00:00
Hello, this is Dylan.
00:11
You can find me on Instagram at slobaru.
00:13
You're listening to episode 217 of the Subin U Podcast.
00:19
Welcome back to another episode of the Subin U Podcast.
00:22
As you just heard, we have Dylan this week.
00:25
Dylan actually has a lowered Crosstrek, so we're getting into something a little bit
00:30
I think maybe this is the second, I know it's at least the second lowered Crosstrek I've had
00:36
on the podcast, but maybe the third.
00:38
I can't remember exactly.
00:41
I've had 216 episodes prior to this.
00:45
I remember a lot of them, but I don't remember every single one because it's hard to keep
00:51
track lately, but it's cool to have something different on the podcast because typically
00:56
we have lifted Subarus, and now we've got one that's lowered that's typically not lowered.
01:02
So it's nice to do something different.
01:04
I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope you all have a great week ahead.
01:09
And I hope today, my Monday, December 7th, is a good Monday because I'm hoping to get
01:17
And I will be very, very happy and ecstatic to get Pearl back if it's day.
01:22
If not, it's definitely tomorrow, but I'm really, really hoping it's today.
01:28
I miss driving my car.
01:29
I miss driving around and getting looks.
01:32
I miss driving up to another Subaru and being able to look over it, maybe give a Subi wave.
01:39
I just miss my car, period.
01:42
And again, I'm thankful to have something to drive, but you all know it's not the
01:48
It's just not the same.
01:50
And this is the longest I've ever gone without driving my car.
01:53
I've been out of town before, you know, not being able to drive my car, but this is the
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longest I think it's ever been.
02:01
So really, really looking forward to getting back in the driver's seat and going for
02:06
So we'll get into some other stuff, but first let's hear from one of our sponsors.
02:10
The Subi and You podcast is brought to you by Ascentric Designs.
02:14
For those of you who don't know, Ascentric Designs is a small, community-driven
02:18
business that offers custom fit vinyl overlays for most Subaru models.
02:23
This includes various designs for the rear reflectors, tail lights, and side tail lights.
02:27
I also offer fun, decal designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers.
02:32
To find designs for your Subi, head on over to eccentricdesigns.com.
02:36
There's always more projects in the works, so be sure to follow at eccentric.designs
02:42
As always, thank you so much, eccentric designs for sponsoring the Subi and You
02:47
Go check her out on Instagram and check out her website to see what she has to offer
02:52
And I'm going to go ahead and get into our next sponsor because our next sponsor is Subaru
02:57
The holidays are coming up, so right now is the perfect time to go shop Subaru Gear
03:01
and find what you want for yourself, or even better, find one for the Subaru enthusiast
03:09
in your life and surprise them for the holidays.
03:13
So fill up your cart, and when you check out, use the code SUBI and YOU25 at checkout to
03:18
get 20% off your purchase.
03:21
If your total is over $50 after the 20% discount, then you automatically get free shipping.
03:28
And just a heads up, next year the discount code for the Gear store is going to be
03:37
So just keep that in mind, write it down or something, because at the end of this
03:41
year the SUBI and YOU25 discount code will be ending.
03:47
Thank you so much Subaru Gear for sponsoring the Subi and YOU podcast and bringing this
03:51
great offer to our listeners.
03:54
We are almost at the end of 2025 and I hope that everybody has had a really great year.
04:00
And you know, maybe if you haven't had a really great year, then hopefully next
04:04
year will be better and we can get a good start and everything will be good and
04:08
just keep the momentum going with some good things in our lives.
04:12
If you're driving a Subaru every day, how can it be wrong or how can it be bad?
04:18
So I hope everybody is doing well and I hope everybody is going to be able to spend the
04:25
holidays with friends and family and just hang out and have a good time and eat some
04:31
So I know we're a few weeks away, but I wanted to just go ahead and say that
04:35
and let you know the next regular guest episode will be December 22nd, so it'll be the Monday
04:41
right before Christmas.
04:43
So I'll drop another message about the holidays, but anyway, we will get into this episode
04:49
here in just a little bit, but also want to give a shout out to SUBI mods.
04:54
They are of course my other sponsor and I'm very, very thankful for their sponsorship.
04:58
It's great to have them as a partner and it's great to see what they're doing
05:01
out there in the community.
05:02
I know they've done a couple of things with Adventure 1, so that's really cool.
05:06
So I hope to see more off-road and overland stuff from SUBI mods.
05:10
They also did a blog post about that wandering Fawzi, Sam, so that was really cool too.
05:17
So go check out their website, check out their membership programs because you can
05:21
earn points to save money off your purchases, which is a really, really great perk to
05:28
So thank you so much SUBI mods for sponsoring the SUBI and you podcast.
05:33
So now we're ready to get into this episode with Dylan.
05:37
Talk about his lowered cross track, which is always fun because that's not what we
05:41
typically see and he wanted to do something different, which I think is great.
05:46
So we will get into this conversation with Dylan.
06:01
Welcome to the podcast Dylan.
06:05
So what's the weather like in Vermont right now?
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Well, today's sunny and nice, but it's been kind of crappy in the rainy snow mix
06:15
We don't really have anything to know yet, but it's just like that end of fall kind of
06:24
What's the temperature?
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Oh, it's probably around 50s, 40s, 40s, 50s.
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It's still jacket weather.
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I checked the weather this morning here in the Houston area and it's 72.
06:39
Oh, that's nice though.
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Yeah, it's nice, but like Thanksgiving is next week and there's been so many years when Thanksgiving
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will roll around and it's like 85 degrees and it sucks because like we want it to feel
06:54
You know, we want it to be cool.
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And when it's like when you can wear shorts and a t-shirt on Thanksgiving, that's just
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Do you have like that fall foliage out there?
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I mean, are you more like pine trees and?
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I mean, we've got all sorts of different trees, but because of the climate here, it's green
07:16
We don't get all the beautiful colors that you get.
07:18
You don't get the yellow and reds and.
07:21
Occasionally, you'll see something that'll have a little bit of color like that, but
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for the most part, it's green and brown.
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And I guess I kind of take it for granted because I see it all the time.
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Like I don't see what other people see because I see it all the time.
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That's like with snow.
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Some people don't realize that we don't get snow here because like I've said something
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before like, oh yeah, I've never driven through snow and they're like, what?
07:51
You know, because when you live somewhere where you get snow all, you know, every
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year and you grew up that way, it's I think.
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You just kind of don't.
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I think people just think that everybody has a climate like that and it's not like
08:04
But yeah, I've been to Virginia and I've seen during the fall and I've seen the
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beautiful colors and I think the most fun is just cranking down a windy
08:13
back road and seeing all those leaves come up behind your car.
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I mean, we, you know, the leaves fall here.
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They just don't, like I said, this just they turn a lot of the time when
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they're falling here, they're still in that beautiful orange and yellow.
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And it just looks like a big confetti storm behind your car sometimes.
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Yeah, I wish we had that here, but hopefully I'll get a chance to take
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my kids up to the Northeast sometime during the fall to see all the beautiful
08:44
Yeah, to have a Rondachs are beautiful.
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That's the place to go.
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Yeah, a windy back roads to just drive down and just see the foliage and.
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There's, I don't know, there's so many beautiful places.
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I'm glad that we've had the opportunity to travel here and there.
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Like we went to Oregon for Overland Expo Mountain and that was that was
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really nice because we got to do a lot of hiking, saw some waterfalls and
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saw some mountains and that was really nice.
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So it was very thankful for that.
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But we've been to Arizona and Colorado and me and my son of beautiful.
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And me and my son have been to Seattle and seen a few parts of Washington.
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But yeah, so so much to see.
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I've been in Colorado, but on a bus.
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So I haven't been driving myself, but it's just so nice.
09:38
The weather change from like the mountain to the desert of Colorado is crazy.
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Having having snow in July is like people are seeing in July.
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Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool.
09:52
So, well, one of the most important questions that I have to ask is
09:56
whether you prefer waffles or pancakes.
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That's a fair answer, because I like them both, too.
10:04
I just like pancakes a little bit better.
10:05
But so I live in I've lived in the south and chicken and waffles is huge.
10:11
But I also grew up in New England.
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So pancakes are and maple syrup are just.
10:18
Classic. Yeah, that Vermont maple syrup.
10:21
Yeah, that's good stuff.
10:23
Yeah, no, that's a fair answer.
10:25
That's it's it's there.
10:27
They're a pretty even thing, but, you know, it's hard to pick one for me.
10:31
Well, because also here, if you a lot of the ski resorts you go to,
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they'll have little waffle shacks that do like bake the waffles
10:39
and drizzle chocolate or syrup over them.
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And those are delicious, too.
10:43
Yeah, no, it's definitely it can be a tough decision on those.
10:47
But that's a good answer.
10:48
So I worked in kitchens for a while, too.
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So I like a lot of different food.
10:54
Yeah, there's there's so many good foods out there.
10:57
That gets tough, too.
10:59
It's always fun finding something new that you haven't had before
11:02
that just blows your mind, you know.
11:05
But yeah, that's that's what's fun about traveling sometimes, too,
11:08
is being able to find different food in different places.
11:11
But so with your Subaru, is this your first Subaru?
11:16
No, I've had about five or six.
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Which ones have you had before?
11:22
I've had a few WRX sedans.
11:24
OK, I had a V the V this the flat six out back.
11:31
And the four cylinder out back. OK, they're fun.
11:34
Yeah. So what are you driving now?
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16 cross track. OK, got you.
11:43
So it's got a few of the bells and whistles,
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but it's not fully high in tech.
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Mine mine is a base, but which which I'm fine with.
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And mine's a manual, but with mine,
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like I was looking for a manual that was like my kind of like my only option.
11:59
You know, it's like the hardest thing to find.
12:01
Yeah. And I wish they made them in the third gen,
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but they only made them in the first and second gen.
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But so I feel like mine's a little bit of a unicorn, which is which is nice.
12:11
And and mine was I was rear ended on November 15th.
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And yeah, you sent me those pictures.
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So it's in the shop as we speak now.
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And by the time this comes out, I should have her back.
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But my biggest concern was I did not want her to get totaled.
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And when when I got a text message from the repair shop
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saying that my completion date is December 5th,
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I was super excited about that because it was two and a half weeks
12:44
from the time I got the text. But yeah, it doesn't look too crazy.
12:48
Damage wise, I mean, it looks like it just needs a hatch and probably a rear bumper cover.
12:53
Hit by a Jeep Laredo.
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Oh, yeah. So everything is in that rear hatch.
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Yeah. That's where the main damage is.
13:03
Thankfully, yeah, I mean, it was and it was like when we got when I got it to the shop,
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I hadn't opened it from the time the accident happened.
