The crew at Lyfe Motorsport works on fantastic projects and this late 90s Prodrive built S5 Subaru WRC car is the stuff rally and Subaru dreams are made of. I was tasked with calibrating updated Motec electronics in the vehicle, which included extensive integration with other components. While I’d usually program the PDM (power distribution module) myself, due to time constraints, Eric at MFT Solutions who was creating the vehicle wiring harness, tackled the PDM programming while I worked on the Motec C127 digital dash and Motec M150 ECU. As usual, collaboration made the project even more enjoyable and we got to share in the result with the team at Lyfe Motorsport who worked tirelessly for months to refresh and update this iconic piece of motorsport history.
Integrations on this vehicle were many, including digital dash facilitated control of the Sadev active center differential decoupler triggered by a brake pressure sensor installed in the hydraulic handbrake system controlling the rear brakes. Due to careful preparation, the car’s first start went smoothly and after systems checks I continued onto initial tuning of the engine, and control of the mechanically shifted Sadev sequential gearbox.
While the vehicle build isn’t quite 100% complete, it was a joy to see the car on the road and its presence was undeniable.
Check out our post on Instagram for pictures and a video of the refreshed car’s first drive.