My new '99 Type RA 555 WRC Limited Edition- With added drama :(

R

rb26richie

Sunday Drivers
Well what can I say...

I have never been able to successfully buy & run a car for any period of time without running into some sort of roadblock... This story starts no different to any other :(

The story starts last Friday-
I set off for Heuston Station at 12pm, my destination was Tralee. The car was based in Dingle so it's safe to say that it was a long way out for a car.
Thankfully the voyage was worthwhile and initial glimpse followed by a detailed inspection of my (soon to be) car proved to be an absolute success.

I bought it;



20130914_182711_zps8ea6ae09.jpg


It's a '99 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type RA, 555 WRC Limited Edition- #671 out of 1000.

20130914_182726_zps4e658126.jpg


I fell in love within minutes and had planned a decent initial run from Kerry to Cornamona so off we went. Journey went exactly as planned, it's EXACTLY what I had hoped it was going to be; powerful, agile, raw, aggressive and bloody loud.

20130914_182740_zpsd832e1ee.jpg


20130914_182940_zps664279fc.jpg


I spent the weekend in Cornamona and THOROUGHLY enjoyed the roads around Connemara!

20130917_122313_zpsaff80d3b.jpg


20130917_122327_zps89367da2.jpg


I finally decided to come home to Dublin and show off my new beast... Unfortunately I'd live to regret this decision..

20130917_131438_zpse5ec81c5.jpg


20130917_131451_zps6429983d.jpg


20130917_131500_zps7bfb83fc.jpg


20130916_132819_zpse91a8003.jpg


I decided to let a (fellow petrolhead) family member take her for a spin. Unfortunately, due to bad road conditions and maybe a bad decision or two I ended up nearly getting a large steel pole to the face as the car slid uncontrollably across the road and ended up flattening a steel road sign and ultimately causing in excess of 3.5k damage (quoted by Carol Roche Subaru).
It needs inner and outer sills, two doors, to be straightened on a jig, the floor fixed (it crumpled slightly), a new side skirt, back box needs to be repaired, and so do the front and back bumpers.

I'm gutted but unfortunately these things happen.
She will be fixed professionally by Subaru and I'll get to enjoy her again.

For the time being she will make a good dinner table :p

20130913_105250_zps9bb24098.jpg
 
Just to confirm that she's going to be 100% repaired using all genuine Subaru parts.

I was in with Carol Roche the day it happened and was delighted with Noel and the guys in there. Very informative and knowledgeable.
Looking forward to getting her sorted :)
 
seanie said:
Ouch!
Hope the insurance is covering it? otherwise i'd be scrapping it
Click to expand...

He was not insured, unfortunately.
She's DEFINATELY not being scrapped though, I'm going to return her to standard cosmetically and keep her on our roads.
 
:icon_sad: very sorry to see this lad but least no 1 was hurt but between 3 and 3.5k + what it cost is hardly worth it :ponder: sorry again . reading down through the story after the first picture i though the engine had let go when i
seen the name on the side skirt
 
As Joe said
Shells around a plenty from cars been broken
Crying shame
But sure it happens
Fair play for taking it so well
It's the only way :thumbsup:
 
as the lads said, reshell it.
Shells can be got cheap.
Madness spending that money to fix it, reshell it and use the money to upgrade it.
if you fix it you still have a car that was seriously damaged.
i was doing the same thing with one 12 months ago had rear quarter damage but reshelled it instead, the car will never be 100%
 
Thanks for the well wishes and tips guys :)

You are all right, she may not be financially worthwhile to repair, however, I almost feel obliged to fix it... There were 1000 of these made, all it takes is 1000 crashes worldwide to essentially eliminate the car from the world. Granted I'll never make my money back but that's a small price to pay IMO.

I would be interested in buying a clean shell and swapping everything over though, that's not something I considered...
Are there really allot of clean shells around?

Is it possible to add a poll to this thread to see what peoples opinion is?

To get her fully repaired by Carol Roche or else to reshell and salvage all the good bits...

I'll list the damage;
Both sills gone (inner and outer) on passenger side
Front and rear door damaged beyond repair
Side skirt
Front bumper
Back bumper
Back box
Floor slightly kinked so car will need to be put on a proper jig and straightened out.
 