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When we got it to the shop, I opened up the hatch and then,
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which I was surprised we were able to open and then we were able to close it back.
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Of course, it wasn't sealed, but, you know, it was just I'm just
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I'm so glad that they're able to repair it.
13:24
I was worried. Yeah.
13:25
It was cool because the the hatch kind of just folded in on itself
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rather than ruining some of the body structural stuff.
13:32
Yeah. I mean, I got totally lucky because none of the body
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like the none of the the body that surrounds the hatch opening was damaged
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except for the little part down at the bottom where it closes.
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That just needs to be bent back some.
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But other than that, yeah, so super thankful.
13:50
I think that's the cool thing about Subaru is they have such safety in mind
13:54
that that door is meant to be a crumple zone.
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It's so it doesn't jar the rest of the vehicle
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and it also helps the driver in being hit.
14:04
Yeah. Yeah. And I was just glad I was able to drive it home too.
14:07
Yeah. Because that would have been that would have been tragic.
14:10
But yeah. So anyway, yeah, cross tracks are cool.
14:14
And but like, where did your interest in Subaru come from in the first place?
14:20
So I always liked them off.
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At first, I was a Volkswagen guy.
14:22
I used to like Jetta's and all those.
14:26
And then but a buddy of mine had
14:29
an RS that he got dirt cheap.
14:33
And there was another one and I bought one as well.
14:36
Oh, nice. And they're just fun cars.
14:40
But I just after driving it and modifying it, it was fun.
14:46
And I just kept buying them because I like started to love the all wheel drive.
14:49
Yeah. Oh, and I'm sure the all wheel drive is super nice.
14:54
Opposed to Volkswagen and I'll be in front wheel drive.
14:59
I never had anything like a big R 32 that was all wheel drive or anything.
15:02
But I had some big VR sixes and they make a lot of power.
15:06
But the all wheel drive system just kicks out.
15:11
Yeah. So so you had you had the RS and then you said you had a couple of
15:16
WRX's and then you had the outbacks.
15:19
Did you when you had the outbacks, did you do any offroading with it?
15:25
Those are just basically dailies that the outbacks were never molested.
15:29
Any. Oh, they were just they were just bone stock.
15:33
And they were getting me to work cars.
15:35
OK. But their workhorse is you could haul
15:38
pretty much anything I needed with them. Yeah.
15:41
Yeah. And I love having a hatch too,
15:44
because it gives you so much more flexibility than a trunk.
15:48
And like trunks have a lot of times I'll have a lot of volume,
15:52
but the opening you can't get anything in them, you know.
15:55
I just like it. I like a hatchback. Oh, yeah.
15:58
This is something about a hatchback.
16:00
Yeah, I've I've always see I liked the the Mazda
16:04
threes for a long time, the hatchback.
16:07
And I used to want one until they changed the body style.
16:10
And then I was like, now I don't want one because it looks ugly.
16:14
Yeah. They're also a fun car, those Mazda threes.
16:19
But yeah, so like when you bought the cross trick that you have now
16:23
was the intention with that to be another daily like with the outback?
16:28
Or the intention I didn't even so when I got it, I didn't even really like the car.
16:32
I didn't even really like the car.
16:35
I just it was something I could get into and needed to get out of what I was in.
16:39
OK, I just I would have to think too much money into it.
16:42
And it just turned into like I was like,
16:44
oh, just till I get the next thing kind of thing.
16:47
And then I just fell in love with it.
16:51
Now, were you were you just wanting to get another Subaru?
16:53
Obviously, because of the all wheel drive, I was thinking of a different Subaru.
16:57
I just I wasn't thinking cross track. OK.
16:59
I wasn't I wasn't thinking
17:03
jacked up and I kind of kind of, yeah, I was just like,
17:08
I don't know what I was thinking.
17:10
Maybe a Forester or something, if I was going to go something
17:12
that was sitting that high, yeah, I love the Forester too.
17:16
But I just I wasn't thinking cross track.
17:19
So but I got in it and I started driving.
17:23
How long did it take you to to be like, oh, man, I love this thing.
17:27
Like because it sounds like you six, seven months.
17:30
OK, they grew on me over over a few.
17:32
And then I started seeing others that were modified.
17:35
I was like, there's so many that are lifted.
17:38
I was like, it just I want to be different.
17:42
Yeah. Yeah, you definitely went the different route.
17:45
Because and again, did you not take that one off road ever?
17:49
Like was that is going off road kind of not your thing going off road?
17:53
Was it if I go off road?
17:54
I got I usually have trucks and stuff like that.
18:00
If you're going off road, you're you got trees that are
18:04
you got to drive over in some places and it's just not going to happen
18:07
even if you lift the car.
18:09
I mean, you got some jeeps that can't get over things.
18:11
I mean, I used to have a full size ninety four lifted blazer
18:15
that it was just a monster.
18:17
Yeah. The tires were higher than the hood
18:21
on most cross tracks. Yeah.
18:27
So when did you decide like, hey, I think I'm going to lower this thing?
18:33
So I kind of started when I found a group called Ruin to Cross Tracks.
18:38
Oh, on on Facebook.
18:40
And it was it's ruined and then it's quoted and it says lowered cross tracks
18:45
after that. Yeah, because every everybody in like the
18:49
some of the lifted cross track means like you ruined it.
18:51
Like, no, it's just what we like.
18:54
Yeah, it's just what we like.
18:57
So we enjoy different things.
18:59
Yeah, I mean, and I think that's something to really keep in mind
19:03
and that should be important is that, you know, whatever somebody does
19:07
with their car, it's like that's what they want to do with their car.
19:10
And I think, yeah, you know, if if we can just show respect
19:15
and, you know, admiration for what somebody did and be like,
19:19
you know what, I wouldn't lower a cross track,
19:21
but I really like what you do with yours.
19:23
And it looks good, you know, I think if we can just, you know,
19:26
and that's what's nice about the Subaru community, though,
19:29
is there is more of that respect, you know,
19:33
sometimes you'll find somebody that might be kind of negative and stuff.
19:37
But for the most part, my experience has been that, you know,
19:40
people are respectful of other builds because it seems most
19:44
most Subaru groups are very inclusive and like anything.
19:49
They're not just stuck in like one way.
19:51
Yeah, I've noticed that, like, some like older Jeep guys
19:55
or older Toyota guys get into the cross track lifting community
19:58
and they're a little of the toxic side,
20:01
but they're they're they're getting a little too old to get back up
20:04
in those lifted Jeeps and those Toyota's.
20:06
So they need something a little lower
20:08
that it still makes them feel like they're lifted. Yeah.
20:12
But that's not even a majority of the community.
20:14
The community is just so great. Oh, yeah.
20:16
Subaru is just and that's what I like about
20:19
Subaru over some other brands is just Subaru's Berry and enjoys everyone.
20:24
Yeah, because I've heard so many people
20:26
that I've just either talked to or that I've had on the podcast
20:30
that when they first bought their Subaru, it was not modified at all.
20:35
And they got invited to a car meet with people who had a bunch of modified cars
20:40
and they were so like nervous and, you know, almost didn't go
20:45
because they were worried that people were going to give them a bunch of crap
20:48
for not having any modifications.
20:50
And then they get there and they're pleasantly surprised
20:53
that people start asking them about their car.
20:55
And they're like, I didn't do anything to it.
20:57
And they're like, it doesn't matter.
20:59
You know, you're here with us and you have a Subaru
21:02
and you obviously love it.
21:06
And I think when people find that out, then that just, you know,
21:11
because it seems to like there's, you know, there's the Subaru people.
21:16
A lot of times they're like a certain type of person.
21:18
Like I think there's a lot of introverted people.
21:20
I think there's a lot of, you know, people that may not have a whole lot of friends.
21:25
And then they get into this community.
21:28
And then now they have people that where they feel included,
21:31
they they start becoming a little more outgoing.
21:35
And they're in a place where they're comfortable and, you know, and accepted.
21:40
And then, you know, they can actually talk to people.
21:43
And I think too, that like when you get into a situation like that,
21:47
it helps you to open up more and other aspects of your life.
21:52
So it's it's been a good thing to accept other people for who they are.
21:59
So how long did you have it before you decided that you wanted to lower it?
22:09
So after I got into, um, Bruin Cross Tricks, I just started finding people's
22:15
Instagrams and I had started an Instagram for my car.
22:19
And so I just started following some of the people I just saw their cars
22:22
and thought they were awesome.
22:24
There's like two guys I followed that have kind of the same vision as I do.
22:29
And they have a few more modifications that I do that I really like.
22:35
And I'm getting there eventually.
22:37
Just some of the stuff is expensive and yeah, it's hard.
22:42
It's hard living and buying some expensive stuff.
22:45
Oh, yeah, definitely.
22:47
Yeah, it's great to connect with people.
22:49
And that's that's what's so great about Wicked Big Me.
22:54
Wicked Big Me is awesome.
22:56
And I've gone the past two years and I've shown the past two years.
23:00
And this year, my car just really got a lot of attention.
23:05
The year before it didn't really get looked at.
23:07
I mean, but I had a little bit more done this year.
23:10
And when I went the first year, I kind of just had.
23:17
My coilover is done and my my wheels on.
23:20
It was just nice and clean.
23:21
And then this year, I really got a few more things done.
23:25
Did my custom exhaust stuff, which now I'm in version two
23:30
of after Wicked Big Me.
23:32
Yeah, I saw you had a different exhaust than the one I had seen previously.
23:36
Yeah, so the new since I got rear-ended.
23:40
I've got my new bumper.
23:41
I've got it painted.
23:42
I'm just not going to put it on till spring.
23:44
OK, new exhaust just needs a little more modification
23:47
to fit the new bumper so it's not fully cut out in the rear.
23:52
Because I wanted to hide some of the pipe
23:54
and I just want the tips to stick out.
23:56
Yeah, that's such an awesome look.
23:58
Yeah, what year is your cross-trick and when did you buy it?
24:03
OK, I bought it to 16 and I believe I got it in.
24:08
One year, one or twenty two.
24:10
OK, how many miles did it have when you bought it?
24:14
And a hundred and forty three on it and I've got it almost to one eighty.
24:19
Yeah, mine's at one thirty eight right now and it's a twenty one.
24:24
Yeah, put a lot of miles on it pretty quick.
24:27
And I have driven it.
24:28
I've driven it to South Carolina stock height.
24:31
And then I've also driven it to South Carolina, lowered height.
24:35
OK, is that the furthest distance you've driven it?
24:38
Yeah, how far is that?
24:39
Like mileage wise, do you know? Oh, that's.
24:43
I know it's 14 hours. Oh, yeah, that's a long trip.
