I was big into fords back in the day , had an Escort Cosworth as my last ford , and agree they weren't all that , after a tune by MA developments to around 350hp , new suspension , an exhaust change to take all the cats off , it was soooo laggy , better brakes , they have 1 pot calipers on the front , the gearbox was awful , crap ratios , it sent a vibration through the cabin trying to pull away in a low gear around 1600 revs , sent it back to Fords and they blamed the lengths of the prop shaft compered to the Sierra and couldn't be fixed , it was a fun car after you had done a lot of work , and it looks great even today , would I buy another one , no , i'll leave it in the memory banks.
About 5 years ago I bought an Impreza version 5 STi type R impreza , got it quite cheap just before prices started rising , what a great car out of the box , a far better drive than the Escort by miles , my Impreza has had some upgrades to it , an exhaust is the only part that has been changed , with the close ratio gearbox , even today it's great fun to drive.
Visually it's had some major changes , if you have seen the P25 that Prodrive brought out , making 25 brand new cars ( bar the shells ) but with the S5 WRC body kit made of Carbon Fibre , 5 years ago I bought the first customer supplied kit and have been slowly rebuilding my car , finally got the kick up the arse I needed to finish it when I heard Prodrive were unveiling the car in Goodwood this year , the P25 is a great looking car , and some great features , but at £552k make even the 22B look cheap , I still think the 22B is way overpriced , and even if I had the spare cash to buy one , I wouldn't. I don't really get why people are paying that much for them , I can't see it being an investment because I can't see how they can keep going higher and higher , but what do I know !
Anyway , here's my car , Carbon WRC bodykit , the 22B is the same width as a WRC car , but the arches are higher on the WRC , which I think looks a lot better, WRC spec Speedline wheels , now being made in aluminium to the correct offsets , running coilovers to get the right stance , bigger brakes front and rear , I was very lucky to pick up a set of front P1 sets with the blue flashes as I don't like the red ones , it's had a full refresh underneath , and looks as good under there as it does on top , the only items I didn't fit WRC spec is the bonnet vents , as you can get your hands in there , and if I park it up didn't want any unwanted fingers in there , and I kept the standard mirrors so I can actually use them , the WRC mirrors are useless , it's tucked away in my heated garage waiting impatiently for nice weather again , I took it to a car meet a few weeks ago and it rained on the way , so no doubt will need a good clean underneath now lol.
