Welcome to my first post here on Project GC8. My goal with this site is to take you through the process of owning and building a 2.5RS Coupe. I only have a little experience with working on cars, so hopefully we can learn together.
When I was searching to buy a car I had a few requirements:
- It needed to be a rally style car.
- It had to have a clean body.
- It needed to be a Subaru.
- Reasonable insurance premium
My dream was to purchase either a 99 – 01 2.5RS or a 2001 – 2007 Bugeye. I preferred the classic Impreza, so that is where I focused my search.
Finding clean a clean 2.5RS was much more difficult than I anticipated. Every day I checked Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and a slew of other car listing websites.
After many months, I found a clean 2.5rs Coupe located in Colorado Springs. The owner had put in $5,500 worth or work and upgrades. Here are the details of the car that was listed on Craigslist.
Previous owners had the following work done:
– Head Gaskets serviced at 105k miles
– Spark Plugs done at 154k miles
– Timing was done at 157k miles
– New Clutch at 171k miles
– Oil changes were done religiously every 3k miles with Full Synthetic
Has the Following: (Factory Motor still in it)
– Injen Intake
– Tsudo Headers and Catless Pipe
– No name Catback Exhaust
– Kartboy Short Shifter
– Brand New Front and Rear Whiteline Swaybars (Anti-Swaybars) installed by the guys at The Subie Doctor. (Will also include the OEM Swaybars)
– Brand New Whiteline End Links installed when Swaybars were installed.
– Brand New KYB Agx Struts all around, front and rear installed at Subie Doc.
– Brand new Top Hats/Pillow Tops
– New-ish OEM Springs
– New Slotted Rotors and New Pads (StopTech…I think)
– Brand New Tires: Dunlop Signature HP Ultra High Performance All Season Tires (Installed at Huerberger Subaru)
– Viper Remote Start Alarm System
– Ignition Kill Switch hidden in the car
– LED Converted Cluster
– JDM Center Pod gauges
– Super Clean Interior (No rips or tears)
– JDM Spoiler/Wing
– JDM Rear Bumper
– Fog Light Covers (Will also include the OEM Fog Lights, no cracks or scratches)
– JDM Front Bumper
– Aftermarket CD Player/Radio
– * No Rust*
With these details in mind, I drove down to Colorado Springs to make a deal. One of the first questions the owner asked was if I was interested in the car because of Initial D. Even though I had heard of the anime, I really had no idea what he was talking about.
He then asked if I wanted to take it for a test drive. Frankly, I’m surprised that he didn’t get car sick because I haven’t driving a manual car in about ten years. My skills kind of came back because I only stalled the car once. 😅
I then drove the car to TGA performance where they did a pre-purchase inspection. If you are buying a used car, especially a Subaru, you should get an inspection. Almost every car will require some type of maintenance work no matter how well it was taken care of. TGA found a few issues and gave me an estimate on how much it would cost.
With this knowledge, I worked out a deal with the owner, went to the bank, and the car was suddenly mine. I immediately took the car back to TGA performance where they fixed the major issues. The total cost for the work amounted to $810.
A few weeks later, I drove the car home into the sunset (with stop and go traffic) already dreaming about a swap with an EJ257 or EJ207.
