Subaru Impreza Outback Sport & TS

celeste2

Just posted my pics in OBS club on Yahoo in the Default Club Album, they're probably the last three pics and have my name there. What till you see!

How long have you raced? Is this your first Subaru? I'll bet you will be tearin em up.. do you just race in Canada? The salesdude that sold us our car had an Impreza he raced and drove, now just races it and bought a Brat to drive with so he can get his Impreza non-street legal.

ramon

THose are very nice rims!!! I like 'em! Great colour too.... hehe b/t u and I the silverthorn's the best! dirt doesn't show and looks fast too.
So no rubbing? what's the offset on those rims? nice.... u should let the members know about the pictures!!! can i tell them?

celeste2

Well, I needed to ask my 15 year old about the offset. He says they're from 1/2" to 1" positive offset. All I know is I like em' cos they were different and I was tired of seeing all those 5 spoke wheels and the ones with all the evenly spaced small spokes. Note the dark tint. Really the front windows are illegal, but so are alot of other cars down here in Florida. But that's what I feel I need to survive under this ball of fire we call "sun" here.

Have you posted any photos of your OBS? Sure, heck, go ahead and tell anybody about the photos, you seem to know your way around all these parts better than I do. You'll note the name of the club member the photos are posted under is "spud_funk" which is my kid's club name, as I wasn't sure if mine was really up & running yet. My club name is subymamma, in case you're interested.

celeste2

Oh yea, about the rubbing? You mean when I go around tight corners? Not that I'm aware and I fly around some pretty fast, hard tight corners, especially on one road I travel weekly which is really fun, has a big hill going down to some tight turns, but you have to beware a little of the cops, they like to spoil everyone's fun there.

ramon

huh? 1/2" or 1" only puts u at +25mm!!! that cannot be right! Subies need atleast +48mm to +53mm!!!
well as long as there's no rubbing. i am not concern about it running you fenders since your overall diameter is still around 24.7" but it's whether it rubs you sturts or not. well as long as it's fine.
well i got 20% dark tints all around. no probs with the cops so far. well other than getting a ticket doing 140km/h at a 100km/h zone. =(
yes i will let hte OBS family know in yahoo. alot of ppl are looking into replacing their US hubcaps.

celeste2

I'm not sure now what you mean by offset. The wheels were 15 x 6 and by offset I mean that the center of the wheel extends out from the flush side of the tire no more than 1". Absolutely no rubbing that I'm aware of, and I haul butt sometimes when I think I would hear something.

celeste2

That's one thing I'm really paranoid about. I used to drive my Volvo like heck and now I'm really tempted to drive even more like heck. We live close to Rollins college and the Winter Park police like to really impose their presence especially the beginning of a new school year like now, so I'm always looking over my shoulder so to speak. Ah, to live in a place like Montana!

ramon

Offset is the distance from its hub mounting surface to the centerline of the wheel.

Anyways if you don't feel that it's rubbing your struts on hard cornering, then it's all good.

I have to admit, this OBS of mine is too much fun!

celeste2

I posted a message at the OBS club in Yahoo and gave a website for wheels that allows you to see the Enkei's made to fit OBS. It's discounttire.com (note the two t's in middle of word). The Enkei RSF-2's are there with some others. By the way, in Yahoo I'll use my account name from now on which is subymamma, I used my son's before which was spud_funk.

georgede

Does adding Premium fuel to an Auto 2000 OBS
helps or hurts the performance?? We did just that
to test it, and I find no difference. It still has a lag as it accelerates. Whats your opinion??

ramon

What for? Why r u using premium gas? Ure wasting money man. I was testing the octane gas too. But not much different. So I'm sticking to 89.

ramon

Your lag prolly is due to bad gas. Try switching different brands of gas. I had it too when I first go tmy car. I was using Mobil. car hates it. Hesitates like mad. But after I switched brands and the car was broken in properly, the hesitation is gone. However it does rear it's ugly head if I fill it with bad gas again.
that doesn't work, try changing to NGK spark plugs. I've heard ppl getting rid of the hesitation by changing to better plugs. the Champion plugs are really lousy.

georgede

Thanks, I'll look into the plugs. Meanwhile I'll go back to regular (87 octane) with a different
brand.
WHAT I NEED IS A 5 SPEED!!!!!!!!

ramon

yeah 5 spd is alot more responsive and more fun IMHO. less drivetrain loss too.

bluesubie

I've noticed a lot of Impreza's in general driving around with missing wheel covers. I've had all of mine for over 3 years (97 OBS). Once though when i was going through a drive-thru car wash, one of the covers popped off. I check them regularly to make sure they're tight.
Good luck!

celeste2

Well, I went to the source and called Discount Tire where I bought those Enkei's. They said the offset was 40mm. I think he said backset or something. Anyway, that's the number.

ramon

Well I heard that Enkei measures their offsets differently than the general public's measurements. I guess as long as you're not facing any rubbing or wheel deformation, you should be ok.

celeste2

Well, well, well... You'll be interested to know we did start to hear some kind of sound in the left rear, but only on a right turn incline, going onto the interstate, at a real high speed. We couldn't find a clear shot at a left turn ramp to simulate the sound on the other side, so looked and looked under the car and couldn't figure out where the friction was.

