Hi Guys
Sorry for the lack of posts, but I'm hardly a serial poster at the best of times.
The car is going fine. The bhp/torque spread of the engine, coupled with the Spec C's lower gearing really means you don't need to rev the nuts of it. The thing is you do because the sound of the Miltek exhaust borders on orgasmic.
You can get anyway with staying in 5th or 6th gear all day and it will dispatch most things on the road.
Fuel consumption ranges from 17-23mpg and is pretty good considering. With the smaller fuel tank (weight saving again), you feel better mentally as it's cheaper to fill the tank up.
Upon reflection, I think I'd possibily have got the suspension done before the engine upgrade. Why do I say this? Well, it's all well and good having shed loads of power/torque etc, but in my humble opinion the standard springs/bounce/rebound settings of the OE stuff is a bit OTT for the majority of roads we have in this country. I don't know if the Spec C if any different from the "standard" JDM STi (I don't think it is), but the reduced weight could be making things worse.
On a nice smooth surface (they do exist), then it feels great, but since I have to use the "B" roads to avoid the god damm camera vans etc, this has a negative effect. Sure I can press on a bit, but I'm finding that the car does appear to hop and bounce a bit. It's never to the point where you're going to be put through a hedge, but I lack the confidence of driving a more standard eurobox. I've had 2 Seat Leon FR150 TDi for the past year and I think overall that they were more sorted suspension wise(certainly shed loads better on fuel
). What I need to do now is save for the AST/T20 setup, but that ain't going to be in the near future
Overall a fantastic car and I love it dearly.