Impreza S5 WRC Replica

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

Have to say, this was a fun job!! I began re-doing my rear tubs a while back. This time I plan on having a return lip on the inner arch, so there is a good mating surface to bond the carbon rear quarter to. This lip also gives better clearance above the arch compared to its predecessor! This new lip which is curved in all directions was done using a shrinker/stretcher. Now with the lip done in two parts, I just need to weld them together and then I’ll be starting work on the curved tub that will attach to it and the shell.


IMG_3050 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3051 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3052 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3053 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3055 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3058 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3059 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3134 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3136 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3137 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3139 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

Unfortunately due to an overzealous US customs employee back in 2020, I had an order refused entry to the States due to a wrong decision regarding the wooden crate it was shipped in and its ISPM15 compliance. In short, the shipment got sent back along with all the other consignments in the freight container and the shipper in the UK hit me with a hefty bill to cover the re-shipping costs of the other consignments. That aside, I had to supply my own personal panels to my USA customer to appease them and this left me without any panel to fit on my car. I did however manage to come to an agreement with the UK shipper (still feeling sore for the outlay) and I got the panels back. So... to treat myself and to try and get some inspiration, I dry fitted them. Nice to see them back on the car after 12 months of not having any....


FCA33AB3-AE3D-4707-9845-2E42E885AC8F by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3455 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3457 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3460 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

IMG_3462 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

And finally a teaser of some of the new parts that have been developed in the last 5 months...


Boot lid... 2.7kg.... so 6.8kg lighter than an OEM one...



Boot 1 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

Boot 2 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr



Bonnet... half the weight of an OEM at 4.25kg... and now available with the original apertures for standard vents or with the larger S5 vents fitted...

Carbon Bonnet - Outer 1 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr


Carbon Bonnet - Outer 5 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr


Carbon Bonnet - Inner 2 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr


Carbon Bonnet & S5 Vents 1 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr


Carbon Bonnet & S5 Vents 2 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr


Carbon Bonnet & S5 Vents 3 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr



And finally a roof skin.... 2.4kg compared to the 7.4kg of the standard steel roof...

ROOF SKIN 1 by Jamie Flett, on Flickr

[blascae111]

WOW That is a thing of beauty. Fair play man

[Tristan]

Funny, I was only thinking about this thread the other day, a Grp N Sti landed here.

Lovely work as always Jamie.
I bet that arch section took a while with the Shrinker / Stretcher!

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

WOW That is a thing of beauty. Fair play man

Cheers man!

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

Funny, I was only thinking about this thread the other day, a Grp N Sti landed here.

Lovely work as always Jamie.
I bet that arch section took a while with the Shrinker / Stretcher!

It honestly wasn’t too bad. Only took a couple of hours, and most of that was the initial set up and trial runs on some scrap pieces.

The shrinker/stretcher I bought is a fantastic piece of kit. I had some teething problems initially when I bought it, but Stakesys who supplied it took it back, fixed it and shipped it back. They are a great company to deal with if you ever need metal fab tools etc.

What you see in the pictures probably only took about 30 minutes once I had the curve spacing and pressure sorted with the shrinker jaws. The great thing is if you overdo it… You just swap it out with the stretcher jaws, and you can undo any overly tight curvature’s.

[Titan]

Man the whole messing with the shipments must have been soul destroying, never mind the
costs and headaches involved.
I'd imagine the Americans would just hoover these sort of parts up, especially now that they
can get 3 Door Impreza's on the roads over there.

When it comes to carbon bonnets on anything made of quality, I always love looking at the underside of
the bonnet skin, just to see all of the details and it really shows how it was put together.

I'm sure there's a fair bit of trial and error involved, as with anything but the results speak for themselves.

Unreal, those parts look exquisite.

Do you work at this full time?

[ondafly]

I'd imagine the Americans would just hoover these sort of parts up, especially now that they
can get 3 Door Impreza's on the roads over there.

They've always had access to 3 door GC Imprezas - the 2.5RS
example - https://carsandbids.com/auctions/35L...eza-25rs-coupe

As for the work being done here - simply incredible Jamie. What I want to know now, is how do we convert you to the church of Evo and get some Evo carbon parts

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

Man the whole messing with the shipments must have been soul destroying, never mind the
costs and headaches involved.
I'd imagine the Americans would just hoover these sort of parts up, especially now that they
can get 3 Door Impreza's on the roads over there.

When it comes to carbon bonnets on anything made of quality, I always love looking at the underside of
the bonnet skin, just to see all of the details and it really shows how it was put together.

I'm sure there's a fair bit of trial and error involved, as with anything but the results speak for themselves.

Unreal, those parts look exquisite.

Do you work at this full time?

Hey Tristan, First off... what is this Grp N STI you talk about...??!! Very curious!

Yeah, there's been a fair bit of interest from the US. To date, I think 9 full kits have gone Stateside. But in the last year, it has definitely quietened down a bit as people tighten their belts with the fear of a global recession.

Yeah, the whole US Customs debacle was an utter nightmare. I had been advised by a freight forwarder here on how to package it, and although there was nothing wrong with the ISPM15 compliance, he washed his hands of any responsibility and left me in the sh*ts with the UK shipping company!! Along with that, US customs tried to take my US customer to court for aiding and abetting an illegal import. :O In the end, with the documents I was able to supply showing it's compliance, they reduced the fines from over $20k dollars to $500, so he was happy-ish to say the least!! But zero compensation for me for the mess they had made through wrongfully rejecting it's entry through customs!!

It was 12 months of completely unnecessary stress trying to resolve it with the threat of me being sued for the costs and storage fees of my consignment in the UK. In the end, I managed to resolve it with the help of a Maritime lawyer. It still stung a lot, but it worked out cheaper to settle, than to either go to court or to forfeit the goods and risk them being destroyed... and then getting sued. Not something I want to have to experience again... lessen learnt and put behind me now!

Thanks for the kind words too... delighted with the new parts. And no... it's not my full time job. It was always was a part-time thing, as I work as a designer in the large format print industry. But of late, and due to a large amount of work in for the carbon, it's certainly taking up the best part of a 1.5 - 2 days of my week. So I'm trying to juggle this with another business I set up a couple of years ago. Definitely bitten off more than I can chew, with having to working 60 hour weeks from May through to September.

[JAMIE TYPERV6]

They've always had access to 3 door GC Imprezas - the 2.5RS
example - https://carsandbids.com/auctions/35L...eza-25rs-coupe

As for the work being done here - simply incredible Jamie. What I want to know now, is how do we convert you to the church of Evo and get some Evo carbon parts

Yeah there are a good few 2 door RS and base model cars (Brightons) in the US. Good ones can still be found alright... especially down in the drier states. Anywhere from $2.5 - 5k can get you a good base car to work with.

Thanks too for the kind words. As tempting as it would be to branch out into another marque, I do still have my work cut out for me in the coming years to get all the final parts developed for the S5 WRC Impreza.

Maybe down the road though... but it's hard to gauge the demand. As like so many other 90's JDM legends now, Evo's are becoming rarer to find and generally preferred now as stock cars. Who knows though!!

[Tristan]

JAMIE TYPERV6


Pm sent.