Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

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Series8217
1988 Fiero Track Car
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Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

Updated March 14, 2014

Camo wrap (March 2014):
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2013 SCCA RallyCross SoPac National Challenge:
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(photo by Regine Trias)

Porterfield Glen Helen RallyX Practice:
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At the CalClub SCCA Autocross in January:
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Lake Isabella in August 2012:
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Glen Helen RallyCross Championship 2012:
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Death Valley / Hunter Mountain 2012:
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Interior shot:
Image

Current mods / parts:
* IPF 968 lights with 100 watt bulbs on a custom light bar built with the help of Chris West (http://www.westcoastfiero.com) and my girlfriend. Actually they did most of the work, I just had the vision (and measuring tape).
* Yakima LoadWarrior basket with Hella FF lights, shovel mount, spare tire mount, CB radio antenna, and Hi-Lift jack
* Yellow-tinted fog lights
* Window tint (thanks to Scott Kim at [urlhttp://www.advancebra.com/]Advance Auto Engineering[/url] in Cerritos)
* Primitive Racing front skidplate and rear diff protector
* Custom mudflaps
* Midland 1001LWX CB Radio
* Kenwood KDC-X994 /w bluetooth
* Boston Acoustics speakers
* GoPro mounts on front bumper and roof basket
* Red LED interior lighting (for maintaining night vision during nighttime activities like astronomy)
* STI group-N dogbone
* King KSRS-29 rear springs (higher spring rate than stock) and custom 1/2" HDPE rear shock spacers
* Grabber AT-2 tires on stock wheels for backcountry roads
* Matte-black Motegi MR118 wheels (17x8) for street driving, TPMS-equipped (Dill TPMS)

Right after I bought it:

It took me two months to find a black Outback with black leather and a 5-speed. Such a combination is apparently not suitable for the target market. At least 90% of the cars are white with beige interior and automatics. I could only find a few black on black 5-speeds for sale all over the entire United States. I finally found one in mint condition 3 hours from LA a couple weeks ago. 128,000 miles on it and immaculate service records. It's in very good shape.

Now I have a good basis for my Apocalypse Wagon project..

Excuse the minor dirt; I couldn't find any mud that wasn't part of the impassable lakeshore marshland, so I wasn't able to get it as dirty as I wanted to.
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Image

It was bone stock when I purchased it; I've added the roof basket, Hella lights, window tint, and replaced all the interior incandescent lights with LEDs for extended operation without running the battery down. The dome light and rear compartment light are red, to add a battleship map room atmosphere.

The rear seat cushion pivots forward, allowing the seats to fold down completely flat. There's enough room in the back for two people to sleep comfortable with legs stretched out.

Offroad performance is decent. Ground clearance is ~9.5 inches to the rocker panel. There are no mechanical parts below that point, just the exhaust.

Future mods will be revealed as they are completed. Since I know everyone is going to ask, I'll answer now: no, I'm not planning on adding forced induction anytime soon. I plan to finish my Fiero before I touch the motor in the Apocalypse Wagon.

I'll try to get some night-time lighting pics at some point.
Last edited by Series8217 on Sun Jun 02, 2013 7:45 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Emc209i
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Emc209i »

Trying to catch up with my apocalypse Fiero are we? :oops: Haha.

The window tint and basket make it look like a slammed jeep. And I like the ground effects and wheels. I give it 5 out of 5 explosions Steven!! Good taste.
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Fastback86 »

Love that you went out of your way to find a rock to park the front right on for the first picture.
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Shits weak, should've gone A4.

I kid, I kid.

Looks good. I wouldn't touch the motor. An apocalypse wagon needs to be reliable, adding F/I is just going to shorten the life of the car. If you start getting preignition or your wastegate starts acting up when the zombies are coming... could be bad.
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

I took the Outback on a long trip to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley.

The Racetrack is famous for (and named after) it's moving rocks that leave tracks in the mud. No-one has ever seen the rocks move, but it is hypothesized that a combination of strong winds and freezing rain make the surface slick enough for the rocks to slide around.

The Racetrack is only accessible by unpaved backcountry roads (and Racetrack Valley Rd which is an unpaved road maintained by the park service). We traveled in via Saline Valley Road and Hunter Mountain Road (South Pass of Hunter Mountain), and traveled out via Racetrack Valley Rd at night. Hunter Mountain Road was recently graded on the descending portion and through the Hidden Valley, but until that it was unmaintained backcountry. It was VERY rough in places, but not the worst trail I've taken.

