Sunday, November 4, 2012

Not so bike related...

I've always had a soft spot for Cressidas.  I know most people think of them as Old Man cars, but my Dad had one when I was a kid and it left an impression.  When I was in my early 20s I bought an MX83 Cressida with a blown motor and then proceeded to put a 1JZ twin turbo motor into it.  It was a great car and went REALLY well.


From time to time I get stupid ideas in my head and I just can't shake them.  For some reason I decided to sell the Cressida and drive some other crap car and I just can't help but think that I should have stuck with it.  I had put so much work into it and it was so close to what I wanted that I should have faced reality and not tried to play with any other cars.  I just have trouble staying focused some times... no kidding I hear you say.

Another one of those stupid ideas was to sell this very rare and fun to drive car!  What the hell was I thinking...


Anyway, years later I bought another MX83 and this time didn't do all the work.  I just drove it in stock for and fixed a couple of minor things that went wrong with it.  It suited my purposes at the time and was nice and reliable... 'till it blew a head gasket about two weeks before the rego was due.  Oh well... I figure it didn't owe me anything so I just sold it for parts on ebay.

I've never really been into Subarus, but the wife and I had been thinking about buying a Forester as our family car.  The plan was to buy an 04 XT for the wife, but when my Cressida gave up on me we decided to buy and older and cheaper GT and it would be my daily most of the time and then double as the family car when we do trips and need the extra space.

So this is what we bought.



I have to say that after now having the car for a few thousand ks and doing some work and modifications on it, I can understand why people buy a Subaru and then never drive anything else again.  It is well built.  Goes hard.  Parts are cheap.  Servicing is a bit exy but that is the price you pay for all the other benefits.

So far mine has got a WRX turbo, an STI exhaust, full STI springs and shocks and several other smaller mods.  It already had an ECU tweak and I have to say that I am REALLY happy with the car now.  There is always more I would want to do, but really... I think a nice set of Liberty mags is all that is likely to happen now.  It handles well, runs well and just does what I ask.  What more could I want... except two wheels and no body?