24:47
Yeah, I think it's a couple thousand.
24:48
It's over a thousand. OK, yeah.
24:51
Yeah, it's a pretty good, pretty good trip there. Yeah.
24:56
Did you were you nervous at all buying a car with that many miles on it?
25:01
No, because where I work, I can car fax and then check anything I want.
25:09
OK, so my car has record of the lady
25:16
who owned it, the first owner and the second owner.
25:19
The lady who owned it before me, she was a little old lady, mostly highway
25:22
driving. My work, she actually goes into one of my chain shops.
25:28
So I have meticulous records of this car being taken care of
25:33
and oil changes on time, maintenance on time, everything.
25:39
That's great. Yeah, was done up on it.
25:42
And it was nice to be able to see that.
25:44
And I mean, I could I even looked up the lady
25:47
because I could see her name on the. Yeah, she's just a little grandma.
25:52
Has she seen the car since you've done it? No.
25:55
OK, that would be interesting to be what did you do to my car?
25:58
OK, she lives up Northern Vermont. OK, so yeah.
26:02
No, that's cool. I didn't drive three hours for this car.
26:06
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know that.
26:07
I know people have taken by this car.
26:09
I know people have taken some pretty long trips to get the car that they want.
26:12
And because of the blue. OK, yeah.
26:15
It's a very it's a very uncommon color. Yeah.
26:19
Yeah, I know it's they've got some good colors, too.
26:23
And yeah, it's yeah, I I didn't wait too long for mine
26:28
because I wanted a manual.
26:30
I wasn't really particular on a color.
26:32
I just didn't want like the darkest.
26:34
That's like the super dark gray that's almost a black.
26:37
The only other way you can get this blue
26:39
and other than buying a cross track is buying an STI.
26:42
Oh, OK. It's hyper blue.
26:44
Oh, yeah. Yeah. OK. Nice.
26:49
So when you decided to start lowering it,
26:52
like, what was the first thing that you did?
26:55
The first thing is I did my research.
26:57
OK. What suspensions fit in these cars?
27:00
What supers or Legos?
27:05
Across all different other years and makes and models,
27:09
suspensions are shared through certain ones.
27:13
A lot of interior parts are shared through certain ones,
27:17
driveline parts and stuff like that.
27:19
And so you can lower a cross track by all means
27:23
by buying cross track specific coilovers.
27:26
But what I've after doing my research and found
27:30
is if you buy a set of cross track coilovers,
27:32
you never get the front end to go low enough
27:34
to create the rake that I have created
27:38
in my car because you can't ever get the front end to drop low enough.
27:41
You'll always get the ass end to drop lower than the front.
27:44
And it just doesn't look right.
27:45
Yeah. And when you when you're looking at the car,
27:48
it just it looks catty office.
27:50
Yeah, it's not an old school low rider.
27:52
No. And so what I did is I did my research
27:56
of what matched up to the cross track of first generation
28:00
and the O8 to 14 WRX suspension matches up to the cross track.
28:05
And so I bought that suspension being as easier to get a hold of
28:09
and it was cheaper to go that route.
28:13
And I went with race land because of their lifetime warranty and everything.
28:19
And I was able to get the front end lower and look much nicer overall.
28:23
Yeah. So when did you do that?
28:26
You said that was within a year.
28:28
Yeah, within a year.
28:30
I got wheels and tires first.
28:32
And then I was like, those are street wheels.
28:35
Yeah, I was like, they they don't look
28:38
tonguey or meaty. I do want to do a different wheel setup.
28:41
Fifty two has a really nice white five star wheel.
28:46
It just looks like a big star.
28:48
And I think those look beautiful on these cars.
28:51
Yeah. So the ones you have now are the ones that you first put on it.
28:56
Yeah, they're the first set of wheels I bought for this car.
28:59
Gotcha. Yeah, they look good.
29:03
But sometimes the black kind of fades into the car
29:05
when during pictures and videos.
29:08
Yeah, since my car is white, I've seen some
29:12
not that this person's car is white, but I have the Raika
29:16
T-tons, which is a five spoke wheel.
29:19
And I somebody, I don't remember what their account is,
29:23
but somebody took those wheels.
29:24
I don't know if it was the same color I have,
29:26
but they just took a set of T-tons and powder coated them white.
29:31
And they look so good.
29:33
Yeah. So if I could do that, that would be something
29:36
I'd be interested in like just playing around with like
29:39
powder coating mine, white and have the powder coating is cool.
29:45
Have that true like white and black contrast.
29:47
Yeah. But that would look really good.
29:50
Yeah. That's for another day.
29:55
So when you decided to lower it and like,
29:59
you know, you said that it's ruined Cross Trek.
30:02
Did you get some flax from some other Cross Trek owners
30:06
or was everybody pretty supportive?
30:08
Cross Trek community.
30:11
Some people outside like, so I don't just go to Subaru only events.
30:16
I go to a lot of import shows.
30:19
OK. And there are those people like,
30:21
well, why didn't you just buy an Impressa?
30:23
Because they didn't want an Impressa.
30:26
I bought a Cross Trek because I got a Cross Trek.
30:29
And this is what I did with it.
30:32
Most of all, it's it's everyone's like, wow, that's really cool.
30:38
Not everybody does that.
30:40
Yeah. I mean, it's not what you would expect somebody to do with a Cross Trek.
30:45
And it's kind of what throws people off
30:48
because then they just think it's a trimmed out Impressa.
30:51
That's either wrapped hyper blue or painted hyper blue.
30:56
And they actually get around it and see the badge and like, oh, wow.
31:00
Oh, that's actually a Cross Trek.
31:03
It's actually five inches lower than it should be.
31:06
Yeah. It's looking up your account right now.
31:11
I mean, I've looked at it before, but I'm trying to look at it again.
31:15
Yeah, that color is nice.
31:19
I like the the hood looks good on it, too.
31:22
Yeah. So the hood I went and I bought.
31:25
Um, it's actually a full black hood.
31:27
It's not painted. It's a stock of crystal black
31:32
from another Cross Trek. Nice.
31:37
I was wondering, like I was thinking, maybe what if I
31:41
just have them do my hatch black instead of
31:45
match the white color just to do something different?
31:49
It would pop. Yeah.
31:51
But then you could get into doing your hood,
31:54
and your roof black with wrap.
31:57
Yeah, that would look like it would look like you get a nice
32:00
stripe and two tone contrast color would look really good.
32:04
Yeah, I think that would be like something very different.
32:07
But yeah, I don't know.
32:09
I'm I'm still going to stick with the white.
32:11
I just picture I sent you.
32:14
That is a photo that was taken at my last show by a photographer
32:18
that I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for to get my car.
32:22
I didn't ask him to take that picture.
32:24
He takes pictures of cars he likes as they come in.
32:28
I finally I finally get the radar,
32:30
which is which is felt really good on the recognition scale.
32:33
Yeah, it was like, wow, I'm I'm I'm where I want to start being.
32:38
Yeah, no, that's cool. That's cool.
32:44
So, so you had this other Subaru's before, but like
32:49
because you said you started an Instagram page for your Cross Trek.
32:51
But did you not have an Instagram page for any of your other cars?
32:55
No, none of those cars.
32:56
They were more more dailies and a little bit of motor mods,
32:59
but nothing really ever special.
33:02
So did you know about or did you know that there was like this huge community
33:06
out there before you started your Instagram page for this car?
33:09
For a Subaru. Yeah, I knew there was a huge Subaru community.
33:13
The body of mine actually, when I was still in the Volkswagen's,
33:15
he was a Subaru ambassador like when Subaru first started doing their
33:19
ambassador program. Yeah.
33:22
And it was really cool.
33:23
I mean, I just at that time, I was Volkswagen's and Volkswagen's and Volkswagen's.
33:30
Yeah, that's that's cool.
33:31
Yeah, because I know there's like for me,
33:33
I had no idea that there was a community out there.
33:36
And I've had a lot of people on that, you know,
33:38
when they first bought their Subaru, they had no idea either.
33:41
And then now here we are immersed in it and connecting.
33:47
And it's like you it's cool that you can easily just
33:53
talk to anybody in the Subaru community
33:56
and they're just they're immediately infatuated.
34:00
Oh, yeah. Whether it's whether it's lowered,
34:03
whether it's lifted, whether it's bone stock, they're just that's awesome.
34:07
Yeah. And it's cool that we get connected with people all over the country
34:11
and then all over the world, you know, through through Instagram.
34:14
And that's that's what's so cool, too, is, you know, and a lot of people
34:18
end up meeting people through this community and think back.
34:22
And it's like I would have never met these people if I didn't buy this car.
34:26
Yeah. And it's kind of crazy to think about what I like about.
34:31
So I'm just a car guy through and through.
34:33
And I'm also in a crew that we created.
34:37
We go to shows together and even my Volkswagen guys come to
34:41
we'll come to the Subaru specific shows and they'll or my Audi guys
34:45
and my all my other guys that don't drive Subaru come to the specific shows
34:50
and just hang out because we just support each other.
34:55
What's the name of the group?
34:56
Engineered elegance. Oh, nice. That's cool.
35:00
Yeah. And we got two Volkswagen's of BMW for Subaru's.
35:08
It's nice when you can have people from different brands come together
35:12
and respect each other's builds.
35:14
That's what we're trying to grow.
35:17
So when I was in high school, there used to be these great car shows.
35:22
You probably heard about slammed enough Gatlingberg.
35:26
What happened there?
35:28
So it's a big show for really low cambered out cars and cool.
35:33
They're awesome cars.
35:34
But people just who don't own cars kind of ruined it.
35:38
They were rioting and and stuff like that.
35:41
And it was just terrible.
35:43
Yeah, that's not cool.
35:45
There was a couple of other shows when I was a kid or younger, H2OI.
35:51
They got ruined the same way.
35:52
And we kind of as a group want to bring that stuff back
35:56
with our group, we just we roll together.
35:59
We take all our rollers together and it's cool.
36:05
And it's kind of like we turned into this little family that
36:09
never would have happened if we didn't meet at a car show.
36:14
We met at a car show in Massachusetts.
36:17
I set I set a group up to go roll together
36:21
and we were meeting at this location.
36:24
And a few people didn't show up and one guy was invited
36:27
from one of the group I invited and I didn't know he was coming.
36:30
So but he met at the location.
36:32
I didn't really like connect that he was going.
36:36
So I just left and drove there and saw him at the show.
36:40
I was like, yo, I saw you at the meet.
36:42
I was like, I should have just came over and talk to you there.
36:46
And and from then on, we built this this crew.
36:51
So you're talking about rollers and you but you've got some nice
36:56
videos of you driving down some curvy road.
