Turblue Wagon #2 - 2011 WRX

[Steve85]

Project Turblue Wagon 2:

TL;DR – Bought a meticulously cared for 2011 WRB WRX from MI as a driver for the kid and fun car for us.

Why:
We recently added a new driver to our lineup, son Michael. He’s the one that goes camping with me at VIR and a few of you have met him at Summit Point. So, it was time to add a car. Originally was thinking an Impreza, practical, safe and AWD for ski weekends. But, we mustn’t let the opportunity to add a car go to waste. Knowing we would do autox/trackcross/other driving schools, I thought it would be nice to have something a little (or, a lot) safer and more reliable than the vette. WRX would come with all the practicality of the Impreza, a little extra fun factor and checking with insurance, is only $6/month more than an Impreza and since he’ll be paying for it, it was easy money to spend.

Seek and you will find:
A quick thank you to Tom “Adult Subaru Tom” and Scotty B in the AluMMni chat for guidance and background for the model years. Initially we looked for 06-07 models but soon started to find 09-10’s in the same range so we expanded the search. Since the hatchback/wagon style would be far more practical for his activities we started leaning 09, the earlier wagons are just…not pretty.

We made a deal with a guy in PA, car was pretty well taken care of but it took a lot of time to put the deal together, he forgot he had to go out of town, he didn’t respond for two days so then it was too late for me to change my plans etc. An hour before we were to leave for PA with cash in hand, he sent a message that “he forgot he owed $2K and couldn’t get the title” (which by the way was in his moms name, he was in his 30's). OK, well then, I’m done. I finished my work day, (that I had taken off to get the car) and renewed the search. FB>Marketplace>expand to 500 miles>... WHAT IS THIS?

Just listed was a 2011, one adult owner, blue wagon, within striking distance of the budget but it was in Michigan. It was listed on CarGurus and FB so I stalked the profile and got a good feeling with the guy being an engineer with Bosch and SCCA / Chumpcar racer. I reached out to him with an offer that was bit less than asking because I needed to ship the car. He rejected, having 3 appointments lined up already within hours of listing the car. It was listed $3K under anything close in terms of year (1st year WRX got the widebody) /mileage/maintenance. It was going to sell to the first person who got there. I decided to take a chance, I sent an email with a story appealing to his motorsports side and a solid offer including a substantial down payment and a promise to come get it over the weekend. He accepted.

The PA deal fell through at 11AM on a Thursday, that evening Michael went to a friend’s for the night leaving for OBX Friday morning. He was incredibly disappointed the PA deal fell through and had no idea I was working the 2011 deal when he left.

I rented a car, drove to MI, test drove the car and drove it home. I packed lunch and snacks for two days to minimize stopping and decided to have lunch on the shores of Lake Erie on the way back.
10 minutes after buying:


Next day at Lake Erie:






Most accurate description of the entire drive: (thanks to PO for not shutting off Sirius / XM, I listened to a bit of everything over the 8 hour trip).



Made it from Grand Blanc, MI, (basically Flint) to VA with no tags without even a crossed look from any LEO.

The seller: 
20+ years’ experience as an automotive engineer, started out with OEMs and quickly went to Bosch. His focus is stability control systems. Turns out, many the OEMs really don’t do this, just about every traction control system is a Bosch engineered system. He’s worked with Nissan, Ford, a lot with Honda including the NSX. I could have talked to him for hours, he spends days and days on race tracks and OEM facilities testing and tuning the stability control systems from here, to Japan to New Zealand. Apparently, a lot of cold weather testing happens in New Zealand when it’s summer here. His latest project was stability control for the new F150 that Ford scrapped right before production due to concerns on having a system with selectable 4WD. I dunno…

The Subaru was meticulously cared for, have a look at the folder of receipts:



Includes freshy fresh t-belt/water pump/ thermostat etc. and brand new (7K miles) clutch. Ohh, and mentioned nowhere in the ad and a complete surprise when I got there, COBB Accessport with Stage 1 tune loaded! Only mods are brake booster and clutch master cylinder reinforced mounting brackets from Perrin. Factory installed STI center console with STI short shift kit, blue illumination, and all weather mats shown on the window sticker as installed options. Seriously, the original floor mats have not had a foot on them.

Also came with a set of winter tires and wheels.



He sold it to get this:


The Surprise:
While the boy was in NC I continued to send him links to possible cars and we were "set to go to Manassas" to look at a car. He was getting home Friday but I was playing in a golf tourney Fri/Sat so I took the car and hoped that the wife, his brother and two sisters could keep it quiet! I got home Sat afternoon, went up to his room and asked him to help me get something out of the car. He caught on before he was completely out the door and the reaction immediate:

 



Got him good...

The journey starts with 141,900 miles on the car. Driving impressions and teaching him to drive stick to follow. 

[SlimKlim]

I love this. Kick ass surprise and first car!

Are you going to leave the tune on it while he's learning? In retrospect it's probably a good thing I didn't have more than 150hp at my disposal in high school.

[JPolen01]

Hell of a move dad! What a great story.


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[Senor_Taylor]

Big dad energy. I hope the drive was fun! Cool seller too.

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[Steve85]

Yeah, it was fun to get him like that!