My husband got a mirror and flashlight and looked at the car body above the tire in that area and guess what? The plastic covering the car body over the tire, I mean the outer edge of the body right where the tire well is, showed some had rubbed off. This was on the left where we heard the noise, and we checked on the right and there was some there, but not as bad, as when I think of it, it's the right turn ramps that are more frequent for me, and also the one I can get haulin butt on, alot more.

So I e-mailed SOA to see if they could give me specs on backspacing and also inset. Haven't heard from them yet. Went to the local dealer and they only knew about what comes stock on the car, which sounded lame to me.

So, remembering what you said about minimum 48-53mm offset I'll head back to Discount Tire and after crying over the loss of my beautiful wheels, get something that fits (hopefully). I'm really wanting not to have to get the standard looking wheels. Enkei gives a backspace measurement, so it would be nice to know a spec for that measurement on the OBS, as they have some really nice stuff.

What an adventure--experience I guess is a good teacher, but kudos to you, as you seem not so bad yourself. Keep you posted.

Saw photos of you car. Why use the 15" for racing? Wouldn't the 16" help your speed or whatever because of the diameter?

celeste2

John here, speaking for the Warden. I'm the one responsible for buying her the Suby for Mother's Day and the wheels for her 29th birthday.

The rub on the tire is definitely on the inside of the fender. We can photograph it with a mirror and show you. No noticeable rubbing on the inside. The rub is about 3/4in. in American or 20mm in Canadian down the outside edge of the tire.

The tech at the Suby dealer said this might put undo wear on the wheel bearings. I don't know if this is something to worry about, considering how well Subys are made. One thought is to put lower profile tires on and keep the wheels. Celeste covets them. In all honesty, they are pure sex. I don't know what that would do to the speedometer setting and if it can be adjusted to compensate and I don't really want to lower the car for street use, unless it is nominal.

If you know the default offset measurement, we would appreciate it if you could pass that on to us. As always, your posts are full of useful info.
Will wait with baited breath to see what input you have for us.

I must go now, a leave just fell in the front yard and I have to go and rake it up.

Houli

ramon

Hello,
Ahh finally I get to meet the man.... If you are indeed getting tire rub on the inside part of the tire then you would need to change either the rim to the proper offset (b/t 48-53mm). I am not sure if a smaller profile tire would help if you were to retain the same tire width (205) it might still rub. But anyhow below is a link to calculate the change in overall diameter and speedometer settings when you change to different size tires.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

For more views and solutions I suggest that you head off to the following link. It's a forum for Subaru Enthusiasts. There you will get more suggestions as well. More like second opinions.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/engaged/edmund.cgi?c=Clubs&f=0&t=16

FYI - If you're wondering why your rear tires are rubbing is because Imprezas (maybe all Subarus) has rear passive steering which means when you turn your car, your rear wheels are turned slightly via control arms (I think...) That might've caused the inside of your tire to rub when you were going on the ramp.

celeste2

The tire rub is on the outside of the tire. So, no danger of rubbing the suspension. Only the outer tire well. If only the wheels let the tire come into the car another 3/4 in. or so... SOA told me 50 mm. offset, but had no backspace measurement. I may be able to get an equivalent on the Enkei backspace (in other words, converted to an offset measurement) from Enkei. I'll look for a 1-800 number in a car mag we have. Thankx for all the help.

ramon

were you carrying heavy load on that day? Still the stock OBS gap b/t the top fender to the tire (assuming it's your overall wheel/tire diameter is 24.7") has at least 3". And the OBS springs are heavy duty ones too.

celeste2

Well, kindava heavy load. My husband was sitting behind me when I drove to get more leg room the day we first heard the noise, and because I make more right turns than left turns (especially at that particular entrance ramp), there is more wear on the left than the right altho there is some on the right too. However, If we went on vacation and loaded stuff in the back I wouldn't want to have trouble, either.

I went to Discount Tire this morning, no argument, we found a wheel with 49 mm offset which I hope will work made by Team Dynamic called "Motorsport". They'll be here next week, and I'll have to drive like a granny till then. I'll just wait and see. What a developing story, eh?

