[mtcossie]

Picked my Black/Gold STi yesterday at Dick Walter. It's going to be tough to make it through the break-in period!

Hard to say how well it handles yet since I just got it. Definitly a improvment from the S4 I had before it. Should be a great auo-xer! The tires are pretty cool looking and suprisingly quiet. The ride is firm but not too uncomfortable - can't wait to toss it around some. Does suffer from the usual off center steering wheel which gets fixed in a week. Hope to get a little neg camber at that time too. Going to be a fun car and gets a lot of looks!

 

[prost893]

Sweet! Black is always nice but I hate washing it. Congrats. After break in is pretty cool. Good luck keeping it under 4000.

 

[mtcossie]

Having two black cars is going to be tough on the water bill or drive the wife crazy with all the stops at the car wash

 

[Vader2k]

Beautiful! I love the color - black. It looks so menacing yet classy. Nice choice. My previous car before my STi was an Accord V6 in black, but it was hell keeping it clean. But welcome aboard the forum.

 

[leadfoot]

Great looking car, one question though....that car in the background...is that a Ford Cosworth? Must show pics if it is what I think it is!!

Michael

 

[mtcossie]

STI Strut Tower Bar

Yup, that is my 95 Escort Cosworth. Love that car! Been a bit of a tough road the last couple of years to get it running well. However, got it dialed in this year and it's running great! You can see pics of it here :

http://homepage.mac.com/mtcossie/russkaiser/cossie.html

Might actually look and see if I can get the Compomotive MO's for a winter wheel for the STI - bombproof wheels! Have to check with them and see if the 17x7.5 wheel will clear the Brembo's. The 17's on the Cossie have plenty of clearance over the 4 pot AP calipers and 13" disk - running a 25 mm offset.

 

[leadfoot]

Wow, that is REALLY cool! I would love to know more about it, like how you got that great car into this country? Did you bring it in under the new "show and shine" rules, or some other way, perhaps from Sun Importers? Refresh my memory, is that a 300hp car? I cant quite remember. What is it like compared to the STi? Lighter I would assume. Perhaps the only car made with a bigger wing than the STi!!

Great great car, tell us more about your story!!

Michael

EDIT: Oops, I now see you brought it in using Sun International, sorry, I was too focused on just checking out the pics! :wink:

 

[mtcossie]

Dealer Decal

I bought the Escort from they guy who had it imported so I don't have to go through that. It's street legal (barely!). I'm guessing that it is around 350-380 hp now with the Autronic ECU. With bigger injectors and a few more PSI of boost I could easily be over 400 hp! With the metal WRC headgasket I could easily run 28 PSI!

The steering and handleing of the Cosworth is nothing short of incredible. Probably make the EVO's handeling seem sluggish! The steering feedback is instantaneous with no hesitation when turning the wheels. My STI only has about 200 miles on it so far so I can't really give a good comparison. The Escort definitly handles much better but the STI has more low end torque and power. The Cosworth has a bit of turbo lag. I don't see full boost (20 PSI) until 3000-3500 rpms. The smaller turbo on the STI simply spools much faster. The STI with the center diff set to OPEN seems to feel more like the Cosworth which has a permanent 34-66 split between front and rear. The Cosworth is around 400 lbs lighter than the STI (assuming STI is 3200 and the Cossie at 2800). Hope to get to a auto-x with the STI in the next month when it's broken in. Eager to see how it will compaire to the Cossie!

 

[leadfoot]

Wow, that is really cool, up to 28psi!! Damn that is wild.

I look forward to hearing more comparisons. Pretty neat couple of cars you have there, please keep us posted.

Michael

 

[RS WRC]

Nice Cossie, and of course nice STi,

I used to have a '93 Cossie/water injected as well. It was giving ~305-310hp(265hp @wheels) with a truck load of mods and 'Mountune' [email protected] peak 1.7bar(24-25psi)...of course with a lot of broken diffs.(4) at that power level! Your's must have a Grp. A engine in there to pull 350-380 )

For the Compomotive Wheels, were you able to get a response from them. It seems like they are on vacation for a while!
I was going to order a set of 17X7.5 TH2s, but its impossible to get to them...

 

[mdaj]

car show

OMG...I just want to cry. I LOVE that car so much. Came here reading up on the STI's and someone has to have a Cossie. Im sad.

 

[Fhqwhgads]

More on swapping wings

Hey MtCossie,

What part of MT are you in if you don't mind me asking? My g/f has family in the Mission area.

Oh, and I'm absolutely jealous of your cossie. About a year ago I went through a Cossie kick and *almost* bought one. I'd definitely love to have one in my garage next to the STi.

If I ever make it up to MT, I'd love to see the cossie.

Take care,
Alberto

 

[mtcossie]

Hey!

I'm in Bozeman. Let me know if you are ever up here. Maybe time it right when we have a auto-x going You probably don't want to see this then - http://www.wrc-cosworth.org/dv/sale/CA1/CA1.html Price seems a bit high compaired to what I paid for mine.

The Cossie is definitly the better handler but it has some serious suspension upgrades (coilovers, front & rear strut bars and some pretty thick sway bars) and is around 400 lbs lighter. The lack of turbo lag on the STI is awesome! The Cossie has a modified Garret T35 with 360 degree thrust bearings and it takes a while to spool up. But when it hits 20 PSI - hold on! Definitly made for high rpm's. Looking into ceramic ball bearing turbo and adjusting ignition timing to help with the turbo lag (Autronic SMC ECU). The STI is an such a incredible car off the showroom floor.

 

[Fhqwhgads]

What is that sound?

Ouch, why'd you post that link? I just got my STi now I gotta start saving for a cossie... plus mods for both... maybe we can turn our addiction into some sort of tax exempt religion

If I head up there, I'll definitely PM you. How is it finding parts (performance and replacement OEM parts)? I recently sold a GMC Typhoon and finding anything that was made specifically for the car was ridiculously expensive (as in interior mounting plates for $1000). Are there any inherent weaknesses (tranny/diffs/etc...).

Take it easy,
Alberto

 

[mtcossie]

Replacment and performance parts for the Cossie have been pretty easy to come by. I have a couple of good suppliers in England (Graham Goode) and Germany (Autohaus Rickter). Shipping's a killer but the parts get here in a couple of days if the are instock. The Cosworth series of cars still has a big following across the pond and there are a lot of people over there that know everything there is to know about them. The prices are pretty decent and you can get parts from the Group N and Group A car too (like Anti-lag!) I lucked out and found a really good mechanic that has a lot of experience with turbo-charged cars.

The main weakness I've read about is the transmission in high horsepower cars - 350 hp and up. There are a lot of upgrades for that too - 6sp sequential gear box - $20,000! I do not know if mine had been upgraded or not. I believe the clutch has been upgraded to a heavy duty one.