(I guess I should clarify, for those not in the chat, the purchase was a month ago, on 8/1)

I need to look into it more, but apparently Stage 1 is just a smoothing out of the torque curve and only a slight power bump since no other mods are done, it has stock exhaust, air box, air filter, etc. He said it really smoothed out the idle and adds a little fuel where the stock tune was a bit lean looking for MPG. According to Cobb, it does add minimal boost but it's not so much more, relatively speaking, that I'm worried about it. He's driven the F31 a lot which is similar power, albeit heavier and a bit slower to 60, so it's not completely foreign to him.

That said, we've had many talks regarding the responsibility and risk at hand and the plan is to add a driving app that also helps with insurance. I have to trust he'll do the right thing and I'll support all the autox and track cross I want, err, he wants to do as the outlet. He won't be perfect, but he wouldn't be in any car. Handing your kid keys and sending them on the road is hard, no matter the car. We've been through it twice with the older girls and it doesn't get much easier.

[Apoc]

My first two cars were 84 and 110 HP. I would be dead if I had any more than that (almost died a few times anyway), but I'm guessing you're a better dad than my absentee father. 

[ScottyB]

Steve, you're the man. you cannot fabricate a genuine moment like that, he'll remember it forever particularly the length you went to get the "right" one for him. high five!

awesome car, THE color to have, and a 5 door will be perfect as he grows, wants to take trips with friends, moves into one place or another...and its a very safe car in every way. structurally they're beasts (massive B-pillars that are so thick, they require special EMS training to cut through in the event of an extraction), very predictable handling, no bad habits. service on these is cake, all the accessories and belts are dead front/center and you can change the oil one-handed once you get a few under your belt (pro-tip, jam a red solo cup on the filter when you unscrew it, it'll catch all the drips since the filters completely a straight up/down orientation). put a good 40wt oil in it and change the trans fluid every 2 years or so and she should drive a long time.

love the extra goodies the PO had on there, and believe it or not the tune is a massive plus as a reliability mod. the stock tunes on EJ subarus are awful, and run very lean into the onset of boost (look up closed loop/open loop transition, its janky tuning likely due to trying to sneak out better emissions and MPGs) which is one of the reasons they have a reputation for blowing ringlands. a tune will smooth that fuel enrichment so the engine sees proper AFR's once it ramps up boost. definitely well-bought!

enjoy it...looking forward to some trip reports and you and the boy get to some events and let 'er wind out a bit.

[CaptainHenreh]

Very awesome, what a great story!

[Steve85]

My first two cars were 84 and 110 HP. I would be dead if I had any more than that (almost died a few times anyway), but I'm guessing you're a better dad than my absentee father. 

Depends on which kid you ask...   

Steve, you're the man.  you cannot fabricate a genuine moment like that, he'll remember it forever particularly the length you went to get the "right" one for him.  high five!

Yeah, you don't get many moments like that, totally worth the trip to make it happen.

awesome car, THE color to have, and a 5 door will be perfect as he grows, wants to take trips with friends, moves into one place or another...and its a very safe car in every way.  structurally they're beasts (massive B-pillars that are so thick, they require special EMS training to cut through in the event of an extraction), very predictable handling, no bad habits.  service on these is cake, all the accessories and belts are dead front/center and you can change the oil one-handed once you get a few under your belt (pro-tip, jam a red solo cup on the filter when you unscrew it, it'll catch all the drips since the filters completely a straight up/down orientation).  put a good 40wt oil in it and change the trans fluid every 2 years or so and she should drive a long time.

We've been looking for several months and the search evolved, it was definitely worth the wait to find the. right. one.

Thanks for the pro-tip, I broke him in with a headlight replacement, time to get dirty now!

The structure and safety was pretty important. It's a pretty "sporty" car for a young driver, but my friends that died in car accidents all had slow cars so I'm not sure the power matters (to a point) as much as the responsibility i.e. don't drive drunk and high. Our daughter was involved in a pretty bad accident in her Nissan Versa and the modern crumple zone no doubt saved her life. This was probably 50 mph into the back of another car (exit ramp was backed up onto 81, she couldn't tell as she moved out from behind an 18 wheeler to get in the exit lane)

love the extra goodies the PO had on there, and believe it or not the tune is a massive plus as a reliability mod.  the stock tunes on EJ subarus are awful, and run very lean into the onset of boost (look up closed loop/open loop transition, its janky tuning likely due to trying to sneak out better emissions and MPGs) which is one of the reasons they have a reputation for blowing ringlands.  a tune will smooth that fuel enrichment so the engine sees proper AFR's once it ramps up boost.  definitely well-bought!

enjoy it...looking forward to some trip reports and you and the boy get to some events and let 'er wind out a bit.

I couldn't believe it, $1K in extras not priced in at all! That is exactly how he described the factory vs stage 1 tune and the only reason he did it.

[Jake]

Damn, Steve, awesome story and the reaction video/photo is priceless. Amazing.

I think with your background of HPDE/autocross and instilling that in him, your son will end up wanting to do those events too and understand what not to do on the street (most of the time, at least). My Ford Escape was a V6 and would scoot pretty good for a small SUV with a high school kid driving it, but I never managed to do anything dumb with it or dad's 255 HP (!!) Infiniti.

[Tyler.M]

What an awesome write-up and what an awesome car!