At the end of June I ordered a Subaru WRX STI after months of failed attempts to procure one ‘in stock’ from one of the many (24 of them) dealers on my region.

It’d of been nice of the local dealers to not have dismissed my interest and request for a new order from Subaru, as it cost them a sale and forced me to drive 600mi round-trip to a much better dealership. I am sad said dealer isn’t closer for any future needs as they seem great all around.

Subaru offers updates via their MySubaru website, but it proved only a rough estimate, as the car went from being ‘prepared to ship to your dealer’ on Sept. 1st to delivered on Sept. 3rd. A switch trip from Gunma, Japan, or the Richmond, CA port of entry to North Florida.

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.” -Moby Dick

Yesterday was the big day. My brother and I drove up in his 2021 Mitsubishi Mirage; which was a delightful, honest car that did the trip with ease and remained comfortable for most of the non-stop five hour drive. It is slow and the CVT is well, a CVT, but they don’t deserve the hate they get. It is a great fit for anyone that is not an enthusiast and just wants a good, simple car. He averaged nearly 50mpg on the way up (but that dropped to 40mpg on the return as I motivated him to drive a bit quicker on the way back home).

After hours of driving, a detour for an accident on I-10, and two subsequent goofs on my part that took us almost to the Florida-Georgia stateline, we were back on track and in Tallahassee. I was pretty lax about taking pics on the way up, so have a giant bull and knock-off Batmobile husk to represent Tallahassee.

Still plenty of time to get my new car and give Governor Ron DeSantis the metaphorical ‘finger’ on the way out of town, for making Florida a greater laughing stock to the nation than it already was.

Hark! A dealer ahoy!

My white, ahem blue whale in sight!

I requested they NOT wash the car as I have a detailer that will sort it back home and pleasantly the sales guy protected it from the normal process and looky-loos until I could arrive.

There was some conjecture regarding payment that took time to assuage. Mostly because I forgot to get a bank certified check for the downpayment, but it was not-so-quickly sorted and aside from that frustration, this may have been the smoothest, easiest, and fastest dealership transaction to which I’ve ever been a party.

The ancient texts. Why is the ‘owners manual’ kit so much like an old Bell phonebook!?

Yep, seems everything is there.

Finally inside.

Six miles? The bloody scoundrels sold me a USED car!

Cherry blossom? Check.

Absurd rear wing? Check.

Time to fuel up and head home.

One last stop and a candid pic of the new addition.

Home safe with 300ish miles on the clock now. Loving it so far; more updates to come as I get better acquainted with Stitch the STI.

It will NEVER be this empty ever again.

Warning, I’m one IPA and a solid half-bottle of champagne into celebrating the closing of our new home. How are you guys tonight?

Hey guys, Duck here, still alive, just been too busy to really do much besides the odd Discord interruption.

Cliff notes:
--We've vacated the rental house.
--We've moved in to the new home but still have a ton of boxes to unpack. The living room looks like an active box fort battle ground, my office is useable but still needs work, and the garages are in a firm state of 'just get it in there and figure it out later'.
--All of our cars are 'broken'
--I found an IRS for the Mustang but recent issues with the cooling system may dictate missing out on it.
--We're going shopping for a TV, couch, and hopefully something MCM to store the audio equipment, wish us luck.
--Just completed a several-hundred user Microsoft Exchange migration to 365 and ready to sleep and drink, not necessarily in that order.

Relevant lyrics:

Not that I make a big deal about birthdays, but it did turn out a bike ride away from the perfect day. I’m 36 today, and spent it getting my car tidied up and listed for sale. Afterward it was Nintendo with the kiddo until dinner.

Wife prepared an incredible standing rib roast, roast potato and parsnip, with leeks. Was a standout dinner that I didn’t expect at the beginning of the day, but certainly appreciated. It also included one of my favorite wines that I picked up earlier in the week, Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon.

Finished it off with a Pav (Pavlova) before calling it a night. I hope today was good for the rest of the OPPOverse. How are ya’ll wrapping up your weekend?

P.S. - Don’t catch old, it’s terminal!

