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Toyota Corona TRD Sports from around the 70's

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The raised ride height isn't helpful that either ;)
Many years ago my lovely wife was a loyal Subaru driver. We lived in Portland, OR where we had access to a great race track, so I had a sports car that could go on the track, but the local SCCA chapter ran some rallycross events and my cars could not go there (convertible etc... - not safe if you flip it which is more likely to happen in rally) - so I always took her Subaru to these events. Around 2008 she got a new one and forbade me from taking it to a rallycross since it was brand new. We had a backup family car - an old 1991 BMW 318i with rear-wheel-drive - not the best car for playing in the mud. Since I could no longer take the Subaru, I rebuilt the suspension on that car to give it a slight lift and withstand the jumps, put a set of Blizzak snow tires (cheap alternative for real rally tires) and ran it in group 2 (slowest group for rally at the time) - and had a blast. It was one of the most fun cars to just around in dirt and mud and enjoy yourself, even if there was no chance of every catching the AWD cars.

Since that day, I have really learned to appreciate "Safari" style RWD sporty cars that are slightly raised for non-road environments. All this to say, that as far as I am concerned, this is exactly the style of 911 that excites me.

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Yours truly flinging that old car. Loved it. Would probably have kept it forever but a van driver did not pay attention a couple of years later and ran into it's back when I was standing at a red light and totaled it. At this point, I bought my own used Subaru which I modified for rally duty (as well as being a backup family car). I have to admit that while it was way faster than the BMW, it was not as much fun.

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You can see why my wife decided that she had enough of me taking her car to the events...
 
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Many years ago my lovely wife was a loyal Subaru driver. We lived in Portland, OR where we had access to a great race track, so I had a sports car that could go on the track, but the local SCCA chapter ran some rallycross events and my cars could not go there (convertible etc... - not safe if you flip it which is more likely to happen in rally) - so I always took her Subaru to these events. Around 2008 she got a new one and forbade me from taking it to a rallycross since it was brand new. We had a backup family car - an old 1991 BMW 318i with rear-wheel-drive - not the best car for playing in the mud. Since I could no longer take the Subaru, I rebuilt the suspension on that car to give it a slight lift and withstand the jumps, put a set of Blizzak snow tires (cheap alternative for real rally tires) and ran it in group 2 (slowest group for rally at the time) - and had a blast. It was one of the most fun cars to just around in dirt and mud and enjoy yourself, even if there was no chance of every catching the AWD cars.

Since that day, I have really learned to appreciate "Safari" style RWD sporty cars that are slightly raised for non-road environments. All this to say, that as far as I am concerned, this is exactly the style of 911 that excites me.

View attachment 358589

Yours truly flinging that old car. Loved it. Would probably have kept it forever but a van driver did not pay attention a couple of years later and ran into it's back when I was standing at a red light and totaled it. At this point, I bought my own used Subaru which I modified for rally duty (as well as being a backup family car). I have to admit that while it was way faster than the BMW, it was not as much fun.

View attachment 358590

You can see why my wife decided that she had enough of me taking her car to the events...
Ah, Ron.

We are also a two Subaru family. Safe, reliable and relatively fast, particularly my 2006 2.5L NA Forester, with dual range manual 5 speed box. Superb touring vehicle. Hers is a 2009 2.5L NA 'Sportshift' auto. Better family car than mine, but not as quick, and is noticeably bigger. Doesn't handle as well.

I've had a Subaru since 1994.
 
Ah, Ron.

We are also a two Subaru family. Safe, reliable and relatively fast, particularly my 2006 2.5L NA Forester, with dual range manual 5 speed box. Superb touring vehicle. Hers is a 2009 2.5L NA 'Sportshift' auto. Better family car than mine, but not as quick, and is noticeably bigger. Doesn't handle as well.

I've had a Subaru since 1994.
We have had 4, but around 2013 my old one developed an oil leak (head gasket) which these EJ motors are prone to, so serviced it and sold it, a year later, my wife's much newer one developed the same leak and as I was away on a business trip, she did not bother checking the oil since it was only a month since the dealership changed oil on it. Anyway, engine went Kabloom and Subaru decided they will not stand behind it even tho it was only a couple of months out of warranty. That pretty much sealed our Subaru interest. (A year or so later Subaru went to the new FA and FB engines which solved the head-gasket issue - as the oil passages no longer go through the gasket. In other words, it was not negligence on our side, it was a design flaw).

