Seeing as I’m fairly unknown here, I figured I should make a better, more detailed introductory post.

Well, first of all. Hi! My name is Trent, i’m 20 years old, I live in Forrestfield and I currently own a 1999 WRX.

So, I suppose I’ll start with a back-story.

The day I got my license I had a dream of owning a Toyota Supra. Probably because I’d watched fast and the furious too many times, but overall I really didn’t care too much for cars. I was more of a nerd and into my computer to worry about things like cars

I was given a Daihatsu Charade from my mother who had just brought a Hyundai Getz. Needless to say I was far from stoked, but it didn’t really bother me. When I started driving to and from work every day, I started to take notice of cars more and more, and I had started to actually care.

I was heading towards midland when out of nowhere I was passed by a wrx, and when I say passed, I mean I saw it absolutely flying through traffic. I was oblivious to them before, really. I had no experience with motor vehicles and I wasn’t interested in the slightest. Until then.

Bitten by the bug I was, I went home straight away and started looking at wrx’s. I fell in love with the 2 door STI version 5. Everything about it was so appealing to me. Eeeeverything but the price. I thought to myself, I’m only 19, how the hell will I afford it on a dead end job?

Fast forward 6 months and my Uncle offered me a job with him. It was a huge step up from where I was working at the time. My annual pay increased threefold and I was in a position where I could build a career. A very lucky opportunity.

My girlfriend’s father was a mechanic, so I started talking to him about cars and what kind of car I’d like to buy. We went looking at wrx’s but none of the ones in my price range were even remotely good (15,000). All with 200k+ on the clock and all relatively crap.

We found a very nice looking wrx in Malaga. For his sake I won’t post his name or anything, but his car was very nice. 198XXX on the clock but a new motor with 40,XXX had just been put in. We took it for a test drive and everything was great I purchased it for a bit shy of 12,000. Various stickers were placed on and around the car, and I noticed the “Perth-Wrx” sticker. Went home, googled, joined, etc.

One week later, it wouldn’t start. Here’s the beginning of my adventure.

I took it to Nashtec on Albany hwy (through a recommendation of a friend) and the Air Flow Meter was blamed. New one was put in and off I went.

8 days later, car wouldn’t start again. I went back to Nashtec and this time, the Throttle body was blamed. They cleaned it out, and sure enough it started again.

In the following week, I’d started to read more on Perth-Wrx, and in the purchase of my car, the owner had given me a set of D2 “racing” coilovers. In the thread where I asked about them, someone had posted something along the lines of “take your car to S Technic, they’ll do stuff nobody else can”. I jumped on the google machine, and made a few phone calls.

The next day, sure enough, the car wouldn’t start. I made a call to David over at S Technic and had my car towed there. This time, it was nothing more than appauling.

S Technic’s general inspection revealed so many problems, I just wanted to cry. Pretty much everything needed to be changed. Overall the visit was quite surprising, with 3 wheel bearings replaced, the exhaust modified to account for the CV joints, the Battery, wheel alignment. (I also put those D2 Coilovers on) And there was evidence of a poor quality accident repair, which resulted in the ABS no longer working. All of this came as a huge shock, and I figured I’d just get it all fixed, and that’d be the end of it.

Three weeks later, my car didn’t want to start again. I (once again) called my pals over at S Technic. Doug and Andy came out to my work and tried to suss out the problem. I ended up towing it back to S technic, and this time, the Crank angle sensor was deemed the problem, it was just not reading rpm sometimes. Replaced all that, and it was working like a dream. Doug had taken it for a drive and I was told by the team that my car was “one of the faster” wrxs around. Needless to say, it’s only redeeming quality.

Fast forward a month of driving well each day.

Coming out of kfc, car starts to jitter. Feels like I’m running out of fuel. My eyes dart over to my dash. I have ¾ tank.

What the shit.

Get my car towed home, and then make a call to my old friends once again the following day. Nobody could believe that it wasn’t starting –again-.

While I’m at work, copping shit for driving a getz there that day (well deserved, lol) I get a call from David. It came down to the fuel pump I now have a Walboro fuel pump in there.