After weeks of no news, no confirmation e-mail, nothing provided in writing, weekly calls to both the dealer and Subaru of North America all met with the same answer of ‘It is in queue.’; this morning I received a very-positive e-mail confirming not only was my order real, but that I was now assigned a VIN, for a real car, bound for delivery to my not-so-local dealer, in September.

Back-story
I’ve been in pursuit of a better daily driver for several months now, giving up on the used market for reasons of which all are already well-apprised of the world over.

After much deliberation and OPPO insights, I landed on a new Subaru WRX STI and set in motion a plan to make my RX-8 ready for sale. The hunt was on for a very specific specification.

STI
WR Blue
No options
Dealer added bits: all-weather mats and trunk mat

Yet with stock low, across the entire state of Florida it proved difficult to find. I shopped 23 Florida dealers, 3 in Alabama, and 2 in Georgia, almost none had the exact spec, but one in the panhandle did. Worked with their sales team and got to a price I could agree with, but at the 11th hour it sold before I could get a deposit on it. They were quick to offer a new order from the factory as a consolation, something two dealers in-town dismissed as an option.

STI’s are uncommon, quite rare in colors other than silver, gray, or white, and when I did manage to find one in WR Blue, it was a Premium car with a sunroof and obnoxious rear wing delete. As my wife reminded me when I stumbled upon a near-correct car in Miami, lacking only the wing, “It is an STI, it is supposed to have a ridiculous wing.”

A short while ago, three days or so, I posted about my intention to make my 2003 Ford Mustang Mach1 act more like a Thoroughbred than a Mule.

https://opposite-lock.com/topic/6383/making-a-faster-horse-an-introduction?_=1612052421715

A quick review of the priorities I outlined in my first post:

Step 1: Chassis and Suspension
-Improve upon chassis rigidity flaws inherent in the stock design
-Resolve rear suspension geometry flaws inherent in the stock design
-Replace and uprate worn out components, including dampers and bushings
-Reduce unsprung mass, roll-center, suspension friction/bind
-Increase wheel rates and roll-stiffness
-Minimize reduction in wheel travel from stock.
-Maintain streetable compliance and NVH

Step 2: Driveline
-Increase durability of driveline components
-Maximize power transmission from engine to ground.

Step 3: Transmission
-Replace the insufficient 4-speed automatic with a manual transmission.
-Minimize clutch actuation resistance and deflection over stock design
-Improve shift precision over stock manual design
-Improve responsiveness
-Improve efficiency

Step 4: Profit?
-No profit, but maybe with the help of a lot of AutoX and HPDE, I'll have some fun and become a better driver

While priority number one is to improve the handling and chassis, an opportunity led me down a far different path.

A seemingly ‘mint’ Tremec TR3650 5 speed manual transmission came up for sale out of Maryland, which included my preferential MGW shifter, and seemed like a good deal to boot.

As I started to orchestrate shipping and working with the seller to deliver to a nearby transmission specialist for inspection and allowing them to pack and ship to me, the story started to change and willingness to sell remote became more challenging. The shifter disappeared to another buyer, and suddenly the details like mileage and when specified work was done became a mystery, though condition was still assured to be ‘perfect. Another OPPO, S65, that was local to the transmission was super-nice and even offered to go check it out and help with the logistics (Thank you!!!), but by the time he and I sorted that side out, the product itself seemed too sketch to chance. -- and just like that, I’d moved on from this momentary distraction from ‘sensibility’, or so I thought.

Only a bit later in the day, a 16,000 mile-young Mach1 came up for part out, and had everything I could need to convert to manual, the parts looking as new as you’d expect and better met the description of ‘mint’, including a few healthy upgrades I had on the wishlist.

After some back and fourth, I even ended up with a set of American Racing long-tube headers with a catted midpipe.

I still need to order a clutch, flywheel, and clutch actuation solution, which is cable as-stock, but I am considering some hydraulic solutions, using parts from the S197 Mustang and bits from Wilwood.

Of course none of this helps handling, but I am sure excited for all of it. More to come when my pallet full of happy arrives.