The IPF 968s with 100 watt bulbs worked awesome on the night portion of the drive. Thanks to Chris West (West Coast Fiero) and my girlfriend for fabbing the light bar!
Racetrack Playa
Racetrack Playa
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Hunter Mountain Road
Hunter Mountain Road
outback-hunter-mtn-800x600.jpg (225.03 KiB) Viewed 23663 times
Teakettle Junction
Teakettle Junction
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

We encountered some snow and a lot of rain on the return trip.
Snow on the return trip
Snow on the return trip
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

This was my first weekend of SCCA RallyCross. Yesterday was normal RallyCross (6 timed runs, cumulative timing), and today was a 30 minute RallyCross Enduro (continuous lapping, highest number of laps completed wins). My goal was to not place last in both events. Mission accomplished!

I placed 10th out of 13 in the RallyCross Stock AWD class.

I placed 2nd out of 4 in the RallyCross Enduro! Podium finish FTW!
sts-rallycross-outback2.jpg
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

Placed 3rd in the last event of the year, Glen Helen RallyCross Championship #5. I beat 8 other drivers, including 4 WRXs and an STI. RallyCross is much more about driver skill than the car, but I wonder just how well I could do with 100 more horsepower and 400 lbs less weight....

The videos from Sunday didn't turn out too great (overexposed), but here's a video of one of my faster laps from the Saturday practice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXOk5hVAEKE

It was the same course layout on Sunday except run in reverse, and much wetter.

Full results here: http://jaycomservices.com/Event_Managem ... _2012.html

Another driver, Kurt Smith, took this pic of my car during the event:
Image

Yeah, I swung a little wide on that one.
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

Autocrossed the Outback over the weekend. It was HILARIOUS! Hilariously awesome. It was honestly more fun than the Fiero. It has a HILARIOUS amount of body roll, but with the weight transfer being so dynamic it's fun to play around with. You can get oversteer, understeer, or neutral handling at any part of a corner depending on how you throw it into a turn, brake, and accelerate. It also LOVES the slaloms. It's hilarious. I'm definitely bringing it back.
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

I dropped my roof basket and hardware off at the powder coaters yesterday to get refinished in gloss black. It's gonna look sweeeeet!
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

No love for the Subie wagon, even with motorsports cred? Come on, guys!
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crzyone
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by crzyone »

Sorry dude, they are just so damn ugly. Props for racing it but not really my taste.

There are a few car fads out there right now that I just can't stand, and one of them is roof racks. I know yours is legit for actually carrying useful stuff but they all now drive me nuts. Damn VW owners....

Speaking of apocalypse vehicles, I'd love to build a Toyota Hilux one of these days. Those ones you see in Iceland look badass.

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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

The company that built the trucks for Top Gear in Iceland does trips where you can drive those types of trucks for a day. Its actually not too expensive, IIRC a day is like $400. That would be a lot of fun to do.
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

crzyone wrote:Sorry dude, they are just so damn ugly. Props for racing it but not really my taste.
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

The Subie will be able to carry just as much stuff through the Zombie Apocalypse as the HiLux, but get better gas mileage... which is good when fuel is scarce :wink:
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crzyone
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by crzyone »

The Dark Side of Will wrote:The Subie will be able to carry just as much stuff through the Zombie Apocalypse as the HiLux, but get better gas mileage... which is good when fuel is scarce :wink:
I'm thinking nuclear winter or yellowstone volcano winter are more likely which would make the Hilux a better choice. Plus, the winter here looks like Iceland winter anyways. Being able to drive over snow is more useful. Already have a foot of snow in my front yard....


Still not sold on the new Foresters looks either. I'm not really an SUV person to begin with.
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

The Dark Side of Will wrote:The Subie will be able to carry just as much stuff through the Zombie Apocalypse as the HiLux
It's funny going on off-road/backcountry trips with my friend who has a Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon --- I can fit a lot more stuff in my Outback than his "truck"!
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Series8217
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by Series8217 »

Some videos I took at the Glen Helen RallyCross Xmas Special:

http://www.youtu.be/vppQehv451M

http://www.youtu.be/ELvLXFeK-94

http://www.youtu.be/8TdWZND7Zfs

http://www.youtu.be/yTyZrim2jqM

I had one DNF due to the debeaded tire but I still ended up finishing 2nd place in the Stock AWD class. I needed ~5 more seconds total (scoring is cumulative timing of 12 runs) to get 1st if I hadn't gotten the DNF. So close!

Thinking about moving up into the Prepared class so I can run rally tires...

Also Rally Innovations took this cool photo of my car.
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

Very cool, I don't have a car worth rallycrossing, but a few of my friends are getting into it out here, I'd really like to try it. Is there a RWD class?
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Re: Subaru Apocalypse Wagon

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Been musing about Rally-Crossing the Eagle when I get it on the road... I have no expectation that it will do well, but I want to beat on it.
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