Got any project cars?

Bill- I had a '95 9000 Aero...what a car! And Italians are on my list...watching, waiting, biding my time (and getting two kids through college first!)
Great car! Fair warning on Eye-tallian cars… they are magic during the 30% running time. (J/K) I have never owned one that I regret, but I go in eyes open. How ‘bout a 30K life timing belt?

How do you know an Italian car’s out of oil?

It stops leaking….
 
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I have a 2007 Subaru WRX Wagon that I had a full sedan wide body conversion, and SAAB 9-2X rear "clip" conversion on. Of course, once I got it back from the body shop (2 years later), and noticed a lot of things wrong, I am debating just selling it, or put some more money into it, and make it what I intended.

Such a sweet ride though.
I had a 2009 WRX, but upgraded from that to a 2005 Forester XT.
That car was my dream and I miss it every day.

That said? Don't count on a Subaru motor to last Honda miles. I've seen far too many blown turbo Subaru motors.
 
Such a sweet ride though.
I had a 2009 WRX, but upgraded from that to a 2005 Forester XT.
That car was my dream and I miss it every day.

That said? Don't count on a Subaru motor to last Honda miles. I've seen far too many blown turbo Subaru motors.

Back before the recession took all the easy upgrade money away, I did Ecutek tuning, Subaru motors only break if they are pushed over 20psi with stock head studs. We had traded in WRXs with Prodrive kits we did, 20 psi with 175k and 240k on original motors. STI motors doing 400 at the wheels, same. It’s about staying inside the mechanical limits. Your motors are only as good as the tuner and the safety functions of the ecu being left in place. Forester XT is a great sleeper.
 
Such a sweet ride though.
I had a 2009 WRX, but upgraded from that to a 2005 Forester XT.
That car was my dream and I miss it every day.

That said? Don't count on a Subaru motor to last Honda miles. I've seen far too many blown turbo Subaru motors.

Maintenance is key.

I've had Foresters with 477k miles, an Impreza with 365k miles, and Outbacks with 380k roll through in the past. For turbo cars, a friend of mine specializes in high mileage turbo Subies, and consistently has 275k-375k WRXs that he does some maintenance on & resells.

I abuse the living daylights out of my 07 WRX, and it hasn't failed me yet, I keep it full of good oil, and do maintenance as needed.
 
I abuse the living daylights out of my 07 WRX, and it hasn't failed me yet, I keep it full of good oil, and do maintenance as needed.


This is my old whip getting sold again. High mileage and holding strong. Every sensor has failed twice, but the motor is still strong.
Still scared me near the end though, since this one had the EJ257 grenade instead of the WRX motor.

Back before the recession took all the easy upgrade money away, I did Ecutek tuning, Subaru motors only break if they are pushed over 20psi with stock head studs. We had traded in WRXs with Prodrive kits we did, 20 psi with 175k and 240k on original motors. STI motors doing 400 at the wheels, same. It’s about staying inside the mechanical limits. Your motors are only as good as the tuner and the safety functions of the ecu being left in place. Forester XT is a great sleeper.

I did the same, except we did all our tuning in Open Source or COBB.
The WRX was actually much more reliable, but I've seen a dozen (literally) exceptionally well maintained, properly tuned (not by me) and built STIs blow ringlands.
The design of the stock ringlands is absolutely terrible and even with proper maintenance they crack.
After market pistons is the secret sauce, but it's such an expensive build. My best friend just built his motor top to bottom after blowing 3 motors. Now pushing 550whp very reliably.

The perfect mix is the WRX short block and the bulletproof 6-speed combined in a Forester <3

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- 1988 Saab 900T Convertible- because Saab

There are some great ones in here, but I personally have a soft spot for Saabs. One literally saved my life in a car accident.

That being said the current fleet is as followed:

Daily - 2000 Outback with 205k. She's slow, the clutch is old and worn, but having headgaskets and timing belt replaced at 175k I feel I'll get a lot more out of her. (Really feel like she could go forever after reading some of your comments...) Former single owner drove it back and forth from California to Maryland, and it has NO RUST. And it's honestly extremely clean (not in this picture) even if has no features.

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Project/Weekend Car - This 1995 Miata M Edition with just over 100k. Exterior is pretty much where I want it to be - some changes since this picture. But interior needs an overhaul - and the powerplant needs to explode so I can change it out for something with double the power.

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The one thing I do love love love about the interior though is this gauge cluster. It just feels right in a car like this. Even if it looks older.
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Commuter (when it's nice) and Project - 2017 Harley Street Rod 750 (a metric Harley, affectionately nicknamed a Honda Davidson by myself and friends.) Was the perfect replacement for my first bike which was a 90's Honda Nighthawk that had over 70k on it - and felt like it had 200k. I've done some visual stuff and changed out the exhaust and have a Fuelpak on it which I can flash different tunes as well as check on things like an OBD2 reader could.

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(pictured in our awesome photo booth at work)
 
Here's my AutoX beast- '91, 156k miles. I flog it at the track, then flog it around town and nothing breaks. All original, aside from Koni adjustables and a Borla exhaust (and bigger wheels/tires). The most fun per $/lb you can have in a car.

I chose #53 in tribute to Herbie, who seared car-guyedness into my young brain.
 

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