About damn time I dredged the the swamp for an update to ‘Making a Faster Horse’; my never-ending story of modifying a 2000's era Mustang to make good on the marketing machismo checks it was writing all over town.

Post Index

Part 1: Making a Faster Horse [An Introduction]
Part 2: Making a Faster Horse [Step 1, skip to Step 3]
Part 3: Making a Faster Horse [Overnight parts from Michigan]
Part 4: Making a Faster Horse [In Trouble With Management]
Part 5: Making a Faster Horse [An aside, numero uno]

I also snuck in some work on a rainy day to install new dampers, but it was not among the 'official' stories told thus far, so I'll also detail those activities below.

Last we left off I was banned from car purchases until our move concluded, I had just dropped off the Mach1 with my friend at VMP Performance to have subframe connectors installed, and while he had my car, I'd spend what would become the better part of a month gaining an appreciation for a GT500, with an accompanied absurd 730whp.

Good news, we've moved! I've got not one but two garages (2 car + 1 car) and a whole new list of honey-dos that are getting in the way of spending money and time on this car, but inches over time become feet, and feet over time become miles, so let's inch along.

I've really enjoyed the GT500 and would be lying if I didn't say I attempted to procure long-term ownership of it -- but with the move and other efforts already underway, and a need for a more practical car if we add to the fleet again -- it was not meant to be, at least not right now. For antithetical reasons to why I'm building the Mach1 (track), the GT500 would be an amazing car for me -- it is heavier, larger, and brutally fast, but composed and complaint, has more advanced controls while still being an analog experience, with more interior space than the Mach1 for passengers. It couldn't replace the Mach's purpose but for a 2+2 GT car to be used on the street? It is everything I could hope for from such a vehicle.

So what exactly is the deal with subframe connectors anyways?

Well that requires a bit of history on how the SN95/New Edge Mustang chassis came to be, but feel free to skip down to the / if you're already apprised or just don't care.

Ford History Lesson

Being based on a platform from 1978, cars were not particularly safe, not stiff, and the targets were to float between destinations more than carve your way to them one apex at a time. Most cars see heavy improvements or more often wholly new chassis over the course of three decades, but not the Mustang.

In the 80's Ford was riding high on the success of the Ford Taurus sedan and saw efficient FWD platforms and creative sharing as a great way to save time and money. Ford worked closely with Mazda, as Ford held a 25% stake in Mazda at the time, to develop a new Ford Mustang, sharing a FWD platform with the Mazda 626/MX-6. Planned for an 89' release, news broke in 87' and the loyal fanbase of Mustang faithful's were outraged at the notion of a Japanese, FWD Mustang. Salvaging the FWD Mustang program and rebranding it as Probe; Ford initiated an 11th hour redesign of the Mustang and resigned to a mere facelift to carry the Mustang through the end of 1993. After some initial consideration to shorten the Thunderbird's elaborate MN12 chassis, price targets for the entry-level Mustang forced the program to instead once again re-use the FOX platform, significantly updating it into what would be called FOX4, or later SN95. The platform saw significant improvements over previous FOX platforms, particularly fore and aft of the axle centerlines, and even some in-between which resulted in a near 100% increase in rigidity from the previous generation. Even with these improvements it was still 75% that original FOX platform from 1978; for a performance application, the chassis still flexes a lot. Convertible cars required factory-installed bolt-in subframe connectors to tie the front and rear subframes together due to the stiffness lost with the soft top. Performance models such as the Cobra, Bullitt and Mach1 coupes each included the convertible subframe connectors to improve handling over the standard cars.

/Ford History Lesson

These rails helped, but they are thin, only bolted in-place, and don't extend very far into each subframe, so through leverage and force, the car still flexes a TON, even with light or static loads. This can be seen most-easily by driving the car up ramps or lifting one-side with a jack. The doors will become resistant to opening due to friction between body panels from the flex. Driving, you can sometimes visually see an oscillation between the hood and cowl/A-pillars. Turn-in can feel vague as a result, bumps you'd think would at least be softened by the marshmellowy chassis instead stay with you for far too long as the force bounces around the car, winding and unwinding the chassis. The entire car was acting as a giant spring, without a damper to tame it.