Overall, I’ve spent around 4.5k fixing one intermittent problem what i can guess, after the engine swap, the previous owner didn't replace all of the other components (crank angle sensor, air flow meter, fuel pump) But that’s the way some things go, fair enough. I fear I’m starting to sound like an advertising firm here, but S Technic were nothing but great to me.


So now that I’ve shared a story, I suppose I should post a few pictures.

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/car2k.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/94/car3y.jpg/

(same pictures that were on my first post)



So far, the car has given me no troubles… and I’m confident there’s nothing else that can go wrong with it (fingers crossed!)

Throughout this experience I’ve learned a few things about my beloved CG8, namely that this car is fast, I’m told. Apparently it’s as fast as it will be for a street legal wrx. This has truly been it’s only redeeming quality. If it was normal, I’d have tried to sell it off and start again. But I really love this damn car.

Future plans?

-Im thinking of throwing in a 3 Gauge port in the dash, and that’s probably where I’m heading actually.

-The body has paint starting to chip and a few small rust spots that need to come out, and im planning to get them seen to in the next few weeks.

-I'm going to, in time, get a set of gold Sti rims, and perhaps replace the hood. I've also been looking into airbrushing, but meh, i figure that's just my young mind trying to look cool.

-And finally, meeting more of you guys!

So, if you see me around, feel free to throw a wave or something. I’m fairly keen to be apart of the forum and stuff.

Thanks for reading.

Hi Trent. Welcome.

Good write up, glad to hear that you are finally enjoying your car.

A few pointers...

Its a GC8, bot CG8
Dont get any airbrushing done, it is gayer than aids.
As a young guy with his first WRX I suggest signing up to the next skidpan day so you can learn how to handle the car.
Post up details of the engine, presumably it is not stock.

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[COLOR=RoyalBlue][B][I]Titanium Reinforced[/I][/B]
MY00 Impreza WRX | MY11 Liberty GT Premium[/COLOR]

oh god, that's depressing. I assumed it was Chasis Generation #. Thanks though, haha.

i know it's a EJ205, i'll post more when i get home. The skidpan day sounds great! im assuming it'd be in the events section

Hey Trent,

Welcome and great writeup.

first suggestion of modification, change of tail lights back to stock!

Welcome to the forums. As Saint said, avoid the airbrushing. It's different if you are entering AutoSalon or something, but once you have seen some nice cars around on the street, you will notice how a cleaner look is better than a fast and the furious look.

There are some clean bodykits and LED kits around if you're into that sort of thing, but you just have to be aware that it's a love/hate thing with most people.

Nice write-up!
Yep, skidpan are in the events section. The next one is booked out, but there's a reserves list. Even if you just go along to watch, you'll be able to talk to other rex owners and see what happens!

PS: do what you want to your own car.

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[COLOR="Blue"]"Your car positioning and awareness is f*ing bang on. And like, every single time.
In terms of getting that close to the bollards, Ive only been with one other person that can drive like that" –Franz[/COLOR]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Great write up Trent, you'll fit in well here (as long as you stay away from airbrushing and neons ) ! What a crappy start to the world of WRX though.

Enjoy the forums.

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[COLOR="Red"]I have the right foot of Subaru death![/COLOR]

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
365hp and 515nm

New Beast to arrive April 2015 - 365hp, 450nm, 0-100 in 4.4sec. AMG Goodness!

Sounds like a baptism by fire buddy! Welcome, glad to see you're hanging on.

Come out to the next skidpan day, say hello and show off your car.

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2016 Subaru Outback - Work Wagon
350NM of CVT Goodness
Pit Crew, shit talker.

Trent - Welcome.

Do you have the same girlfriend now? If so . . . how do you get along with the father in law? LOL

Your story sounds very familiar to my 1st and last V8 car purchase.

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[COLOR=Black]Liberty GT Spec B tuned 240 HP & 372 Nm at the hubs.[/COLOR] "Instead of banning high performance cars - ban low performance drivers"

welcome trent unfortunately this is what happens when you don't take your car to a subaru specialist for a pre-purchase inspection, to be brutally honest though each of those items are just par for the course for a car of that vintage, be thankfull you haven't overheated & done a headgasket or blown the obligatory 2nd gear

no pics of dohies in the gravel at lincoln train station? .... heaps sick aye