▀▄ Miglior Detailing: Subaru Impreza Cosworth STi SC400 - 1 of 75! ▄▀

Miglior · Nov 27, 2011

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Subaru Cosworth Impreza STi CS400 - 1 of only 75!

About the car…

Cosworth Impreza STI CS400
Available for the UK market only, the Cosworth Impreza STI CS400 was announced in late May 2010. [17] Only 75 units built, the STI CS400 is powered by a 400 PS (294 kW; 395 hp) 2.5 liter turbocharged engine which has Cosworth engineered forged connecting rods, racing pistons, heavy duty cylinder head studs, multi-layered head gasket, and high pressure oil pump. The ECU had been remapped, and the new compressor design and wastegate actuator had been applied to the turbo. The exhaust system features larger capacity tubular manifold and bigger diameter downpipes. Clutch was also upgraded.
The Cosworth Impreza STI CS400 can be distinguished from the regular STI from its upper mesh grille with piano black finish on the top frame, modified front bumper with "Cosworth" emblem on the lower mesh grille, and lip spoiler, 18 inch Pro-Race alloy wheels in Anthracite Gray, and trunk waist spoiler.
To match its performance, the CS400 comes with Bilstein struts and Eibach springs for better quality ride, and better handling with less pitch and roll during cornering. Braking was updated by AP Racing's larger diameter ventilated front brakes with six-pot calipers.
Inside, the CS400 has Recaro leather seats with "Cosworth" label, piano black center console panel, and "Cosworth"-badged floor mats.

RRP £49,995

The car was brought to me with a few hundred miles on. The owner was concerned about some strange marks that had appeared after the car had been at the dealership. It turns out they washed the car and didn't do a brilliant job. On this occasion the swirl marks were not the most troubling addition to the car. It seems some highly caustic chemicals had been left all over the car mid wash. As if the valeter at the dealership had a quick break in the middle of doing this car. This left dull marks etched all over the car. On the glass, on the paint, on the light wheels etc. The brake calipers had taken a particular beating too!

The car was booked in for an enhancement detail plus a wheels off jobbie for me to get the best shot of hand polishing the wheels. Another thing the owner mentioned, the car had seemed to be undersealed at some point in manufacture. The story goes, these chassis for the Cosworth model were stored for a year or so as base STI models then one by one hand customised to a Cosworth model. In the interim, the cars had been undersealed, but there was a lot of overspray in the arches and wheels. Some of this was left over components that would benefit on the owner's request. It was removed from arch liners etc and wheels though but you will still some of it in the arches.

On to some pictures!

The car on arrival!

Damage and etching clear to see on the glass, harder to spot on the paintwork though, with the bright lights and silver paint.

First up, glass polishing!

50/50

The rest of the car…

Here you can see some etching marks on the paint on a flat part of the car

Onto the wash outside… not many pics as it was a dreadful day outside

Iron filings being removed..

Big thanks to Shinearama.co.uk for getting me some more Iron X out to me in record time! I was gutted to see I had run out and hadn't noticed but Phil sorted it out so no sweat there! Thanks mate!

Back into the unit for drying

Now the car was dry it was time to get the wheels off for a proper clean.

You can see here what I mean about the calipers taking a beating with this caustic cleaner applied to the car.

The state of the wheels even though they were cleaned on the car, that's under seal in the wheels!

After!

A closer view of what we were dealing with

Before

After

Before

After

Here's the cloths used for the wheels! This was purely underseal, all brake dust had already been removed

Once the wheels were cleaned properly and decontaminated they were hand polished on the inners and sealed all over.

Onto the arches..

Remember those nasty calipers?

well they were brought back to life!

Now the wheels are ready to go back on!

The exhausts were polished back to life too!

Now onto the paintwork which was enhanced to remove much of the light swirl marks and all of the etching marks!

Once the paint was polished it was IPA'd and polished with paint cleaner then sealed.

Sealant curing

Once the sealant was on and curing, it was time to take care of quite a lot of finishing details like sealing the exhausts, polishing the door shuts etc.

Some of these steps were photographed…

Here was the state of all the plastics about the car!

Before

Cleaned

Sealed with Gtechniq C4

Same story here…

Going for a final check around with the Sun gun..

and wipe down

Now time to get rid of the ramp and take some after shots!

Engine Bay

And ready to go.. next to an Evoque that had just been dropped in for a protection detail!

thanks for reading guys!

Again thanks again to Phil @ Meguiar's, Autoglym, Collinite, Insta Finish, Poorboy's, Dodo Juice, ValetPro, Einszett, Chemical Guys, Eurow, Lake, Kestrel, RainX - the best car care - Shinearama for pulling me outa the muck with running out of Iron X!! haha!