37:01
That is Florida, Massachusetts.
37:06
It's it was on my way back from Wicked Big Meet in 24.
37:11
That was one of that's version one of the exhaust.
37:16
And that was I drove through that section and saw that pull off
37:19
and I had a buddy with me and I was like, hey, you stand on this.
37:22
I'll turn around stand on that pull off and just video me coming by.
37:26
And it just it sounded really good, but it doesn't sound nearly as good
37:29
as it is. Yeah, I guess it's time to do another one.
37:34
Yeah, it was well, the old one would I made out of cheaper steel
37:38
and it rotted out Vermont winners.
37:41
Yeah. And I got this stainless 20 WRX 22 plus
37:47
three inch cat back for a wicked deal.
37:51
And it bolted right up.
37:54
Most of the pipes fit right under the car.
37:57
That's awesome. And then.
37:59
It fit right around the diff.
38:00
It everything was bent to where it should be.
38:03
The only thing I had to modify was the width of the tips.
38:07
Oh, yeah, they came out in the rear bumper,
38:09
which I'll have to modify again because how I'm changing the rear bumper.
38:13
But it I had to just cut and weld a little bit and it fit right in
38:18
and it sits solid and it doesn't move.
38:21
Oh, that's good. Yeah.
38:22
And it really it really rumbles nice compared to what it compared to what it used to be.
38:28
So with all the modifications that you've done so far,
38:31
have you done most of them yourself?
38:34
Yes, everything has been done myself.
38:37
Maybe a friend or two helping me, but everything's been done myself.
38:43
That's awesome. That's the hard part.
38:45
Lifting it up, taking the wheel off, adjusting the coil over,
38:48
putting the wheel back on, lowering it, measuring fender height to the ground
38:52
and then getting that on all four corners.
38:57
Yeah. Worth it, though.
39:00
No, a couple hours worth.
39:01
There's a couple hours worth of work.
39:03
Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's fun when you can do the stuff yourself.
39:08
You know, whether it's repairs or just modifications,
39:11
it's just there's so much satisfaction from that.
39:14
You know, like, yeah, my son has.
39:16
Yeah, my son has a 2010 3.6 or outback.
39:21
Oh, nice. And yeah, we've had to do some work on it.
39:24
Most recently, we changed out the the front axle on the passenger side.
39:30
And we did that at a friend's house, Jonathan Subamu.
39:35
And because he has an impact wrench and he has the socket for the axle nut.
39:41
So I am lucky enough to be a mechanic and I have all of those things.
39:46
Yeah, I mean, I live in an apartment and I mean, he does too now,
39:50
but he has a garage and so we were able to just pull up in front of his garage
39:55
at the apartment and he's just got all of his tools in there.
39:58
So I've been to his house to do my breaks before I did my pitch stop over there.
40:05
And then we've done after nice.
40:06
Yeah, and we've done some other work.
40:08
But yeah, so we changed out my son's axle.
40:11
And then he changed out all six of the spark plugs.
40:15
Like 98 percent of it, he did himself.
40:18
Yeah. Yeah. And it's a pain.
40:20
But but hey, save the easiest way to do it is remove the battery
40:24
and remove the air box and you can get in there pretty good.
40:27
Yeah, that's what we did.
40:28
But on the on the flat sixes, it's a lot harder
40:31
because you got that the third and fourth or the fourth and sorry,
40:35
fifth and sixth all the way back.
40:36
Yep. And they're a little tighter than. Yeah. Than the others.
40:40
Yeah. So that was that was the toughest part.
40:42
But but I mean, we did it, you know, I think it took us like
40:45
maybe three and a half hours to do all of it.
40:48
But it was worth it.
40:49
You know, I mean, it was a good experience, too.
40:51
And then his AC discharge hose split.
40:55
And we had to get another one and we replaced that.
40:59
And so that was, you know, it's just been.
41:02
I mean, it's he's had some issues with it being that it's such an old car
41:06
and it has two hundred and fifteen thousand miles now.
41:09
But but those three sixes are pretty much bulletproof.
41:13
Yeah, that's what I've heard from everybody that's that they're very reliable.
41:17
Yeah. So I mean, it's still drives great.
41:21
But, you know, I told them, I said, if you got a car that was perfectly fine,
41:24
you wouldn't have learned anything.
41:26
So it's been it's you know, it's that is a motor Subaru should have kept going with.
41:32
Yeah. They they didn't.
41:36
They honestly could have put that in some STI applications.
41:40
That motor would have been a monster.
41:42
Yeah, they could have done a six cylinder turbo
41:46
would have just gone crazy.
41:48
Yeah, whenever his car dies, I'll just drop it in my cross track.
41:55
That would be so fun.
41:56
I do have a dream motor built for my cross track.
42:00
Yeah, the two four, the two four new WRX motor.
42:06
Two four is just it's eventually going to happen.
42:10
Yeah, that's what I've heard.
42:12
It's a good motor to put in there.
42:14
It's only one. I only seen one car done it.
42:18
But they repinned everything so that the motor
42:22
talked to the cross track computer and here in Vermont, I'm a little lucky.
42:28
Inspections aren't super crazy.
42:31
That's good. They're just looking for lights and stuff.
42:33
So I think I might try and once I get to that point, just
42:40
call it a rebuild car.
42:42
Call it a WRXV on the title and
42:47
they'll make it inspectable, probably have like the WRX brain
42:51
and transmission computers and all the electronics
42:55
from the WRX just put into the cross track shell.
43:00
So besides like lowering it, doing the exhaust
43:04
and then you've got the black hood on it, like and,
43:07
you know, obviously wheels and tires.
43:08
What are some other modifications you've done?
43:10
Like a lot of suspension stuff to keep
43:14
the alignment correct. OK.
43:16
So Subaru's as they get older, especially in New England, their rear end
43:19
alignment parts just rust up and get impossible to move.
43:25
So I bought aftermarket rear toe arms, lower control arms
43:29
to keep the alignment perfectly straight for the longevity in my tires.
43:34
That's I do have aftermarket headlights.
43:37
I've tinted my taillights because I like the matte black look,
43:42
but those are going to change eventually to some DLRs.
43:45
OK. For the gloss black to match everything else.
43:49
And done so much as just
43:53
rear wiper delete because I like how it looks without the wiper.
43:58
I have underglow in my front dash,
44:02
like by your feet. Yeah, it has a pedal commander
44:05
which is nice. It gives a little extra pet.
44:09
You have a lot more throttle usage.
44:11
Yeah, I still want to get one of those.
44:14
It's worth it. I've heard.
44:18
It's a great, great little
44:21
and I don't even run it in sport plus plus plus four.
44:24
I run it in sport plus two and that's like every day.
44:28
But if I'm getting up on the highway and I want a little bit more,
44:31
I just knock it up to the the plus four on the sport plus.
44:37
Yeah, definitely nice throttle.
44:41
Yeah, I've never one thing about the electronic
44:44
throttles is that like an inch of the throttle is there's nothing there.
44:48
Yeah. And then that's what the pedal commander does.
44:51
It takes away that inch of throttle.
44:52
The second you touch it, there's throttle.
44:54
Yeah, I've never driven a car with it.
44:57
So I don't know what the experience is like,
44:59
but I've just heard everybody say
45:01
that it's like one of the best upgrades you can do,
45:04
especially for a cross track because they're slow.
45:06
I mean, I wouldn't say it's the best.
45:08
I mean, there's probably other things you can do to.
45:11
Well, I mean, I think for the price
45:13
and just to get that little extra pep, you know.
45:16
Yeah, I do have a cold air intake to a real one
45:20
that goes to my out my fender and into my bumper.
45:25
That's so that was one of the after suspension and stuff.
45:29
That was one of the first other modifications I did,
45:31
because that was expensive as well.
45:35
But next, hopefully is chassis mounted wing.
45:41
Yeah, hopefully it's just a $1,500 purchase.
45:47
What have you done to the interior or have you done anything?
45:50
Right now, interior is pretty stock.
45:53
Other than the underglow in the footwells,
45:58
eventually I'm going to do a rear seat delete
46:01
and two buckets, energy buckets with
46:04
harnesses and a harness bar behind them.
46:07
I do have a detachable steering wheel.
46:11
No airbag light, which is really nice.
46:16
It's just kind of like a quirky thing.
46:18
It's all it's you don't see it on a lot of cars.
46:22
Well, it's you don't see it on a lot of newer cars
46:24
because airbags and stuff like that.
46:26
But yeah, there's there's a couple ways around that.
46:30
Do you have a different shifter, too?
46:33
Or no, I do have a billet works.
46:36
See, it's a CVT, so it's just an imitation.
46:39
It's a real shift knob on it.
46:41
And, you know, how a standard has the reverse lockout pull.
46:46
So that reverse lockout pull on my shifter
46:49
lets you get it out of reverse.
46:51
OK, yeah, because I was like pushing the button.
46:53
Yeah, but instead it looks like it's a standard.
46:57
I saw that and I thought it was a manual at first
47:00
and I got excited and then and then I saw later on.
47:03
I was like, oh, no, it's a CVT.
47:06
It will get a it will get a five speed swap with the two four motor.
47:10
There's just no use swapping it until I'm putting the two four in it.
47:13
Yeah, I'm not going to swap a tranny twice.
47:17
Yeah, no sense in that.
47:19
Yeah, work and money, not worth it.
47:22
Yeah, I could do it.
47:24
It wouldn't take too much work, but it would just be a pain to just do it again
47:29
after a year or two of doing it on just the regular motor.
47:36
So with your cross track, the way it sits now, what is your favorite mod?
47:42
Oh, my new exhaust.
47:45
Yeah, yeah, I love it.
47:49
It sounds so much better than the old one.
47:51
It's it's a huge improvement.
47:53
It rumbles like crazy in like that 1500 to 2000 RPM area
47:59
where you just barely on the gas is like, oh, yeah, that's nice.
48:06
And I can't wait to put UEL headers on it and just hear that all the time
48:10
when it ills. Yeah, what's funny is like whenever I got rear ended,
48:15
it pushed my exhaust forward and underneath.
48:19
And so like you have the muffler and then the pipe that connects to
48:24
the exhaust that goes up, you know, forward.
48:28
And so there's like that little connection and two flanges or whatever.
48:31
Yeah. And that got bent some.
48:34
So that was letting some air through.
48:36
So my you got a little bit of rumble from it.
48:39
Yeah, it was like what made me build my own exhaust.
48:44
When I when I first so I lowered the car a little bit and then
48:49
I had the stock exhaust on it still and that that black flange blew out
48:53
and it needed it needed to be replaced.
48:56
And I could have just got the stock stuff to come come from the cat back.
