[Ikkewil]

Hello Tony,
i followed your suggestions, and tried to gather as much info as possible on the car and the problem.
The car is a 1993, 3.319 cc, 230 hp, stock automatic transmission. The car should be modless, but i'll never be sure of it, since it had 5 different owners before me; it should have run approx 250.000 km (i say should, because i know from a previous owner that the odometer has been conveniently "retouched" to mark 98.000).
The only "mod" is a remotely activated alarm (which i lately never use, but use frequency hasn't affected the problem intensity or frequency).
It's been in my hands since aug 2005, and from the day i got it (even the previous owner admitted the "extremely infrequent" problem) it had a severe ignition problem, but since it came for so cheap, i decided it was worth spending the money to buy it, and eventually double the amount to get it perfect. Which wasn't possible, because even the official subaru importer garage wasn't able to fix it (it is significant to mention that only 37 SVX were sold in Italy in the 7 years it had been on the market).
The car has a few minor problems (meaning that they don't interfere much with my use) and one major problem: it doesn't always start.
The situation is as follows: as i enter the car, all inner illumination works perfect, as i turn the key the panel lights up fine and it does all the checks, the vent works, and everything seems normal. As i turn the key to the ignition position, sometimes it starts perfectly. Sometimes it just doesn't. So i try again, and it doesn't. It takes from one to 40 attempts to get it running. Insults don't seem to have any effect.
After turning the key from "panel on" to "start", if it fails, i can distinctly hear a single "clack" coming from somewhere under the hood (the closer i got to locating it, is: facing the engine, to the right of the engine, about midway between the battery and the windshield).
The fusebox is is perfect, i checked it over and over.
The battery was changed 5 months ago, guessing that the car wasn't close to new, and it might be an old little lazy battery. Brand new battery, doesn't help a bit. (when she finally decides to start, she pretends nothing happened, and starts smooth as silk).
The little electric motor that starts the engine (sorry i'm running short of technical terms), was replaced by subaru a year ago, since they blamed all the problem on it. After removing the older one, they noticed it was in fairly poor condition, and was probably the cause generating the problem. But it clearly wasn't, since less than two weeks later the problem was back, but i didn't feel like going back to them again.
I tried all possible rituals and tricks, but nothing seems to work more than once: every time i believed i located the solution (using a spare key, pushing-pulling the key into place, selecting Neutral instead of "P", playing with the lights, brakes, gears...) it didn't work the next time. Nothing really makes a difference.
At this point, i'm stuck with trying over and over until it starts.
Reading your posts, i tried to turn on the cruise control when it doesn't start and, if in Neutral, it clearly clacks, as you reported.
i read the final solution you proposed but couldn't follow too well, for my knowledge of electrics is definitely more limited than yours.
I'd really appreciate if you could spend some more words to explain your road to solution.
Thank you very much,
Ikke