Rich... that's a great insurance quote! Many on here are 10-20 years older than you with 12-20 years no claims and are only barely paying less. I paid 742 last year fully comp on my Hawk STI and am 38 with 17yrs no claims like. Who are you with??
RE car: yes a lot of suspect / conflicting / confusing info on what happened and why etc... that said, could still be ok.
As Ken and others said, it's all about risk... so... IF you really like this car... negotiate a (much) better price and spend a couple of hundred to get it up to one of the knowledgeable and reputable traders on here and get a FULL health check done (compression test, emissions, drop sump and inspect and bore inspection with camera)... check for obvious accident damage too... costs a few bob, but then you know where you stand and as long as you get a good enough price to off set those costs, plus the costs for a good map and rectifying any issues found -- then why not if the car is otherwise straight and to your liking.
The most important thing is a straight shell - anything mechanical is easily put right provided you have the budget - so risk is fine on mechanicals as long as you bought cheaply and have / allow for the budget to fix. Whatever you do - do it eyes wide open and budget realistically so you don't end up with a pretty ornament to put on the driveway and no money to get it back on the road.
As for mapping...
* There are probably 2-3 people in Ireland with some experience on Scoobies who could do a good job and people in the club have used them are happy with the results.
* There are 2 Scooby mapping experts who come over from the UK a couple of times per year. They are very good and have done hundreds and hundreds of these specific cars, so you have a fair idea of what to expect -- only thing of course is that if you need a tweak or something goes awry then you have to wait till they come over again, which is a pain.
* Even in the whole UK (15x the size of IE) there are only about a handful of Scooby experts, so hence don't expect to find too many at home.
* Apart from risks with someone who isn't as used to them - keep in mind that it can work out much cheaper going for an expert as they have loads of "base maps" they have from doing similar cars and then tweak them to suit your car. Someone who does mapping can map your car, even safely, given enough time (5-10x - or more than an expert with close maps on file)... but that is time you will be billed for (as they start from scratch instead of using a close map from a previous mapping session). So... there could be a lot of additional costs for the actual mapping, as well as risk, when using someone not as familiar with these cars.