49:01
Yeah. Well, I didn't because it was more expensive to do that
49:04
and then build my own two and a half inch upgraded exhaust
49:08
that sounded way better.
49:12
And then eventually with the version one exhaust
49:17
after I got my new tires and I went even lower,
49:21
the version one exhaust just it wasn't bent to fit the car.
49:24
It was straight piped.
49:24
I had custom built it and it was dragging in certain places.
49:29
I was like, I'm going to wear a hole in this.
49:32
So I had to weld a plate to the bottom to protect the exhaust
49:34
until I got the new one figured out.
49:38
So whenever whenever it got damaged, I was like,
49:42
man, it kind of sounds like a milder version
49:45
of a nameless performance exhaust or something.
49:47
So it's kind of cool.
49:48
It was interesting driving it because I was hearing that
49:51
and I'm like, that would be kind of cool
49:53
if it was like that all the time for real.
49:57
One of these days, I'd like to do a different exhaust,
50:00
but it's just I bet I've had other priorities
50:03
that I've had to take care of.
50:05
And yeah, it was really nice the way I did it
50:07
because while I built my exhaust
50:10
because I bought pipe off Amazon and I can weld,
50:13
but a buddy helped me weld the first one.
50:16
And a buddy helped me weld up this one too
50:19
because he's got stainless steel wire for his welder.
50:25
And just the first one was just basically a straight back piece,
50:29
two and a half into a with a couple
50:32
nineties into a muffler with one little resonator.
50:35
And the muffler didn't really have anything in it.
50:37
It's just a hollow shell with a piece of V steel in it
50:41
that just breaks up the exhaust.
50:44
And it was loud, but it it rumbled a little bit.
50:48
But the new one, it's so deep.
50:51
It's so throaty and it it pops sometimes.
50:56
Yeah, that deep throaty sound is is really, really nice.
51:00
Yeah. That and the other night,
51:02
I hadn't heard it myself outside of the car
51:05
until I was I went to see a buddy and we were talking about it.
51:09
He hadn't heard it yet.
51:10
And it was sitting there running
51:13
and we're standing behind the car left the door open.
51:15
He's like, have you heard it yet?
51:17
I go, no, I haven't heard it outside the car.
51:19
I mean, I just I haven't even I haven't even thought about it.
51:22
And he just runs over, gets in and just revs it up.
51:25
And I was like, man, it's so deep.
51:27
Yeah, it's just like it's like when you hear Morgan Freeman speaking.
51:33
Deep, deep guttural voice.
51:35
Yeah, that's funny.
51:37
Got that Morgan Freeman exhaust.
51:39
Yeah, that'll be like that's going to become a thing.
51:48
So you have some sponsors for you build.
51:50
How did you go about getting them getting the sponsors?
51:53
And and who are the Empire?
51:57
I don't really do VVash anymore
51:58
because their products started to fall off.
52:01
So I really just do kind of Lowered Empire and Race Land.
52:04
I'm a I'm an ambassador for Race Land and their coilovers.
52:10
So the ambassadorship is pretty much works the same,
52:13
I think, as Subaru ambassadorship works,
52:16
except with them, they when you do referrals,
52:21
you get stipends and stuff like that.
52:24
So like, if you get enough people referring you,
52:26
they'll send you either money off things
52:28
or they'll send you a check or stuff like that.
52:31
And Lowered Empire is
52:34
it's more of just like a group.
52:38
I get discounts on all the Lowered Empire stuff
52:42
and I have discount codes for for Lowered Empire
52:48
Nice. Are you pursuing any other sponsors?
52:53
I'm kind of building my group, our crew into something
52:57
and we kind of want to turn
52:59
engineered elegance into a brand.
53:01
OK, yeah, that would be cool.
53:03
And the kind of just like a we want to regrow
53:06
the way the street scene used to be in the early 2000s.
53:10
Yeah. Modifying your car, crazy colors, all that stuff.
53:15
And in the unity and how awesome.
53:20
Like when we were growing up and these we saw all these old heads
53:25
that were creating these beautiful cars,
53:28
but they had a brotherhood and it was.
53:32
Not when anybody mess with that.
53:34
Yeah, it was peaceful.
53:36
It was it wasn't doing donuts in the middle of the street.
53:38
It was meeting in a Home Depot parking lot at midnight
53:43
to just hang out and enjoy each other's cars.
53:45
Yeah, maybe be a little obnoxious with your exhaust on the way out.
53:49
But that's not a big deal.
53:53
Yeah, you're not being an idiot, kids.
53:55
Yeah, these takeover kids have ruined everything.
53:58
Ninety percent of them don't even have cars.
54:02
Ninety percent of them.
54:03
One guy has a car and three others come in the car with them.
54:07
And those three others are the ones ruining everything.
54:10
Yeah. Yeah, it's just it's gotten crazy.
54:14
Yeah, kids these days.
54:15
And that's well, that's what ruined Gatlinburg got ruined
54:20
because these kids rioted at a gas station
54:25
and the town shut the entire showdown.
54:27
So people who paid to go show their car
54:30
couldn't even get into the event center
54:32
because the police turned them away.
54:34
Yeah, everybody who had every vendor
54:37
who paid for a booth and was there already or kicked out
54:42
without the ability to sell any of the products that they brought with them.
54:47
They made specifically for that event.
54:50
So like there's a lot of companies that will have a t-shirt
54:54
and it will have the tag of the event on it.
54:57
Yeah. Well, nobody went to the event
54:59
so they couldn't sell any of the t-shirts.
55:02
So they've they've lost money and it's terrible.
55:06
It's terrible. What?
55:09
Just if you get if you can't be a productive member of society, stay home.
55:14
Yeah, they don't know to do that.
55:18
We just want to enjoy cars and that's it.
55:22
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's gotten pretty bad.
55:26
Some places, some places people just acting stupid, man.
55:30
So H2OI was first in Maryland.
55:35
And then it got pushed out of Maryland to Florida
55:39
because of people doing the same thing.
55:43
And I've been to I went to H2OI in Maryland and Florida.
55:47
And again, well, the Florida cops were a little bad.
55:49
But when you're modifying things like at that time, I drove a Miata.
55:57
And it was loud, very loud.
56:00
It had cutouts, but I could flip a switch and it would be normal exhaust.
56:04
They pulled me over a couple of times for it.
56:06
I was like, sir, my car does not have to follow your laws.
56:11
Yeah, I'm not I'm not registered here.
56:13
That doesn't apply to me.
56:15
Yeah, it's it'd be nice to if you could get things back to the way they used to be.
56:21
At least, you know, for a small portion of it,
56:24
to where people can just start coming in, thousands was the best in the import scene.
56:31
Yeah, everyone was just just about making their car blingy
56:35
and making it look pretty and and and making it go fast,
56:40
even though they didn't have to go fast.
56:43
Yeah, better times.
56:48
But when you go to a all Subaru inclusive show, everything's great.
56:53
Yeah, you don't have to deal with any of that.
56:55
Yeah, it's all everyone's so inclusive
56:58
and everyone is just nice to everybody.
57:01
They're respectful, too.
57:02
Yeah, they're respectful of each other and respectful of the event.
57:06
Yeah, because they want to keep doing it.
57:10
And it's nice that Subaru puts it on.
57:13
That's why we keep having these events every year, because everybody behaves.
57:17
Yeah. So and it just it's kind of like I look at I look at Gatlinburg,
57:22
I look at H2OI and then I just think of, well, when's this going to happen
57:27
to Wicked Big Meet?
57:28
When's this going to happen to Subifest wherever?
57:32
Yeah, hopefully not.
57:33
I mean, it's hopefully not because I think the same thing about
57:37
like there's a show called Wolfscar here in Vermont, it's it's up north
57:40
and it's it's it's mainly for Volkswagen, but they include everyone.
57:44
And I just think, well, when's it going to happen to Wolfscar?
57:48
Because Wolfscar is awesome.
57:50
When's it going to happen to any IFO or import face off or anybody like that?
57:54
Like how long is it going to be before everyone shut down?
57:59
And then the whole community just is forced to go back into underground stuff.
58:06
Yeah, hopefully we won't get there.
58:10
It's like it's almost like you have to gatekeep some things from these new
58:13
knuckleheads because those knuckleheads have knuckleheads that ruin things.
58:20
And it's like they because they just don't know how to either
58:23
tell these other stupid knuckleheads no or yeah, I feel like
58:28
I just I just need to go to this place on my own and prove that
58:33
I can be part of this scene and not be part of the new problem.
58:37
Because that's that's a way a lot of the the import scene now looks at younger
58:41
kids coming into the cars, car scene, because well, are you going to bring
58:46
that that whole aspect of takeover with you?
58:51
Kind of thing, because that's who's doing it. Yeah.
58:57
Yeah, that's what it comes out.
58:59
Either no respect or a lack of raising.
59:04
Oh, 100%. Yeah, I just lack of raising.
59:08
I think like what are these parents doing that are where these kids are just
59:14
I was acting like this in the street.
59:16
I got beat. I would have got whoop.
59:20
You don't you don't bring that kind of that kind of bad attention on your family.
59:25
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.
59:27
The world's gotten crazy, man.
59:30
Oh, so let's get back to some positive stuff.
59:33
Yeah. So obviously you live in Vermont.
59:38
Have you ever been to Vermont Sports Car?
59:40
I have. I've been to a couple of their yearly shows. Nice.
59:44
You can also call Vermont Sports Car and I think it's one or two
59:50
Fridays a month if you call like a week or two in advance
59:54
and tell them you want to come and they will have an employee
59:58
to pull the way for you and they'll meet you at the door
00:02
and they'll guide you all the way through Vermont Sports Car and show you everything.
00:06
Yeah, I want to do that at some point.
00:08
It doesn't cost anything. Yeah, they do it for free.
00:11
Yeah, it costs me to fly up there and have a place to stay.
00:14
It costs you to fly up there, but you actually go to Vermont Sports Car
00:18
and enjoy it for the day.
00:20
They just do it out of the kind.
00:21
They just want to show everybody and teach everybody what they're doing.
00:25
Yeah, no, I want to go up there sometime with my family to do it.
00:28
But it's probably going to be a couple of years.
00:31
But yeah, definitely want to go do that sometime because my daughter is pregnant
00:37
and so we won't be able to travel for a while.
00:39
But like I want all of us to be able to go and check it out.
00:43
So it would be fun.
00:44
When my buddy Matt.
00:48
I've gone up there before, but I've never done the guided tour.
00:52
He was like, well, he has a white STI and he was like, well,
00:55
we should plan a weekend and go do it.
00:58
I was like, yeah, I'm down.
00:59
It's only three three hours away.