So sorry to hear what happened!! That is gut wrenching!

That shell will never be 100% right. You'd be better.. As advised... To re-shell it and not just from a cost point of view.

Shells do come up.. But classics are becoming harder to come by without dreaded rot or previous badly repaired accident damage. Take your time and be patient and the right shell will come up.

Sorry again!! Nightmare situation.
 
Okay, thanks for the advice guys. Really appreciate it :)

I've posted a wanted thread (https://isdc.ie/forum/threads/36410/) looking for a clean classic shell. I'd GREATLY appreciate a heads up if anyone sees anything around that might suit my requirements :) Does anyone know what my paint code/name is off the top of your head is? I think it's something along the lines of 555 blue or WRC blue?
 
Hey man, so sorry to hear what happened.

I've learned my lesson myself about giving the car to my best mate a few years ago. He crashed my type-R as well, not as badly as yours though.
Because of DCCD in open position there is almost 80% of power going to rear wheels. These cars require some skills to drive in the wet and can surprise some well ;)

I can understand your point of wanting to fix it and keeping original, rather than re-shelling it.
But money-wise it makes no sense, and you would defo end up cheaper to find the good shell and second-hand doors. There are several breakers around. You will find some of them in our traders section.
If I were you I would definitely want to bring it back to the original state. Get rid of those aftermarket bumpers etc.
 
Think that's Paul's old car had fresh engine build before he sold it
Murray555 had 99 white sti shell might still have it
 
By the way, the colour code is 74F, but there are about 4 different shades of it. :thumbsup:
 
Codders said:
Hey man, so sorry to hear what happened.

I've learned my lesson myself about giving the car to my best mate a few years ago. He crashed my type-R as well, not as badly as yours though.
Because of DCCD in open position there is almost 80% of power going to rear wheels. These cars require some skills to drive in the wet and can surprise some well ;)

I can understand your point of wanting to fix it and keeping original, rather than re-shelling it.
But money-wise it makes no sense, and you would defo end up cheaper to find the good shell and second-hand doors. There are several breakers around. You will find some of them in our traders section.
If I were you I would definitely want to bring it back to the original state. Get rid of those aftermarket bumpers etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! Really appreciate it :)
That was another annoying part of the whole experience.

I'll explain the scenario that lead up the accident to allow for some context on my frustration :p
I collected him and brought him for a spin around our local mountains, roads we both know and love.
I was driving first and showed the differences between the various diff settings. I started on fully open and worked through to 'lock'. While she was in lock mode I went over a strange patch on the road at ~45mph that caused the back to get very unsettled and took quite a bit of driver involvement to correct.

Before handing over the keys I said to be very careful on that bend as I wasn't comfortable driving over it myself. I also made sure to leave her in 'Lock' mode.

Off we went and thinks were going OK up until we got to the very same section on the road- I warned him beforehand saying be very careful here and unfortunately my advice was not taken into consideration and EXACTLY the same thing happened, the car slid, this time without the correct response and before I knew it I seen a large steel pole coming straight towards my passenger window. A quick tug on the wheel allowed the back to spin a little further out resulting in the pole hitting just behind my door rather then causing me any harm.

As mentioned before, accidents happen- it's just unfortunate when they could have been avoided ;)
 
Sorry for the apparent ignorance to your advice guys but I am going with my gut on this one- I love the car the way it is and just want it back :)

It's booked in with Caroll & Roche Subaru next Monday to get all the work done.
I just need to source two decent second hand doors myself as that will cut ~€750 off the price.

I know it's mad money to be spending on a car that will never return that sort of figure but it deserves the fix and didn't deserve the crash.

Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan :)
 
...and you'll be driving what is effectively a write off, it will probably crumble given another shunt, the chassis has been bent significantly
...3k for repairs, with 2 new doors and your basically gonna need a full respray >>ad 1500 minimum to that....so your going to pump 4.5k into a car not even worth that and you will never sell it on here because everyone knows its been crash repaired.
I'm not sure what you been eating if your listening to your gut and that's the conclusion you've come too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top