My wife decided she is done with ICE - and has been an EV owner ever since. We have since moved to SoCal - and there is a lot less rain, snow here and no rallycross anywhere near - so we decided to switch our backup family car to a taller SUV that can handle the desert better.

FWIW, I got to rent a couple of Subarus in recent years and I think that at least in the US market they have dumbed the product down. The old ones were pretty fun to drive, especially in loose conditions. They pretty much engineered it all out of them in recent years - this makes them better family cars, but less involving to drive, so I am not really missing having one in my life.
 
We have had 4, but around 2013 my old one developed an oil leak (head gasket) which these EJ motors are prone to, so serviced it and sold it, a year later, my wife's much newer one developed the same leak and as I was away on a business trip, she did not bother checking the oil since it was only a month since the dealership changed oil on it. Anyway, engine went Kabloom and Subaru decided they will not stand behind it even tho it was only a couple of months out of warranty. That pretty much sealed our Subaru interest. (A year or so later Subaru went to the new FA and FB engines which solved the head-gasket issue - as the oil passages no longer go through the gasket. In other words, it was not negligence on our side, it was a design flaw).

My wife decided she is done with ICE - and has been an EV owner ever since. We have since moved to SoCal - and there is a lot less rain, snow here and no rallycross anywhere near - so we decided to switch our backup family car to a taller SUV that can handle the desert better.

FWIW, I got to rent a couple of Subarus in recent years and I think that at least in the US market they have dumbed the product down. The old ones were pretty fun to drive, especially in loose conditions. They pretty much engineered it all out of them in recent years - this makes them better family cars, but less involving to drive, so I am not really missing having one in my life.
Pretty much agree about the post 2015 Subarus. Modern cars generally are not designed to be driven. I drove a loan 2019 Liberty here, and the electric power steering was dreadful, front suspension under engineered, and more like using an unfamiliar computer than driving a car!

My wife's SH uses about 0.5L oil in 10,000 kilometres (slight weeping head gasket on one side). My SG (almost identical EJ253 engine) uses none between changes - 24 months or 24,000 kilometres.

In the USA, you have to use 0W-20 fully synthetic engine oil. OK if you live in Northern Canada, perhaps ... :( .

We use 5W-40 Shell Helix Ultra FS in both of ours. Far more suitable for any climate with an average ambient temperature of more than 0 °C ... Engine oil must never exceed 100 °C. With 0W-20, it reaches that at an ambient temperature of about 27 °C!

If you get your Subaru serviced at a dealer here, they will put 0W-20 FS in it. A recipe for disaster!
 
Pretty much agree about the post 2015 Subarus. Modern cars generally are not designed to be driven. I drove a loan 2019 Liberty here, and the electric power steering was dreadful, front suspension under engineered, and more like using an unfamiliar computer than driving a car!

My wife's SH uses about 0.5L oil in 10,000 kilometres (slight weeping head gasket on one side). My SG (almost identical EJ253 engine) uses none between changes - 24 months or 24,000 kilometres.

In the USA, you have to use 0W-20 fully synthetic engine oil. OK if you live in Northern Canada, perhaps ... :( .

We use 5W-40 Shell Helix Ultra FS in both of ours. Far more suitable for any climate with an average ambient temperature of more than 0 °C ... Engine oil must never exceed 100 °C. With 0W-20, it reaches that at an ambient temperature of about 27 °C!

If you get your Subaru serviced at a dealer here, they will put 0W-20 FS in it. A recipe for disaster!

Just keep on checking them religiously. They can go from nothing to horrible leak really fast... As mentioned above, the oil passages going through the head-gasket is a questionable design choice, no matter what kind of oil you put in it. Once it goes... yikes.

It's been quite some time since we owned one, but my memory is that we used the 20W-50 engine oil to service them (but my memory might be playing tricks on me, I know that's what I use on my old Alfa and Mazda cars in SoCal).
 
Just keep on checking them religiously. They can go from nothing to horrible leak really fast... As mentioned above, the oil passages going through the head-gasket is a questionable design choice, no matter what kind of oil you put in it. Once it goes... yikes.

It's been quite some time since we owned one, but my memory is that we used the 20W-50 engine oil to service them (but my memory might be playing tricks on me, I know that's what I use on my old Alfa and Mazda cars in SoCal).
All modern Japanese and Korean engines should use special, fully synthetic oils. Ordinary mineral oils will bugger them up very quickly.
 
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