01:02
Yeah, that's not bad.
01:04
And do we just drive up in the morning, do the tour and drive back home?
01:09
That would be nice.
01:11
Yeah. Have you done.
01:13
Have you ever participated in 48 hours of tri-state?
01:16
No. Have you heard of it?
01:20
Yeah, they do that every year and they're they're gearing up to do it in 2026.
01:26
They do it in January.
01:28
I went out there in 2024 because Jeff, who goes by Slow Subis,
01:34
he'd been wanting me to come out there.
01:36
And so I finally went out there and it's a it's a great event.
01:40
You should look into it.
01:40
I don't know how far it is from you, but they.
01:44
Well, I travel all over New England, so I go to New Hampshire, Maine.
01:48
OK, because they start off at the SOA headquarters and then from there,
01:54
they travel out and like so like some years they've gone to Vermont sports cars.
02:00
Whenever I went, we drove all the way down to Indiana and went and toured.
02:04
Oh, wow, the plant in Indiana.
02:06
And that was that's really, really cool.
02:08
Yeah. So yeah, I'll send you I'll send you the link.
02:14
And yeah, it's it was really cool to check that out.
02:16
Yeah, because there's a lot of other groups I'm in.
02:20
I'm in another group called Upper Valley Subaru's and we do actually last year
02:24
on my birthday we cruise to Noble Lighthouse in Maine.
02:30
Oh, nice. It was a four hour cruise.
02:32
It was a beautiful day and we just had a beautiful pack of cars together.
02:36
And we went up and enjoyed Noble Lighthouse.
02:38
Then we all went out and got food and and I mean,
02:42
my wife stayed the night in Maine and then headed back the next day.
02:46
And that sounds nice.
02:49
That's that's such that's the best part of the car community in general
02:55
is just getting together, enjoying your cars and then enjoying the company of each other.
03:00
Some of the hardest parts when we're doing cruises and stuff, it's like, who's going to lead?
03:06
Yeah. Who's going to lead?
03:08
Because then, like, especially in the tuner scene, you kind of you get on the highway
03:11
and then you never end up leading because everybody's just like,
03:15
and we're just like passing each other and enjoying ourselves.
03:18
And people like, aren't you guys ever worried about getting pulled over?
03:22
I go, we're not doing 90, 100.
03:24
Yeah. We're doing 10, 15 over and
03:28
cops not pulling over 30 cars. Yeah.
03:32
Yeah. I'm going to leave that pack alone
03:33
because the pack is just doing packed things.
03:37
Yeah. For 48 hours of tri-state, I think there was like
03:42
three or four groups because they have so many cars.
03:46
But it was a lot of fun.
03:47
So I mean, and then you end up seeing like so many different Subaru's
03:51
and you get a chance to meet a lot of different people.
03:55
And that and then just going to SOA headquarters was really, really cool.
03:59
Yeah. So it was a lot of fun.
04:02
But I'd like to do it again at some point.
04:05
Yeah, I like doing big cruises.
04:08
I think I want to plan one with engineered elegance for
04:12
maybe going down like a Virginia beach. Yeah.
04:15
And and doing like a make the cruise down, do a slight little car show
04:20
and then head back.
04:22
We just want to we want to build something and and leave the car
04:26
community with something better than it is now.
04:30
Yeah, that would be fun.
04:32
It's any of I mean, I'm sure you've just got beautiful
04:37
scenery up there, too.
04:38
So you could just take a drive.
04:40
And it's a it's about to be that six months of the year where it's just miserable.
04:45
Yeah, I don't know anything about that.
04:48
We get miserable heat down here.
04:51
We get we get the ice and we get the snow and it's just like.
04:58
Virginia Appalachian, they still get snow, but it's or the Carolinas.
05:04
It's not it does get kind of hot in the summer,
05:06
but it's not as cold in the winter.
05:09
Yeah, that's what I liked about Colorado Springs,
05:12
because because Colorado Springs gets cold and they get snow,
05:15
but they don't get like crazy snow and it doesn't get crazy cold
05:18
because just from what I've heard from other people
05:22
and then being there in January one time.
05:25
It really wasn't that bad.
05:27
They got a pretty big snow, which was really nice,
05:29
but it wasn't like, you know, some
05:32
nor'easter, as they call it, where you've got like some big storm.
05:36
We constantly get the nor'easter threats.
05:40
But I haven't had good snow in southern Vermont in over five years.
05:45
Yeah, just decent snow.
05:49
We get an inch or two,
05:51
an inch or two, it rains for the next couple of weeks
05:53
and we get icicles everywhere and power goes out
05:56
because the ice is freezing, the transformers and stuff like that.
06:03
And sometimes we don't even get snow in December.
06:06
Yeah, we had we had that pretty big ice storm here.
06:11
It was in I think it was in twenty twenty one.
06:13
Yeah, February of twenty twenty one,
06:16
because that was when I drifted my car on ice for the fur,
06:20
you know, snowy ice for the first time.
06:23
And there was a high school that my daughter used to go to
06:26
and they had this big open parking lot
06:28
and got out there doing doughnuts and stuff.
06:30
And but I was like, I was too timid, though.
06:34
Now I would have so much more fun with it.
06:36
Oh, yeah, you got to give it to it a little bit.
06:38
Yeah, like now last year.
06:42
We got a good bit of snow.
06:44
And then I saw I was I was doing doughnuts in my fork parking lot.
06:49
Parking lot was empty.
06:50
So I was just whipping some doughnuts after work.
06:53
And then the next couple of days it rained.
06:55
Melted all the snow.
06:57
Yeah. And it's like we didn't have snow on Christmas.
07:01
Hey, man, we almost never have snow on Christmas.
07:04
Yeah, but it was just like one of those things
07:06
that's like as a kid, yeah, had snow on Christmas.
07:10
Yeah. No, I know here on Christmas.
07:13
And then it's like even before, like because I was born October.
07:19
So at the end of the month, I start seeing
07:22
I would start as a kid start seeing snow a couple of weeks after Halloween.
07:26
Thanksgiving, we were getting snow,
07:30
which was good because it's deer season.
07:33
But like that's as a kid.
07:36
And now it's pushing back to like sometimes almost January
07:39
before we ever get some real snow.
07:43
Yeah, we had we had snow on Christmas Eve one year,
07:48
like years and years ago.
07:50
I think my son was like four or five and that was really cool.
07:53
And so Christmas morning, we woke up and it wasn't snowing,
07:58
but there was still some snow on the ground.
07:59
And then it lasted for like another day and a half, I think.
08:02
And then that was it. Yeah.
08:06
Yeah, we don't we don't get snow very often here at all.
08:09
And then when we do, it's like really bad.
08:14
Everybody's off the road.
08:15
Well, it's just like like when we had that big ice storm,
08:18
it was like we had a lot of power outages
08:22
for a long period of time, unfortunately.
08:26
And I don't think there's like a lot of people
08:28
getting into accidents and stuff.
08:29
I think people just don't get out as much because they just know to stay home.
08:36
Me, I was like, sweets, no, I'm going to get out and drive in it
08:39
because I have an all wheel drive and I want to experience it, you know.
08:44
That's a great thing is here.
08:45
So people come up from like New Jersey and stuff to come up here and ski.
08:49
So they know what the weather is going to be.
08:51
And they they bring their Tahoe's on snow tires on on summer tires, rather.
08:58
Yeah. And they're off the road and I just pull up in my lowered Subaru
09:02
and with all weather is on it.
09:04
And I'm just like, yeah, you're going to be stuck there for a while.
09:08
Yeah. There's five other five other of you stuck farther down.
09:12
Yeah, I went out to Moon Rocks for my 50th birthday
09:16
and was with some people out there and we were going by some plug.
09:20
That the snow that they got that year was like one of the hardest snows
09:23
they'd had in a long time.
09:25
It was like one of those record snows and I was there when it happened,
09:28
which is kind of cool because I got to see a ton of snow.
09:32
And there was some spots where you, you know, you pull off to put your chains
09:36
on and they were like, yeah, they don't require Subaru's to put chains on.
09:39
I'm like, that's awesome.
09:42
It's so cool with your with your cross trek.
09:46
How would you say that it best matches your personality?
09:50
It's different like me.
09:52
I'm I'm I'm a different person.
09:58
And when when I started building it, that mentality kind of hit through.
10:02
It was like, I just see lifted cross tracks everywhere.
10:06
Every Instagram I see it's either lifted or stock height on bigger tires.
10:10
I was like, and then I found like two guys
10:14
that were just had like the vision that I had
10:17
slammed big wing, just tuner style build.
10:22
That's just got a bunch of unique qualities.
10:25
Yeah, it's good to be different, you know, mix it up a little bit.
10:31
If you I don't I don't like with my car being I do everything myself.
10:35
I don't like being parked next to another car
10:37
and popping my hood and seeing the same thing under the hood either.
10:41
I like I like doing weird things.
10:43
Yeah, it's nothing wrong with that.
10:47
That's why I'm shooting for the two four eventually.
10:50
Yeah, it's going to cost so much.
10:53
It'll be worth it when you eventually get there, though.
10:56
Yeah, it's it may require a bank loan.
11:01
Yeah, because the way I look at it, it's probably better if I just buy.
11:07
A rear ended WRX 22 plus
11:10
and take everything out of it and get spare parts and all the stuff
11:13
that I need off of that rather than trying to single buy
11:17
and get the motor, get the transmission and then pick and choose other things
11:23
because I can always flip around and sell some parts, axles and stuff like that
11:28
if need be. Yeah, that's a good point.
11:32
If you could describe your cross trek in one word, what would it be?
11:37
Hmm, not an impressive.
11:41
I was actually at a Subaru show
11:45
only cross trek there lowered and I was parked next to a white
11:50
and present, but I went for the exhaust competition
11:53
and they announced my car and I was like, it's not an impressive.
11:57
It's not an impressive.
12:01
Was this with your exhaust?
12:04
No, with the old exhaust.
12:07
But I kind of I know a guy who does badges.
12:09
He does the custom Subaru badges out of epoxy and carbon fiber
12:15
and they fit exactly as they should. Oh, nice.
12:19
On to the on the stock.
12:22
So I could send you his information if you're interested in that as well.
12:25
It just adds a nice little touch.
12:27
It's different than just putting a decal cover on because it lasts forever.
12:31
Yeah. And he does a very amazing job.
12:34
And he also makes little badges.
12:36
I'm either wondering about having him make a me and not impress a badge
12:41
and replace the track with it.
12:44
And then have him do the Subaru logos and stuff for me as well.
12:49
And then once I I finally swap it, I am going to have him make me a WRXV badge.
12:56
When when I call I called the shop yesterday
13:02
to ask them about what all was damaged, what all they need to replace and everything.
