You're My Boy, Blue

[ScottyB]

not much to report, its been a lot of daily errand running but i can still confirm there's no buyer's remorse. just a great, spacious little sport compact with a hyperactive side if you want to poke it hard enough.

first road trip this past weekend - took the wife and kiddo to NW GA to see family. what would normally take 3 hours was a 4 hour ride due to sitting on the highway for 40 minutes because a tractor trailer managed to flip over in the middle of a bright, cloudless day (because GA) and then we hit friday rush hour in Atlanta because we arrived later than we expected, which made me cranky.

despite all the stop and go still pulled down a 30mpg tank with the cruise set at 75...on uninterrupted interstate at maybe 70-72 i think it'd be an easy 32+. this is the first car i've ever really used the cruise control on...i have a steady foot even for 5+ hour drives, but the Si does NOT want to be below 80mph no matter what i do, probably because that speed in 6th is right where the torque curve picks up. so i've resorted to using the cruise just to keep myself from getting in trouble and its very accurate. awesome seats. its a bit loud, and a bit busy on the highway with the suspension and quick steering gear but i think its a perfectly fine compromise for what its intended to be. 5th gear is perfect for shooting gaps in Atlanta traffic although most of the time i was able to just leave it in 6th, even with it being loaded down.

i suspect the A/C is in need of a charge...just not very good, even in fall weather. i'll procrastinate on that until spring comes around.

last bit of news - i think its destined for Stock FWD class for local SCCA rallycross events. i toyed with the idea of adding some modifications and then campaigning it in Prepared FWD, but it looks like locally all the hot competition for FWD's is in the stock classes. i really don't want to roll up to an event and be the only guy in a class, that just defeats the purpose for me...and frankly, leaving it stock is probably going to keep me from ruining the car as a DD anyway. with that being the case, i've shifted my budgeting from street power/suspension mods to getting another set of OEM wheels with snow tires and some armor to take the Stock class seriously in 2018. i think by the time the season starts up next year i'll be good and comfortable with the limits of the car in its current form so i won't be a total embarrassment.

i have the OEM mud guards on, and they'll be fine for 99% of my driving, but i can guarantee i'm going to completely pepper the rocker panels with spray from the front tires within the first event or two...honda paint ain't much better than subaru. i toyed with doing some extra large additional flaps on the front only, but that'll look so absurd i don't think i can bear to do it. i ended up finding an aero product that should solve the problem that it was never intended for:

DevSport side skirt splitters:


they're made of high density plastic so they'll be lightweight, stout, and provide awesome coverage to the whole underside of the rocker. i'm going to slot the mounting holes a bit longer with a dremel so i can tuck them under the sides of the car a bit further so they're not as obvious, but still a bit of poke to keep the rocks off the door skin. should do the trick and fly a bit under the radar compared to giant rally flaps.