Reubens Black Beast - 1998 BG GTB LTD

Reuben · April 29, 2019

In this crazy modern age of social media, forums seem to be falling by the wayside. But I don't want to see this happen, so I'm making a concerted effort to post more on the forums I love, and once loved. Facebook just isn't as good, but damn is it popular

I just checked and I have got a silly amount of posts here, this used to be one of the haunts I visited most frequently back in the day, and I just popped back to see how things were, and was pleasantly surprisded that it's still active.

For some reason, I never maintained my build thread on here, I think I mostly just shit posted, but it's never too late. I did find an old thread I started in 09, but I had barely kept it up to date... The same thread on SL-I, is like 20 pages long, lol.

So, to cut a long story short, here's my Beast. I hunted high and low for this thing back in '07, back then there were HUNDREDS on the local listings, it wasn't too hard to find what you wanted. Took me 3 months, but I found something that fufilled my list. I wanted a Black BG5C GTB from 1998, must be manual, must not have sunroofs, must not have the beam on the tailgate, or the protector on the rear bumper. And if it was a limited, that was a bonus, but not required. Well I found just that, and it was a limited. **** we had it good, cause you'd be hard pressed to be that picky today!!! If I ever had to replace this car I'd be looking for a long arse time. This beast was ex-repossed, so was going cheap. The market value in 07 for one of these (only 9 years old) was still pretty cheap, at about 12-13k. I picked it up for a trifle $8250.

It was quite literally my dream car, and within 3 months I blew it up.

A friend convinced me to single turbo it, and TBH in the 3 months of owning a TT, I could see how that was a good idea (though actually had to drive a single turbo to understand just how different they were). So I did, I documented the process, and I wrote a how to on the matter, which still gets around today, something I am proud of. Since then though I have learned the ways of the twin, and come to terms with them, I still endeavour to help TT owners out when I can.

The beast progressed nicely in the years following, it got a raft of handing upgrades, the engine bay tidied up nicely, and I managed to keep the car in good condition. Some time in 2015/16 I think, I blew up the forged engine I built at the start of 08 when I did the single conversion (ran it dry of oil), it was a good time to amend the dodgy work I had done back in the day. I found my split fuel rail lines had been rubbing on things, so I re-did all that, much tidier, and added a few goodies like silicone intake and what not, and the car thanked me for it. The new and improved engine, built with a STi V7 crate short block from subaru picked up full boost 200rpm earlier than the old intake setup, and I could hear the turbo nice and loud. The V7 block is also far nicer to drive than the old forgies, no more CLICK CLOCK CLACK on cold startups!

Today she mostly sits in storage, but comes out in summer for the good times. The Grit they lay on the road down here in Queenstown during winter mess up your paint work proper, the front end of this car is well peppered now!

Anyway, enough jibber jabber, have some pics.

The week I bought it:

NewGTB1 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

Not long after, I ditched the technocasts for stock wheel (regret!). You might recognise this pic, I put it on the BG page on wikipedia

IMG_4876 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

gtbnight1 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

3 months in, and pop goes the big ends.

deadgtb by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

Me in the middle, pushing the new motor

onthemove by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

After the build, she got a brand new HKS Silent Hi-power

hksbox by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

After the move from Auckland down to qtown in 2010

DSC00016 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

Ver.8 KYB's going in around this time

DSC00233 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

2012 ish, getting S201 Pillowball joint STi lateral and trailing arms. **** this is a good mod

IMG_5188 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

One of my fave Beast pics, from around this time

IMG_5215 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

IMG_5860_zps563292ca by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

Reuben · April 29, 2019

How she sits now. These BBS's are what's suppose to be on the car, but my '91 BC has stolen them, since that now has 4-pots, so I had to swap on the BBS mesh wheels. I'm not gutted but this, as the BBS Meshes are the ultra rare optional 17" version for the BG GTB. shucks.