Below you can see the hollow square-tube factory rails, running outboard of the exhaust.

This image shows a stock bolt-in SFC against a Maximum Motorsport weld-in SFC. Most basic weld-in SFC's match the MM design.

I originally intended to go with Maximum Motorsports subframe connectors, but they were on an 8 week backorder due to COVID-related manufacturing delays. The HP-wielding madman in charge suggested Stifflers instead and indicated he could have them in days. I researched a little bit about the company and found them to be founded by an engineer with a background in IndyCAR, a love for Mustangs, and for making them handle far better than they should. Their kit starts with the full-length weld-in rails, which may also be used as a jackpoint once installed, and optionally may be upgraded with an additional pinch-weld rail, doubling the beam stiffness, and cross-braces to tie them all together.

The entire 'system' on another Mustang

We opted for the base arrangement for now, with potential to add the rest of the system should it be necessary in the future.

The full-length SFC's get bolted to the front seat mounts and then welded to each subframe to assure they are fully tied together.

A bittersweet exchange as I return to the Mach1:

When I picked up the car it felt very much the same, sounded very much the same too, but upon crossing the first bump in the road I could feel immediately that the car was more rigid, no longer wobbling for a second after the bump had passed. At speed the car felt more cohesive, I couldn't fully appreciate the Koni dampers before the subframe connector installation. Later at home when I went to investigate an underhood concern, I drove the car up on ramps I found the shock and shudder normally present in the process absent, and that once the car was lifted, the door opened as effortlessly as it had on flat earth, closed as easily too.

While technically already done before I sent the car away for subframe connectors, I also had dampers to install, from Koni.

The stock Mach1 suspension is an upgrade from the standard V6 or even V8 cars, equipped with Tokico dampers stock -- they were quite good in their day but 145k miles and almost two decades have not been kind to them. All of the original dampers had either failed entirely or were on their way to failing.

The Konis made a huge difference, but also highlighted how flexy the chassis still was before the SFC's went in, as the wallow I initially blamed worn dampers for was as much or more so due to the floppy car as a whole. It also took me awhile to figure out the best settings for the dampers, as they can get rather stiff when cranked up, but set near full-soft and I found road conditions often found the bumpstops. I've settled at 3/4 turn away from full-firm (adjuster range is approx. 1.75 turns). Accessing the underhood adjusters is easy as they are on top of the dampers, plainly visible at the top of the strut towers.

The rears however are typically covered by the trunk carpet panels, which required some minor hole saw surgery to make accessible going forward.

I'm pleased with the handling for now, as it handles how I feel a stock car of the era should. Not to say there isn’t loads more still to do, but it is a good plateu on which to rest until until the more extreme changes I have planned are ready to go. There are still some age and wear issues to address, including a rear suspension squeak that may be sway bar bushings, and failing outer tie-rods up front leading to noises there too. There is also that pesky underhood concern that is at the very-least an A/C system leak, though coolant may be finding its way out too, more to come there.

I have several parts on order to resolve the A/C leak and the suspension noises, hopefully to arrive in the next 7-14 days. Once I'm certain there are no engine issues to worry about, we'll schedule some garage time to execute the transmission swap.

...cars.

Wife went to the park today, though it took her two vehicles to get there. She left in her XJ Cherokee, with our kiddo. Ten minutes later she called to say, “I think the Jeep is on fire, there is a lot of smoke. (Here) is where we are, anything I should do besides get some distance?” I grabbed my ‘go bag’ of tools, some garage cloths, and headed out to meet her down the street and assess the situation.

Just follow the trail of transmission fluid to find the Jeep at the other side of the rainbow.

Thankfully the Jeep was not on fire. She had determined as much in the ten minutes it took me to arrive, where it didn’t smolder to the earth. She surmised it was transmission fluid, and while I initially thought power-steering fluid due to the area of the vehicle it appeared to be coming from (front driver-side of the car), once I looked underneath, I asked her to start the car again and quickly saw she was right, it was indeed the transmission, specifically the cooler line just ahead of the engine, on the driver-side.