By the way, where in Canada is this that you race? Do they have any of those ice races? We saw some of those on speedvision and they are wild!

ramon

celeste,
there's another what seemed like similar case as yours with this person's OBS!

http://www.impreza-rs.com/NonCGI/Forum15/HTML/004930.html

Team Dynamics are good stuff. I love their Monza and F1 Cup wheels!!! No mulah for me tho.
THe above case is slightly different in that he has aftermarket springs ans shocks and he had a 200lb guys sitting at the back. Anyhow he was showing us the pictures of the rear tires that got rubbed. Is yours like that too?

no the race I am attending is not done on ice or frozen lakes. It's on a wide parking lot as you can see from the pix at teh yahoo board. Anyhow there are ice races too....but I am not crazy about them. What if the lake cracks...?!

ramon

i'm from Southwestern Ontario..... Toronto

celeste2

Yer right, I've been down here so long I forgot there's actually still a lake under all that ice. That would be unnerving to say the least. Thanx for the link. I registered with the Impreza club and posted my two cents worth about my problem, maybe it'll help that other guy. I noticed he had different wheels than stock, too.

It's HARD to find wheels in a 15" with close to 50 offset!

Thanks for dropping in here to still help all of us novices and struggling learners.

ramon

Actually my stock OBS rims are +53mms which fits nicely. My new rims are 50mm I think. I dunno.

well I'll be here as along as I have an OBS. But of late, I am thinking of that new WRX..... arrghh!!! me and my roving eyes!

celeste2

The dealership where I bought my car was supposed to be getting ONE WRX in the spring and aution it to the highest bidder. Then one of the salesmen told us it was his. I guess he has the inside advantage or something.

Now he has a Honda DelSol with nitrous that he races but I think he's tearing it all to heck and is going to be needing something else.

ramon

Spring as in next year right? Anyhow the new WRX is going to be on sale about April time as a 2002 model.
So do u still have the rubbing after Enkei gave you a new set of rims?

celeste2

Yeah, I meant next year on the WRX.

I didn't actually get a new set of wheels from Enkei. I went back to Discount Tire where I bought my wheels and told them the wheel they sold me were causing tire rub. So they looked up a few more kinds of wheels with as close to 50 as we could get that I liked the look of, which were the Team Dynamic wheels I told you about. They're going to swap me out because the T.D. wheels are the same cost. So they have been ordered and will be in next week about Wed. or Thurs.

I really hope this solves the problem. That guy in the Impreza club had tire rub much further down but was hauling two big guys in the back versus me hauling one big guy in the back. That's like tryin to haul two ton of fertilizer in a one ton truck, right? JUst kiddin. I never heard any rub when it was just me in the car.

I would find it hard to believe the shocks couldn't bear weight in the back seat.

Anyway, keep you posted.

ramon

I'm quite puzzled too that the stock Springs and shocks are unable to carry heavy weights at the back!

celeste2

Ya know, I wonder how much is what the shocks can carry and how much has to do with the passive steering in the back wheels. It could very well be that without passive steering things would be fine!

ramon

Thing is that, I am stumped that it even happened considering that the clearance b/t your top part of the tire to the top part of the fender is so wide since the OBS has taller springs!
Unless during that turn, your OBS must be leaning alot! Did you have excessive body roll during that turn O Lead Foot Driver?!

celeste2

Yeah, I guess I was really pushing it, you could say, maxin out. It's such a great right turn, AND on an incline. When you hit the bottom of the hill at the top of 2nd gear, it's a real thrill!

celeste2

Well, got my Team Dynamic wheels installed last Wednesday, and doesn't seem to be any more rub. Keep checking the tires and don't see any, and don't hear the rub as we did before. When you look at the car from behind, I notice that now the tires seem centered in front of the rear tire flaps whereas before they were a little to the outside of the flaps. It would be interesting to know what Enkei's 40mm backspacing measurement transfers to in offset measure???? Mine now are 49 mm. offset. Not as glam as the Enkei's, but still really nice. Some people liked my Enkei's better, some like these better. Seems artsy people like the Enkei's and hard sporty car-driving people like the TD Motorsports. Thought you'd be interested.

celeste2

Saw in that one site where that guy was writing to you in Spanish. That was pretty funny. I think you were telling him you were in no way Spanish, right? What was he trying to do, anyway?

ramon

about the Spanish thingy. We were talking about some WRX news in spanish and I was questioning his validity and stuff. it was all in good fun.

