The choice was made. 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited.

After much searching and contemplating since the sale of the Abarth in April (actually had been thinking before that), and considering an Elise, maybe an STI hatch, thought about various BMW's and was very close on two different old 944's, I finally did it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  had seen my posts of "someone help me spend my $$ I can't decide" and seeing what I was looking at, offered up a MK1 MR2 and a BRZ.  The BRZ had been a possibility and even SWMBO asked about them.  The fact that this had an aftermarket turbo and other goodies helped sway my opinion.  The only concern was he was in eastern PA and I was not.  I was ready to fly and drive after many emails, Facebook messages, and texts, but he offered to drive it out to me if I covered the expenses and a little extra.  Not liking flying, and basically being lazy, I said deal...

After a much needed bath the following morning.  It had rallycross in it's history so I'm familiar with removing the top layer of dirt, plus a 9hr drive worth of bugs.

The new exhaust sounds wonderful, and after 7 years of Abarth goodness I was hoping for something I'd like.

He wasn't sure I'd like the short shifter but so far the boy racer in me digs it.  My first 6 speed so still getting used to using all 6 gears, like using 5th instead of 4th on regular roads.  The left and up reverse is new to me as well, but so far so good.

T-t-t-t-turbo goodness!  I have to admit that sealed the deal on this car, vs any other BRZ/FRS/86 out there I've seen.  I finally had time to take SWMBO for a decent drive yesterday, and slamming her back into the seat she said "I don't hate this" with a smile on her face.  I think I'm going to enjoy this car.

For right now the only things I think I'll change are wheels/tires and some sort of suspension.  Not even sure coilovers vs simple springs.  At only 57K miles I hope to have this for some time to come.

Some details:  SBD turbo, Individual Race Parts tall short shifter, carbon fiber steering wheel, ACT clutch, Takata harness bar (hmm maybe some harnesses?)

I like these cars a dangerous amount. Always interested to hear more on the ownership experience. Hope you like it as much as the fiat it replaced!

Please tell me you've driven it with the windows down at this point- the blowoff valve being right under the hood vent makes for very good noises.

I liked this car when he had it, like it now that you have it, and will regret not being able to justify owning a clone trooper of it. 

Dark bronze rfp1 wheels with a very slight poke and 315s would be perfect.....

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I have not had a chance to drive it much at all so far, been crazy busy for being "on vacation".  And it's stupid hot/humid.  Tomorrow is looking good, and after tomorrow the temp is dropping finally.  I'm definitely looking forward to a windows-down drive.  (Side note- the Outside Temp dash display said 106F and climbed to 118F last night.  I think it might have been off slightly.)

$600 later I have a title and tags from the great state of Ohio.  Funny tidbit, I was in line a year ago today, almost to the hour, for the Miata.  When I was leaving the title office I found a post-it note stuck to my checks and asked the clerk if someone left it.  She said "oh that's your line number.  Did you already get a number for the plates?"  Nope, that was my line number from last year, still stuck to the pad of checks from last time I needed to write a check.

Welcome  to the family. 

It had a GoPro mount, so let's see if this $7 mount will work.

SBD is a fairly decent low priced turbo kit. A fellow twinster had one for a while and the power was perfect for the car. Keep an eye on the manifold for cracking and don't wrap it, or remove the wrap if it has any.

Edit: also can't be sure from pics but looks like your oil cooler kit may not be thermostatic. May be able to change out the sandwich plate for a Mocal if not.

Had to add a little work from the vinyl cutter. Trying not to overdo it.

After an order on Tirerack that included tires too wide for the wheels, a local SCCA friend offered these.  17x9 Rota Titan 5x100 +42 and Federal 595 RS-RR tires 255/40-17 for $850.  He has a V8 swapped FRS and wants to go even wider.

He offered these Monday morning after I had ordered something from Tirerack the day before.  Then they called and said the tires were too wide for the wheels I picked.  I said screw this and canceled the order, he ordered 5mm spacers so they cleared the front springs and I put them on last night.  Now it needs Eibach springs to lose the 4x4 mode.  Then I'm pretty much done for now I think.

Finally got the Eibach springs installed Monday.  Looking at the side view I think I'm adding the leftover pair of 5mm spacers to the back to even it out.  Extended wheel studs FTW.

YIL (yesterday I learned) that the windshield washer tank has a dip stick.  I've never seen that before.

Also, sometimes on the highway I'll suddenly get notification of a new message/email.  Then it starts going through all my old emails on my phone, no matter how many times I hit "IGNORE".

Trying some vinyl to see how I like it. Added the spacers to the rear, makes a slight difference I notice at least.

I know it can handle traffic in 95F heat.  Got stuck in traffic coming home, 30min drive took almost 2 hours.  Not one, not two, but three cars on fire.  One was a tow truck, with a burned up car on the back, all on top of another two truck.  Plus a 3rd burned up car for good measure.  (How did this happen??)

Took 1.25 hrs to go 10 miles from Middletown to Austin Landing, the car was flawless and the AC stayed nice and cool.  (I'm so glad I didn't drive the Miata.)

Dayton Cars and Coffee on Saturday and it got some attention. Sunday was a meet at a detail shop SWMBO told me about (knows the owner's parents) and I figured either 3 cars or 53 cars. Pretty sure they passed 53.

Got even more attention from the younger crowd. Plenty of stanced vehicles but also some pretty cool stuff. 3-4 other Frisbee and my turbo was popular.

A local SCCA friend with a V8 BRZ asked if I wanted this rollbar at that Cars and Coffee. I said maybe, he said it was free. I said the price is right...

Picked it up last night, apparently one leg got slightly bent in shipping and they replaced it. He wanted this one to go to a good home.

Figure a little heat to move that leg back in position, and free rollbar. Profit! Still not sure I'll use it, if not I'll pass it along to someone else. Local cage builder Adam Brock would make short work of this.

Made a magnet panel for the numbers and class, didn't want to leave vinyl on all the time or redo it every event.  It's even carbon fiber vinyl so I'll go faster.  Signed up for the last event of the season Sunday, a fun run.  Perfect.  If it doesn't get canceled I can experiment with pressing buttons or the Pedal Dance, see which I like.

Well it got canceled. Low signup and weather forecast of doom sealed it's fate. (Ended up barely sprinkling but whatever. It's Ohio. )

I Crossed 60k miles Saturday running errands, and Sunday I reinforced the rear seat delete with foam underneath. Bit more solid now. Still need to see if the fog lights just need plugged into the housing or if I'll need to figure something out.

Finally had some free time this weekend, decided to do something about the rusty turbo Saturday:

The hood vent lets water run onto the components, and the turbo had some surface rust going on.

I tried a small wire wheel in my Dremel, it helped but didn't knock it all down to clean metal.

I had some nice silver spray paint in the garage, why not? I stuffed newspaper all around everything else, and just gave it a few sprays of light coat, nothing major.

I think it looks good enough for Cars and Coffee now.

The fog lights are out, and in multiple pieces. Rather than figure out how they go back together, and possibly see I'm missing stuff, I decided to just add the same light bar I have on the front of the Crosstrek.

I wanted to wire it to the fog light OEM switch, and pretty sure I found a line that had two connectors that I assumed were fog and DRL. But it no work. Connected the bar to the battery and it worked, so there is something else going on.

SWMBO got me a dashcam, kinda liking the app that let's me review photos and videos on my phone.

Rexing V1-4k.

What happened? It turned into an Impreza.

Harvey said:

What happened? It turned into an Impreza.

Oops. Wrong post.

Test