It seemed the rubber line had deteriorated and slipped from the hardline. I cut an inch off the rubber line to get to healthy hose and re-clamped it.

Wifey and kiddo took the Mustang to their play date, and I took ‘HEEPY’ back home to rest. The line held for the short drive back home, but it is a solid reminder that I have not just one automatic-to-manual transmission conversion to complete, but two.

@davesaddiction said in Just when you think people can't get any dumber...:

Wow. Just... wow.

At least she doesn't have a big commute to get home:

I originally wrote a lengthly post about puppy procurement but lost the draft on my phone to a Safari refresh. (bugger.) probably for the best as I tend to waffle. Suffice to say, after a lengthly process and some twists and turns, we have a floof. The floofiest of floofs.

Here are some pics of our new Pomeranian, Dottie.

My daughter has been obsessed with them ever since seeing this character in ‘Bluey’.

She is already proving herself a cheeky pain in the ass that is frustratingly stubborn; she’ll fit right into this family.

First test of the STI trunk, and while I am a strong supporter of hatches, the trunk passed the test. Most practical, impractical car I could hope for.

I am sad and completely unsurprised to report that La Salsa does not fit.

That is a nice blue (is it Antimatter Blue?).

I can’t he the only one that wants them to make a ‘narrow body’ version that completely omits the wheel flares.

No fault on that gen Camry, they had a clean design, even if boring. The generation thar followed was sloppy, loafy, and laden with trends at the time instead of focusing on what it was good at.

Terrible cars I love that are not enthusiast-centric.

Fiat 500, non-Abarth. I’ll always advocate for the Abarth as they are amazing, but despite only 99hp, the normal 500 with the Sport suspension is a treat. I even like the automatic as much as it pains me to say it, the manual is a fine transmission but the cable shifter is akin to a thick rubber glove. There are options to fix the shifter, but I stand by the statement that either trans is a good decision.

Seventh-gen Civic. I’ve always liked how simple these are, and for some reason I can it rationalize, I love their interiors.

My brother had a 2002 EX and I really enjoyed it, had I not been focused on moving and mot wanting to deal with the headgasket it would soon need, I might have tried to adopt the Civic as my own. It was that good of a regular-ass car, and thoroughly enjoyable, even with a little 4spd auto and 127hp.

@xsnowpig and @Grindintosecond both have accurate takes that are more positive than my own. CO snow is pretty and clears quickly compared to Mid-West proper and North-East. - It was still a pain in the ass, but I lived higher up than the big towns, among the pines and conifers. (Glenwood is among my favorite places @xsnowpig - Absolutely beautiful, people were nice, and good food - Rocky Mountain Pizza Co. in downtown may be the best pie I’ve ever experienced).

Areas to avoid:
-Greely and parts of Loveland (unless you enjoy the feedlot stink)
-Aurora (although SW Aurora is doing well)
-Anything on the i70 corridor of Denver (its universally rough)
-Most anything south of Co. Springs (except maybe Trinidad) - if in COS, you either want to be on the front range slope, on the Northside, or close to town on the East.

Internet is hit or miss. A lot of people rely on point-to-point wireless (Rise Communications) or satellite solutions from HughesNET. Both are universally shit technologies, even though they’ve improved greatly l, but their merit isn’t in being good, it is being at all when nothing else exists. I was lucky and was eventually able to work with Centurylink to get DSL. This gutted me when I first arrived as the only option was Rise, and they are scoundrels. The technologies are also prone to saturation due to oversubscribed antennas and rain or snow tends to cause a total loss of service until the sun shines again.

Denver, suburban COS and similar areas tend to be well server by fiber or cable solutions with good line rates, capacity and pricing.

High Plains Raceway in Denver and Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain are both great destinations and there are no shortage of dirtbike tracks/trails. Moab is a six hour jaunt if you are into it, although there are less extreme and more fun options within Colorado and elsewhere in Utah that are worthwhile.

