My 1997 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT

Well, here she is, the old and not-so-dependable 2.5GT. This was the second Subaru Legacy I'd owned since I started driving. I used to drive a white 1990 Subaru Legacy Lsi (are we seeing a color trend here?). That thing was a TANK, bless her soul. I treated that car like a red-headed step child (no offence to the read-headed step children out there). Really, I'd go 15-20,000 miles without an oil or filter change, I would hardly take the thing in for servicing, and she still drove like a champ!! I was sold on the Subaru brand!!

When the 1997 GTs came out, I instantly knew that I had to have one. I waited a couple years and eventually found a used 1997 GT that was within my price range in April of 1999. I drove up to Lancaster, PA, and drove home in my "new" used car. You won't see too many of these vehicles on the road, much less one with a 5-speed manual transmission. That is pretty much why I purchased the car - uniquity. I cherish being different!!

My ownership of the car hadn't exactly been all gravy. My bad luck started March of 2001. I was waiting at a stoplight when a woman in a 90's Mercedes decided to use my car as a brake assist . . . by slamming into the back of my car and launching it into the intersection of the next street. $500 worth of damages and a little bit more for a whiplash settlement and I was back on the road. That was incident one . . .

Two months later (I think it was Memorial Day weekend), I was driving home in a pretty heavy rainstorm when the person in front of me decided to make a sudden panic-stop. I stood on the brakes and stopped, just barely avoiding hitting the car in front of me, as does the guy behind me and the guy behind him. Unfortunately for all of us, the last guy didn't stop in time and caused a five car pileup, and forcing my car underneath the back end of a (ironically enough) 70's Mercedes stopped in front of me (Mercedes two, Legacy zero). $7000 out of MY insurance for that accident. The cops wouldn't file a report because the roads were slippery and they couldn't tell who hit who . . . That was incident two.

I think it was September of that same year. I was driving to work one morning when I looked in my rearview mirror to see smoke billowing out from underneath my car. Thinking that my car was about to burst into flames at any moment, I pulled over and inspected the undercarriage of my car . . . I didn't see any flames, but instead saw oil draining out of my engine at a rate of about a 1/4 quart per minute. Not good!! The car was towed to a nearby Subaru dealership and diagnosed with a headgasket problem, which is a problem I came to realize was quite common for cars of my particular make, model, and year. Instead of dropping $2500 to replace the headgaskets, I decided to go with a newer phase 2 engine . . . cost me $3000, including installation. That was incident three . . .

A few months, a new year, and a new engine later I was staying over a friend's place and decided to park my car on 31st street in Georgetown. I got up the next morning to go to work and found the car smashed to hell!! Apparently, some stupid drunk ass bastard decided to play pinball with a series of parked cars. Fuckin spoiled brat in a Range Rover!! Witnesses say that he was so full of himself he was heard screaming, "go ahead, arrest me!! I have enough money to buy my way outta this!!"

What a fucktard!! He ended up paying dearly for that comment. Something along the lines of $8000. And that, my friends, was incident number four.

I had couple names for my 2.5GT, including FUBARU, MONEYPIT, and TINA (my car has been bitched up as much as the queen of soul herself!!). I was convinced the car was cursed, or at least hated me, so I decided to trade the car while it still somewhat well and all body parts were intact. I happened to stumble across a guy named Adam, who was looking for a 2.5GT. I told him I had one I wanted to get rid of and he told me he had a 91 turbo legacy. After seeing pictures of the car and more importantly, the modifications he had made to the car, I was more than willing to part with Tina . . . You can see some technical specifications of my new car here.

Here's the engine bay of the car. When I first bought the car in April of 1999 I could find ZERO performance parts for it. Subaru was not a car manufacturer known for its performance offerings at the time (at least on this side of the ocean). So, I had to wait . . . and wait. Eventually, Subaru decided to bring over the new-age WRX . . . and EVERYONE and their friend's sister's mother's uncle bought one . . . Jump on that bandwagon, I tell ya.

So what had I done to the car? Nothing much. With all of the crap that happened to my car over the past year, I didn't have too much disposable income available to me. Here's the short list:

Cobb Tuning Intake 2 1/4" custom catback exhaust Eibach Pro Kit lowering springs Clutchmasters Stage 1 clutch Unorthodox 11-pound flywheel Kartboy shortshifter and urethane bushings FHI 18mm rear sway bar Cusco front strut tower bar

Here's the inside of the car. I did a custom paintjob to the interior, but it wasn't really anything to rave about. I changed a couple of interior items: Razo shift knob and handbrake lever, Levoc pedals . . . yes, the ricerboy in me. Hey, give me a break!! At the time, these were THE ONLY aftermarket parts available to me in the US!!!

I incorporated a set of gauges (Autometer air-fuel, fuel pressure, and boost) in preparation for a junkyard turbo kit I was building: I found a Mitsubishi TD04-13G along with a top-mount intercooler off a 2002 WRX. If there's one thing good about everyone buying these WRXs, it's that there's a lot of used parts for sale, that's for sure!!

I still keep in touch with Adam for updates on the status of Tina. Since he took possession of the car he's added some KYB/GR-2s to stiffen up the suspension a little bit and to get rid of the tired stock struts that were still on the car when I gave it to him. He's also added some 17-inch Advans to give that JDM appearance to the Legacy.