Oh I want to see the Team Dynamics wheels. I love some of their models. Very nice stuff. Glad to hear there's no rubbing anymore. Post pix!

ramon

Went to my local autoX event on sunday. It was awesome! I took 2nd behind a Legacy GT. He was the master. I was sorta like his pupil. hehehe.... anyhow there were 6-7 cars in our class and Subarus took the first 2 spots! Managed to beat a 328Ci, Thunderbird, a Celica and even a 2.5RS! I learned alot. was the best event thus far. See.... with alittle bit of mods, your OBS can do wonders! It's not all about hp since the cars I beat had more power than mine. yay!!! Goooooo Scooby!

celeste2

Hey, was that like a time trial or head-on-head? The Legacy had more HP, right? Even the RS too, I believe, right? What year thunderchicken was that? One of the recent models? Sounds like you had a fun weekend! As soon as I get decent pics I'll post on OBS club. At the Impreza club a guy posted pics of his RS with Team Dynamics and I'd like to post pics there, but waiting for one of them to tell me how to do it since it's not as easy as on the OBS club. You have turbo on your OBS? What about a short shifter? Was this your first race with the new tires? I can just see an OBS with big ol racin slicks!

My husband borrowed my car yesterday to get to work and went thru the toll booth on a local toll road in the special express lane for those with the sensors on their cars who are registered and pre-paid, etc. He didn't realize till too late that my car doesn't have the sensor--his company truck does!! So, I guess the expressway authority got a picture of my outlaw OBS runnin' the toll plaza. He found out the first offense is OK. Darn! He used up MY first offense and chance at free toll!

ramon

Hahahha..... too funny. Now you're an Outlaw OBS. kewl.
To post pix at the iclub simply make sure you uploaded your pix to a website like say www.celeste.com/obs.jpg.
Then at the iclub forum in just type in :
[img]URL[/img]
where URL = www.celeste.com/obs.jpg

My car has some mods. But no turbo. That would put me way into the modified cars which is like supercharged Mustangs, 600hp Corvettes, Lotus Super 7s etc...
Yup they all haf more power. Only the Legacy beat me as he is a very season driver. I was using my street tires. It was my 3rd time racing and I am happy with the results. The car ran fine. I bounced of the rev limiter a few times during each run. Dang 1st gear is too short! Not sure about the year of the thunderchicken. But it's quite decent looking. Not the old crappy ones. He nearly stole 2nd spot from me when he matched and beat my time of 51.9 by a 300th of a second - 51.6s. So on my last run of the day, I went back out and dipped into 50.7seconds to secure 2nd spot. The Legacy held a comfortable 48.8seconds lead over me. I think if I had another run, I would actually go into the 49s... Oh well. It was good anyways.

celeste2

Going in this week for an oil change, and got a late birthday present! Unorthodox racing pulleys for my car. Supposed to pick up a few HP. It's funny how I keep getting these add-on gifts. Now all I need are blue and yellow fuzzy dice!

celeste2

Still no tire rub! will post pics when we get my car spanking clean. Still miss my Enkei's, but these are fine.

ramon

Whoa! Light weight pulley?! Awesome! I had one put in since November last year. No problems. Love the easy revability of the car. Also remember to grab a new set of belts since the pulley will be smaller.

celeste2

There are two belts in the box with the pulley. I guess the OBS fairy knew who to talk to. Does this mean you can rev the engine more in 1st gear? Can't wait! Get the pulley on next week.

celeste2

Finally posted photos of my wheels in OBS Club. Look at "Any 2000 OBS" album.

ramon

THey look nice. I like it. Aren't they other colours like white? Anthracites? Hmm.... I always like Team Dynamics. Not Team Locos mind you.
THe pulley is quite straight forward. But unless you have a breaker bar, you would find it quite hard to find leverage to get the stock one out!
It won't let you rev more per se. It helps you rev to redline much faster! I love it cus it makes the throttle response much faster and I can do heel and toe better.

ramon

I am dassr17 at the yahoo club. geez. But keep it to yourself. I like to maintain err.... different identity in different sites. Oh well. But a few has figured out. No biggy. If I had to start it all over again. I'd use the same nickname instead of having different ones. What a pain!

celeste2

So would I be doing the mechanic a favor to mention about the breaker bar? We're going to a place that does Japanese imports and it was recommended by a lady we talked to with that racy Subie they don't make anymore (I forgot the name of it). The same guy does all the work on all the cars. So it's hard to get the stock one off?

ramon

Oh what a beau it was. Designed by Giugario of Italdesign. It is way ahead of it's competitors and times. Plagued only by the high price and auto. It was a great sports tourer.
Anyhow if you're bringing to a shop. Then i am sure he would have the right tools. I said a breaker bar because most house holds does not have a giant wrench set. All I had was a set of MasterCraft bits and ratchet. So in order for me to get leverage I needed a breaker bar.

FYI, once you get everything installed, you must recheck the belt tension again after a 2-3 weeks of driving as it get's loose.

rsholland

Rumor has it (in Japan) that there may be new SVX sometime in the near future. Apparently Subaru would like to grab some of the Audi TT market.

Bob