Most of my opinions are centered on the convenience, limitations, and needs of being middle-class with a day job, even if WFH. If I lived a different lifestyle or had ‘fuck you’ money. My opinions would be different as the equation would change a bit and options within CO would open up (Glenwood would be top of my list).

I lived in Colorado Springs (Black Forest) and travelled a good but in state for the three years I lived there. It is a state of extremes. extreme sports, extreme weather, extreme changes in climate, extreme political swings, and yes some extreme roads.

Co Springs was miserable in some ways, great in others. It is too conservative as a whole in the same way Denver is too liberal. I never saw a middle ground there, but did enjoy some of the more mountain towns, especially on the West side of the front range. Grand Junction seemed really promising, but at that point, Utah is a solid option too.

The mountain roads are twisty and beautiful but unless you like running them mid-week, they are packed with caravans and tourists from Friday to Sunday. Riding motorcycles through Deckers and some of the passes are fun but risky due to the people more concerned with themselves and the aights than their fellow meat popsicles. I’ve had far more fun in CA canyons the last three times I’ve been than I did in 3yrs of CO.

CO was also really hard on my ND Miata, not that I couldn’t drive it in winter (I totally did, top down several times), but the stuff they put down to aid in traction and just the excess dust and gravel ends up beating the cars up. Denver is far better in this respect than other parts of the state, especially So.Co. As the general road conditions surrounding the city is better than anything around the Springs (except maybe Teller Co).

I hated winter. I lived at 7200ft and the weather rolled in fast and hard, often. Even if in town was clear, my house would get enough a smattering and that ruined everything for me. Required shoveling, lots of cleaning, and displaced time I would have rather applied to anything else.

Your exocet/Miata would be cheap to register in CO, but the Jaaag would likely cost a lot as CO uses a sliding scale for new car taxes that depreciates over seven years. This will still likely be cheap from CA, but it was a sticker shock from Florida.

I loved my time in CO, I look forward to visiting it again (often) but I NEVER want to live there again. I’m back in Florida with a newfound appreciation for it; though the difference in average education is clear between Massachusetts and Florida, Colorado was a lateral move, and in some ways the fast paced nature of Orlando gave me an edge over the slower cadence people operated under on Colorado Springs. Denver and Fort Collins for what little experience I had with them seemed a little livelier.

I really love the Orlando/Tampa Bay area, but North Florida is prettier, as is Georgia and Alabama, but they are Georgia and Alabama. I’ve been told Tennessee is nice, as are the Carolinas, depending on what you are into.

The color is majestic, one of my favorite hues of the decade. The greatest sin is that VW didn’t push it more.

Bloodthirsty murder-fluff

@st80mnd said in Seems a reasonable price:

I'm just not sure if I'm ready to tuck my shirt in

Where my mind goes any time the ‘shirt tucking’ subject comes up.

C5’s are rad, and you can still dress how ya want.

@i86hotdogs said in I Turn 29 Today Send Vans:

Another year on this planet. The missus keeps calling me an old man? She’s 26…oh well.

I’m heading to Miami this weekend to watch two former college teammates play NFL football. Bills vs Dolphins. While I’m there, I’ll check out how the F1 course looks so far.

Missus hooked me up with some absolute awesome Bears gear

In the meantime, send all the vans!

Happy birthday, and enjoy the trip! Be sure to get some Cuban food while down there.

VAN TAX: My selection of liveried vans

Subaru Samba (I think)

Fiat 1100T, Abarth Race/Service Team

Finally, what I would love to one day make as a camping/motorbike hauler, a Dajibahn Van:

@stuckmtb said in PSA: Don't park next to 17-19 Chebby Bolt:

@qaaaaa I've heard VW's are notoriously flammable.

Flammable, inflammable, what's the difference?

I didn't like the Bolt, but the Volt was neat. I will admit the updated Bolt looks better, particularly the interior. Still not a car I'd be interested in owning. Let me know when they've made a Camaro or SS sedan EV, one that won't burn to the ground under normal operation, and it may have my eye.