By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Bart is hoping to be invited to the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge. Check out his ride page, and if you think he deserves to go to VIR in July, rate him up!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Four Subaru buddies in Cincinnati decided to go for a little winter drive last week, sticking to mostly unplowed roads in the backwoods. Jeremy, who owns the black 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX, took some great pics. I have a few more after the jump, but you can see the rest over at VWVortex.

Continue reading "Fun in the Snow Subie Style!" »

Earlier this year, my better half finally talked me into buying a Subaru for family hauling duties. Since this was my first experience with something that wasn’t an old RWD Mopar or Volvo, I knew I needed to find a good Subaru mechanic. I asked Ryan Douthit, who owns Subiesport, and he recommended Smart Service up in Shoreline (just north of Seattle). Last week I brought our car in to Smart for the 60k service and spent some time talking to Gary Cavett, their Service Advisor.

In his spare time, Gary races a Pro-Rally Impreza, and he just put together a cool ride page for his rally car, and even uploaded some video. Gary has been at this for almost ten years, and he and his team were the 2005 Northwest Region Pacific Rally Series overall champions. As you might expect, racing at this level is not cheap. Costs can be well over $4,000 per event. You’re looking at $700-1100 for entry fees, $800-1000 for tires, $600 for race fuel and another $1,000+ for hotel/gas/food/transport. And that doesn’t even include the car and all the stuff you’re gonna break! We’ll be sure to follow Gary’s progress during the 2009 season, so stay tuned.

The Time Attack series brings out some of the most outstandingly rapid automotive creations and Roger Clark Motorsport won this year’s crown. Driver Olly Clark has just gone and won the Time Attack series with a Subaru Impreza dubbed "The Gobstopper."

The performance spec is impressive: the Scoob has a massive 850bhp engine, nitrous-oxide injection, six speed sequential paddle shift Modena dog gearbox, WRC spec Exe-TC suspension, carbon propshaft, GKN rally driveshafts. The list goes on.

Check out the video below for some awesome highlights of the Gobstopper in action throughout the 2008 Time Attack series. And I have pics of the car after the jump.

Continue reading "850bhp Roger Clark Scooby Wins 2008 Time Attack" »

Some people love their favorite movies just a little too much, so much so that they’re willing to inflict them on their cars. Like, I’m a huge fan of The Return of the Living Dead, but would I do a zombie-punk treatment on my diesel Escort? Gee, come to think of it, maybe I’m onto something there. There, see how easy it is to fall into that trap? Like the Lord of the Rings car we showed you awhile back, there’s something about the Matrix Subaru that’s just a little… off. It kind of reminds me of when someone tries to get a tattoo of a loved one’s face—it’s a nice idea, but it just never works out the way you pictured it. More views below the jump.

Source: Concept Cars.

Continue reading "Whoa: Matrix-Themed Subaru" »

With all of this talk lately of Louis Vuitton interiors, 24K gold parts, etc this post serves as a reminder that this is not a fashion blog. To file under "WTF," here is a four door GC Impreza with perhaps the most unlikely engine swap, a rotary from a FD3S RX-7. AWD is kept with this new engine, making it an extremely odd car. This car didn’t make any sense to me four years ago when I shot it and it still makes no sense now. Perhaps that was the point the owner had in mind.

For years now I’ve been scratching my head over the dearth of affordable RWD 2+2 coupes. But now it’s looking like Toyota and Subaru have teamed up to build one. Inspired by the AE86, and they are focusing on keeping it cheap, simple and sporty. How cool is that? There is talk of the car being offered with both Subaru’s 2.0-liter and 2.5-liter 4-cylinder boxer, and apparently there will be a Toyota version of the car as well. The design is to be finalized by July and production is set for 2010. Let’s hope they keep the weight and price down. More at Autocar.co.uk.

Continue reading "RWD Impreza?" »

Finally, an art car that’s actually functional! That’s supposedly a 17-person observation deck built on top of that Impreza, with Father Forest presiding over it all. A "chrome alloy steel frame" supports the tower, and the car’s "modified heavy duty suspension" presumably keeps the poor Sube from bottoming out under the weight of all those revelers. Wow, good looks and safety! The ride was purpose-built for the Burning Man festival, and the seller insists—twice—that the car can be driven, not trailered, all the way there. Good luck getting Mapquest to show you a route to the Nevada desert that only uses mall parking lots!

Thanks to JoshP2002 for the tip.

Rob’s not the only one around here to get a new Subaru wagon. My new ride just arrived yesterday. Yes, I’ll make a CarDomain page soon. I think I have driven it almost seven miles so far. Initial impressions are that it’s a bit more "substantial" feeling than our ’07 WRX wagon. Sorry to see that one go, however.

Seems that people are starting to warm up to the new STI a bit. Still, when Dan from Harman Motive posted a pic of their new STI project car on NASIOC, one of the members decided to have a bit of fun with it.