13:06
And they're like, yeah, well, you know, obviously we need to we're going to replace
13:10
the hatch, we're going to put new badges on it.
13:12
And I was like, can you not put the badges on it?
13:15
Yeah. Because I've I've wanted to debadge mine for so long.
13:19
And I'm like, hard.
13:20
Just yeah, I've heard it like really hard to get off.
13:23
And I said, just don't put the badges on it because I've been wanting to
13:26
debadge it and he was like, OK, I'll make a note of that.
13:29
Like sweet, man, that's going to be awesome.
13:32
The cool another cool thing is like if you don't have to debadge it,
13:35
you don't have to worry about sticky tape color differences from where the badges
13:41
The easiest way to get it off is actually take a tire valve stem.
13:47
That's not in the tire and you put it in a drill.
13:51
Interesting. And after you you take fishing line and you cut the the badge
13:55
off itself and then you use that the rubber bottom piece that would be
14:00
sticking on the inside of the tire, sealing, sealing it and keeping the air in.
14:05
And you just turn that on the drill and it rubs that glue and it just grabs
14:09
it and takes it right off.
14:11
Good point. That's.
14:12
But you still have to deal with a color variation.
14:16
Yeah. From where the paint that has been seeing sun.
14:22
However long over many years.
14:24
Yeah. Now has that paint fade.
14:27
You're probably going to see something there.
14:30
But yeah, so I'm just going to not have any badges on at all.
14:34
Yeah, that'll look good.
14:35
Yeah. Because I've seen people I didn't think about it on my own.
14:39
I saw somebody else with no.
14:40
I mean, and of course I've seen other brands where it's debadged
14:45
and you know, and I'm like, I'm like, how did they do that?
14:48
And so I yeah, it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time.
14:52
It's a cool. It's always a cool little touch.
14:56
And there's plenty of guys doing carbon fiber and epoxy
14:59
that make really cool stuff, too, that you can always replace a badge with.
15:03
If you if you're like, oh, I would like something back there, though.
15:07
And then you there's a bunch of guys all over Instagram
15:11
that they make awesome epoxy and and carbon fiber stuff together.
15:16
And it looks really cool.
15:18
Yeah. How would you say that owning your Subaru has changed your life?
15:25
It's probably the most recent nicest car I've owned.
15:32
In reliability wise, I mean, suspension is great.
15:36
I mean, I had a Mazda six that was just the front end was falling apart.
15:41
I mean, it needed a whole rebuild and it was going to cost
15:45
upward to five grand to rebuild the front end.
15:47
And I was like, no, that's not going to happen.
15:51
So the exhaust was broke off on it.
15:54
And it was just a typical shit box.
15:58
We all we all know those cars.
16:00
And it was just just drove it and beat it every day.
16:03
And it was it would have needed tires.
16:06
It would have just needed everything.
16:07
And I was just like, I need to get into something reliable.
16:10
And that's where coming into the cross track came as it's reliable.
16:14
It's as a decent price.
16:15
And even though at first I didn't like it, it it was a it was a good choice.
16:22
Yeah. So it kind of it changed.
16:26
I was like, I could have bought something cheaper and cooler,
16:29
but I wouldn't have got reliability.
16:32
I wouldn't have got I would have been getting to work easily every day.
16:36
Yeah. And also having that hatch, I I do mobile mechanics as well.
16:40
I go, I have customers that I go and and do stuff in their driveway for them.
16:44
And I can I can do damn near anything out of the cross track.
16:48
Yeah. Having that hatch is just it's huge, man.
16:51
It's like I have a I have a full sized low profile jack in the back at all times.
16:56
Oh, which is nice, too, because I was actually just up in northern New Hampshire
17:03
or actually Maine was Maine, because I was all the way up for my
17:05
a conference for my work and a lady was had a flat tire on the side of the road.
17:10
Well, it's easy for me.
17:11
I got a full sized jacket and impact in the car all times. Oh, nice.
17:16
At all times, I just pulled over, stopped and helped her and put her spare on for her.
17:20
I was like, go to one of my shops here, right in about five miles away.
17:24
And they'll get that tire taken care of for you. Very nice.
17:28
Yeah, it's cool. Which was cool.
17:30
It's nice. It just feels good to help people.
17:32
Oh, of course. Don't expect that when that car pulls up and stops.
17:36
That's not what people expect. Yeah.
17:39
Yeah, I've seen that so much, too, with the Subaru community is people
17:45
just want to help other people, you know, that that willingness
17:49
and desire to just do good things.
17:52
And that's that's it's not hard to do the right thing.
17:56
No, not at all. And it can be little things, you know,
17:59
it's harder to do the bad thing than it is to do the right thing.
18:02
Yeah. And to make, you know, I mean,
18:06
you don't do it for recognition or anything, but you, you know,
18:09
to help make somebody stay or bring a smile to their face or something, you know,
18:15
it's like you can do that every day in so many just small little ways.
18:19
And yeah, it's it's rewarding to to make somebody stay
18:24
and bring a smile to their face or whatever.
18:26
It was nice that she she was an older lady.
18:30
She reminded me of my grandma and in my head, I was just like, she needs help.
18:36
Yeah. And it's it's the right thing to do.
18:37
It may tack another 20, 30 minutes on my drive back home, but I don't care.
18:42
Yeah. So what it'll take all of 15, 20 minutes for me to get done.
18:48
And I used to operate tow trucks.
18:50
She's like, but it's so dangerous that I can I can just get a tow truck.
18:53
I was like, why would you pay for a tow truck?
18:55
I'm right here. Yeah.
18:56
And I was like, I used to operate tow trucks.
18:59
This is this isn't dangerous.
19:00
The 18 wheelers are going to see me and they're going to give me room.
19:02
I know they will. Yeah.
19:04
And it's the other cars that I'm not too worried about, but they don't.
19:08
They don't really get over, which isn't a big deal.
19:10
And I just leave that jack arm sticking far enough out the road.
19:14
They get away from it. Yeah.
19:16
Yeah. I don't want to hit that jack arm.
19:18
Leave that sucker half down there.
19:20
Let's stay right away from it.
19:24
Do you think you'll always own a Subaru?
19:26
Yes. Yeah. That's good.
19:29
Even if I get to the point where
19:32
this one becomes modified to the point where it's not street legal,
19:37
I will always most likely own this car.
19:42
My wife is like, oh, yeah, in a couple of years,
19:44
you can just trade into a WRX.
19:46
They go, I don't want to.
19:47
Yeah. I bought the Crosstrek and I want.
19:52
I want a turboed hatch because Subaru no longer makes a turboed hatch.
19:57
And that's the point of putting the WRX motor into the Crosstrek is
20:03
because they no longer make a turboed hatch.
20:07
Yeah. That's an impresa.
20:09
I've had some people say, like, whenever I posted about the accident,
20:15
they're like, oh, you can upgrade to a hybrid or you can upgrade to this.
20:18
I'm like, I don't want to get rid of my car.
20:19
Like, I'm so hoping that they will not, you know, total it out
20:24
because this is my car.
20:26
This is my first Subaru.
20:28
This is this is what got me into doing what I'm doing now.
20:32
I'm like, I don't want to get rid of it.
20:33
You know, I want to see how many miles I can get on my Crosstrek.
20:38
I'm at one hundred and thirty eight thousand miles with the original
20:42
with the original clutch still, which is kind of scaring me.
20:46
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of scaring me.
20:49
But I'm like, I don't have a job.
20:51
So if it goes out, I don't know what I'm going to do.
20:53
But you learn to do it yourself.
20:55
Yeah, I just line and you'll learn to do it yourself.
20:58
Yeah, I just got to have a place to do it.
21:00
That's the problem. Yeah.
21:02
But still, yeah, it's like I want to see how many miles I can get on on on this car.
21:07
And I want to keep driving it for as long as I can, man.
21:09
I love it. I love it.
21:11
It's comfortable. It's it's me.
21:17
We're using the car would just be like losing a part of myself.
21:20
Yeah, because there's a lot of people in the world don't get that.
21:24
My wife doesn't get the whole car scene.
21:27
She just it isn't her thing.
21:28
She loves lifted trucks and all that stuff.
21:30
I I like that stuff, too.
21:32
But she doesn't get the lowered scene.
21:35
She doesn't get all that.
21:37
She doesn't have to like it.
21:39
Yeah, you don't have to get it.
21:41
I'm allowed to have my own thing and which is which is nice,
21:45
because it's nice when I go and do my own thing and then I can come home.
21:50
And it's just my thing.
21:52
And she may not be interested, but she does listen a little bit.
21:55
And even though she doesn't care about it.
21:59
Yeah, it's I mean, it's good to have.
22:02
I mean, you got to have your own things, too.
22:04
But then it's also good if you have support for those things.
22:08
Oh, yeah. You know, that's that's the important part.
22:11
But yeah, I mean, these these cars,
22:13
we end up personalizing them.
22:16
You know, it's because like I haven't done at that point, they're not just a car anymore.
22:21
And that's what certain people in the outside the car community don't get.
22:25
They look at it as a few thousand pounds of steel and wire and electronics
22:33
and rubber. And to us, it's more than that.
22:37
It's it's got a soul.
22:38
It talks. Yeah. It it has a name.
22:43
I mean, like I have his name is Stella, Stella Blue.
22:47
Yeah, mine's Pearl, because I was an original because it was Crystal White Pearl.
22:52
But well, with with mine, I
22:56
when I saw the blue and I just first started thinking about a name,
23:00
I just found a thought of an old grateful dead song.
23:03
It's Stella Blue. Oh, yeah, there you go.
23:07
Yeah. You know, I mean, like the cars that I've had before,
23:10
I liked my cars, but they they didn't like mean as much to me as this car does.
23:17
And I've had other cars that meant a lot.
23:22
That I've gotten rid of and never should have.
23:25
My old 94 blades are never should have got rid of that truck.
23:28
Yeah, I had a 69 Ford fair lane with a straight six when I was 19.
23:33
And it eventually like through a rod or something.
23:36
But I didn't know anything.
23:38
I didn't know I didn't know how to fix it back then,
23:41
and I didn't have any money to fix it.
23:43
So I sold it to a junkyard for sixty five bucks.
23:45
And I'm just like, and then even back then, the the internet wasn't a thing yet.
23:49
Yeah, forums everywhere where where you could find out and learn how to do
23:54
those sort of things. Yeah, I think that's one of the greatest
23:56
thing about the car community now is that if you don't know how to do
24:00
something and you're willing to learn, there's somebody somewhere
24:03
on the internet with the information that is more than willing
24:07
to guide you through. Oh, yeah.
