ingenuity.
Further to the front of the garage, we found more Escorts, one MK1 with the Cosworth 2.0L 16v turbocharged engine, makes around 300hp as well as his Mk2 Escort, the one he used consistently in rally. They were covered in tools and parts.
This really reinforces the fact that we need experienced persons to be able to carry on the passion and love for Motorsport to a younger generation, so it can continue grow. As Freddie stepped away from racing his mechanic shop continued to grow, taking the time to work with clients and help those he can.
We really appreciated the tour, and the chance to be able to photograph these amazing machines.
- Sleeper Forest Team
Vintage Car Show
The open field in Content, St. Thomas came to life one Sunday afternoon filled with Vintage cars from all over the World. This is the first event for Vintage car owners this year.
The open field in Content, St. Thomas came to life one Sunday afternoon filled with Vintage cars from all over the World. This is the first event for Vintage car owners this year, I believe. They spend hours tinkering and cleaning and getting their cars ready for display.
There were so many cars to see and photograph, but a select few really stood out to me, and I wanted to share those with you.
Making my way around the cars this Lotus Elan really stood out from the rest of the MG's it was parked next to, those cars were already pretty small, but this was even smaller. It was tiny ! I started photographing it and met the owner, he gave me a history of the car. The history was definitely bigger than the car itself. The designer of the car Colin Chapman, believed in achieving peak performance through low weight, and boy was he serious about this.
This was the first Lotus to use a "monocoque" chassis and a fiberglass glass body, it weighs in at about 726 kg. In fact the current owner doesn't trust anyone as yet to paint it because the materials for the body are so different, so it has the original paint job from the factory. This design actually influenced Formula 1 design.
The engine makes about 126hp, from a DOHC layout, it was pretty advanced for its time period. On paper it's said to do 0 - 60mph in about 7 seconds. It really is a special machine.
E- type ! Classic car hype boys assemble ! I don't think there's really any other car that gets as much, hype, admiration and love like a Jaguar E - Type V12 at classic car shows. This iconic machine has actually had the pleasure of being owned by just one person, since it was bought, it was daily driven, but as the years rolled on, it's kept more as a show car now. The owner knows its value.
Seeing this car up close is really spectacular. It's like one of those really old houses, that are well maintained, old furniture, and intricately hand crafted objects that just tells you it was from an era we lost and probably will never see again. The long swooping lines of the body all the way to the tail, showed a streamlined design. The funny thing about this car, at the front, most of the front is basically engine, a V12 is pretty enormous in a car of that size.
The AE-86, or Hachi-Roku it depends how you want to call it is a staple classic for persons who want something they can daily. This one isn't from Japan though. It's a GT-S from the US Market, but the owner replaced the internals with JDM parts. It's still a work in progress but it's well on it's way to being finished, with just an engine map left to do.
The 16valve 4A-GE makes about 160hp to the crank and 150hp to the wheels, it's actually pretty refreshing to see someone interested in restoring an 86.
It's clean, simple and works.
Yes, this is also an 86, in a sense. I have heard persons call them the 86's ugly cousin, coming off the same production line as the AE-86. Daihatsu made the Charmant, the parts were interchangeable, it uses the same 4A mount configuration in the front and the car is also RWD.
The owner replaced the original engine with the 16V 4A-GE which is a pretty common occurrence, apart from this, the car is pretty much the same from the factory.
This build is also really simple and clean.
This Ford Shelby Cobra, although it was a kit car, it's still pretty amazing to see one here. The Shelby has a pretty long history itself, even how it became so iconic. This car uses the 5.2 liter 302 BOSS V8, and it sounds absolutely amazing. The owner still wanted to make sure that the car stayed period correct in terms of specifications.
Across the Atlantic, Ford in England was making another icon for a totally different market. The Escort, although this one was a rally car, it really made me realize how much markets affect the design of cars. Both were icons but you could say in a sense they were polar opposites. 4 cylinder vs V8, economical car vs low mileage high power just to show a few.
Can you believe that's a Nissan ? This car was actually very intriguing. Made me do some research.
Its called "Le Seyde". Originally Nissan made about 500 of them, in 1990 and they were all sold out, it was based on the S13 Silvia Chassis, they did a another run in 2000 that was based on the S15 Chassis. This one in particular though, was from 1990, on inside of the engine bay the chassis tag said S13.
- Alex signing out till next time.
Some other cuts from the show.