24:09
Yeah, I found out that the noise that my car was making was not the axles.
24:16
And I replaced both of my front axles.
24:18
Oh, it turned out to be the viscous coupling.
24:22
And and so I got that replaced and I didn't do it myself.
24:27
I had a shop replace it.
24:28
But I found out what it was from other people.
24:31
And and then the axles that I replaced, like, you know,
24:35
I spent a decent amount of money because I got OEMs.
24:38
But like, I'm not upset that I replaced my axles because now I have brand new
24:43
axles after like a hundred and twenty something thousand miles.
24:46
But also me and my son did it together.
24:48
So it was like a great experience for us to do on part.
24:52
Yeah. And we learned something together.
24:53
You know, it was it was fun.
24:56
And that's a life skill he's never going to forget.
24:59
And I taught him how to drive it to you as a man.
25:02
So yeah, I want like I was like,
25:05
you're going to learn how to drive it because I want you to know how to drive it.
25:10
But is there anything else you want to share before we get into this last segment?
25:16
All right. Well, so this is the get to know you a little bit better.
25:20
But who is Dylan as in describe yourself?
25:24
Oh, I'm I'm a 30 year old mechanic from Southern Vermont that
25:29
starting to get into the management field a little bit rather than
25:32
plus my knuckles for the rest of my life.
25:36
I want to eventually own my own shop, run my own shop.
25:41
That would be cool.
25:42
Kind of do kind of do Subaru performance things.
25:45
Yeah, it's like everything about cars is.
25:49
I hate electric cars, though.
25:51
I hate hybrids. Yeah.
25:53
I don't think I don't think electric motors should be inside cars
25:56
or run your AC fan. Yeah.
26:00
Yeah. What is a favorite memory from your childhood?
26:07
Working on anything with a motor of my dad when I was a small kid.
26:11
Yeah. When I was a when I was a little kid,
26:13
my grandmother always used to tell me I would put my Fisher price
26:18
construction on with all my plastic.
26:20
Oh, that's awesome to be out.
26:22
My dad would be out in the driveway working on a motorcycle or working on a car.
26:26
And I would just go out there and lay under the car with him
26:28
or lay by the motorcycle with him and pretend I was working on it, too.
26:32
That's super cool. That's awesome.
26:35
Wow, what is something that makes you want to get out of bed every day?
26:42
That's a good one. Yeah, driving my car.
26:44
I do too. I love driving my car.
26:47
Oh, yeah, there's times when like I'd be on my lunch break or something
26:50
because I do well when I was working,
26:53
I was doing a lot of remote work.
26:55
And so there's times that I'm like, I just want to go out
26:57
and I want to get out of here for one.
26:59
But then, too, I'm like, I want to go drive my car.
27:02
So there's just times where I just need to
27:04
just get behind the wheel and drive.
27:06
It doesn't matter where it is.
27:08
Sometimes whether it's just a windy back road
27:11
or whether it's just going to the gas station.
27:13
Oh, 100. Sometimes I just need to get behind the wheel and drive.
27:17
And I enjoyed my car so much that it just it's a piece.
27:22
Yeah, even if there's no radio going and it's just exhaust noise
27:27
into the dark, it's just peaceful.
27:30
Yeah. Yeah, there's there's been times a lot more lately
27:34
where I turn the radio off and I just drive
27:36
and just listen to the engine, listen to my gears shifting,
27:40
you know, and and yeah, there's something about that to just go with no sounds.
27:49
It's kind of like your brain can shut off
27:51
and just enjoy the the noise of the motor
27:55
and the noise of the exhaust and you can hear your RPM differences.
28:01
What is something that makes you want to stay in bed?
28:05
When I'm sick, I don't want to get out of it.
28:08
Yeah, that's just being sick.
28:11
Usually is the only only time I want to stay in bed.
28:13
I'm usually an early riser, so I'm up pretty early anyway.
28:19
when the wife's in bed, she wants to stay in bed.
28:21
So sometimes I just get up and I mull around.
28:25
Yeah, just kind of like I get around downstairs,
28:29
put on my thumbs a little bit.
28:31
Yeah, no, I get that.
28:33
What is something that really scares you?
28:36
That's a good one because not how much scares me.
28:41
Well, that's I'd say leaving.
28:45
Leaving my loved ones behind without like
28:48
being able to take care of them.
28:53
Leaving them in a deficit where where something could.
29:00
And I couldn't be there to to be their problem solver.
29:06
Yeah, what is something that really excites you?
29:11
Anything with cars.
29:12
I love going to a car show or anything.
29:15
My wife says I'm too obsessed with cars.
29:18
Hey, that's my car in specific.
29:22
Hey, as long as she's supportive of that, that's cool.
29:26
What is what would be your best bit of advice
29:29
to give to someone about anything?
29:32
Don't let anybody tell you how to modify your vehicle.
29:36
Do it. Do it for yourself.
29:38
It's all it's all for you.
29:39
It's not for anybody else.
29:41
It's who gives a damn what somebody else thinks.
29:44
Yeah. Is it your vision?
29:46
Is it exactly how you want it?
29:49
And it may not be exactly how you want it right now,
29:51
but it's getting there.
29:52
It's going to be there and it's it may take you time to do it.
29:55
It may take you years.
29:56
It may take you months.
29:57
It may take you three days who know you may buy the car
30:03
And that's exactly how you like it.
30:05
Yeah. That's that's what you want.
30:08
Yeah. Don't let anybody but don't conform to what anybody else wants you to be.
30:12
I think that's some of the best advice that you can give to somebody
30:15
because I know that I mean a lot of people worry about what other people think.
30:20
I know I'm very I've been guilty of that my whole life.
30:23
Yeah. And I'm trying to get past that.
30:26
You know, I was guilty of that when I was younger.
30:28
It's not and it took a long time to just realize
30:33
who gives a damn what anybody else thinks.
30:35
Yeah. Life's life's not a popularity contest.
30:38
You got to be happy with yourself.
30:41
Yeah. It's you know, it's it's still a work in progress for me.
30:45
I mean, it's been something I've dealt with my whole life.
30:48
And yeah, I'm trying to get better about it.
30:50
But yeah, it's definitely I just kind of woke up one day
30:54
and realized like those people aren't making me happy.
30:58
But you know what I like doing makes me happy.
31:00
Yeah. But what's funny is like with me, like I with my car,
31:06
I'm exactly like that's exactly what I do.
31:08
Like my car is kind of what has been my outlet for me to your safe.
31:14
Now, like this is who I am.
31:15
Like I don't care what anybody thinks about my car.
31:17
I like I like showing it off the way it is.
31:22
I don't have the craziest build out there
31:24
because I don't need to because of where I live.
31:28
I could I could have crazier stuff on my car just to have it on there.
31:32
But you know, I know a lot of people, especially people that are going off road.
31:36
They have a lot of purpose built cars
31:38
and they use the stuff that they have because of what they do.
31:41
But like for me, I don't, you know, I love my car the way it looks.
31:46
It's not lifted. It's not lowered.
31:48
It's, you know, stock height, but I've got different wheels and tires.
31:51
And, you know, a fair amount of decals and just a roof rack
31:56
with my tire spare tire up on the roof and and an awning, some ditch lights.
32:01
But, you know, it's nothing crazy, but it's also not stock.
32:06
And like the more I think the more I see it the way it is,
32:09
the more I'm like, I just I love the way it looks like I don't need to do anything.
32:13
And that's what that's what's important.
32:16
Yeah. So it's it's been a fun progress.
32:20
And, you know, I'm sure at some point I'll do something else.
32:23
But for now, it's like I just I love it the way it is.
32:29
I just keep going. I see things like I get at night.
32:32
I get into like that Instagram rabbit hole sometimes.
32:36
And like, I have I have two guys that have just Air Trek
32:40
and Eli Bish on Instagram.
32:43
They they both have just been in curations for my build
32:49
with how low they are and their big GT chassis mounted wing.
32:55
Yeah. It's just I saw those cars and I was like, that's what I want.
32:59
Yeah. And granted, they've done some different things that like I don't do
33:03
like Air Trek, he wraps every season of the of the year.
33:07
He's got a different wrap on his car.
33:10
Yeah. It's like every couple of months, the rap changed.
33:12
Like for Halloween, he did those little imposter dudes on his car.
33:16
Yeah. And that was pretty cool.
33:21
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be a guest.
33:24
It was cool talking to you. Yeah.
33:27
Yeah, it was good talking to you.
33:28
But yeah, I hope you have a good day and hope you get some snow, you know,
33:32
for I hope sooner than normal.
33:34
I kind of hope it holds off.
33:37
Yeah, you want it, but you don't want it.
33:39
I want it, but I don't want it.
33:40
Like I like I like the cold, but I don't like it that much.
33:46
I do like good jean and t-shirt weather.
33:49
That's like the best.
33:51
Yeah, that's pretty much my go to outfit.
33:54
That's that's the hardest thing about like Wicked Big Me.
33:57
I wish I could wear jeans and but it's also it's always so hot.
34:01
Yeah. At the beginning, it's the beginning of the summer, pretty much in
34:05
well, mid summer and it's just like we don't get a cloudy day.
34:09
We always get those really beautiful sunny days, but there's no shade anywhere.
34:13
Yeah, we put our pop ups up and we still get burnt.
34:16
Yeah, it was like that at
34:18
C.B. Fest, Texas, it was really hot.
34:20
Yeah. So yeah, enjoy the rest of your day and keep in touch, man.
34:26
Yeah, no problem. Have a great day.
34:29
You too. Hey, everybody.
34:30
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Subin you podcast.
34:33
Be sure to go give Dylan a follow.
34:36
His Instagram handle is slow underscore B.A.R.U.
34:41
So that's slow baru.
34:42
And again, he has a lowered cross track, which is pretty cool.
34:46
So thank you so much, Dylan, for taking the time to record with me and be a
34:50
guest on the podcast. Really appreciate that.
34:53
And I hope everybody has a great week and we will see you next Monday for
34:59
another Subi scoop and in the following Monday, Monday, December 22nd for the last
35:07
episode of the year, episode two, 18.
35:11
So have a great week.
35:13
We'll talk to you later.
35:14
Much Subi love, RAF.
35:17
The Subi New podcast is hosted by Raphael in a closet in Houston,
35:21
produced by Raphael in a room next to the closet in Houston and edited by
35:26
Raphael on a computer in the room next to the closet in Houston with music by
35:31
Luke Ruiz in another room in Houston.
35:33
You can find the Subi New podcast wherever you listen to podcasts,
35:37
including Apple podcast, Spotify, and many more.
35:40
To support the podcast, please head over to patreon.com slash Subi New
35:45
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35:48
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36:02
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