Being from New England, the de-facto vehicle choice for enthusiasts and safety conscious moms has been Subaru since the late 90s when they gained cult status in the States. Amongst the many reasons to buy a Subaru, the uniting characteristic between normies and car people alike is Subaru's Symmetrical AWD system which is definitely a selling point in areas of the country that get snow.
That said, what about Florida? In the land of alligators and beaches, the only real reason to have an AWD vehicle is to yee-haw your way through a swamp for some reason. As a result, Subaru ownership in the south is not nearly as common as it is in the north, and RWD remains the most popular platform to choose. So for the few enthusiasts who choose to build a Subaru in Florida, the passion runs deep, especially for the homies at MFortyFive and Project Priime. I'm often in South Florida for both work and visiting family and have made friends throughout the state as a result. This time out, I made the time to go visit my friends in Sarasota area.
Greeting customers were Mason's BRZ and Zach's Impreza. After looking at these pics, I wished I took more when I got there. The lighting and coloring was real cool.
First thing's first, we had to address the drift carts. You just can't have drift carts and not fool around with them.
We booted off into a bougie part of town for some BBQ and I had to jump out of the car to see how the V3 kitted BRZ would squeeze into the lot. If I'm honest, I was hoping for it to be tighter...
The enormous width of the BRZ made Ethan's WRX wagon look small.
Living in the north east, it's weird driving about a half hour and being in the only Subarus you see, never mind the only modified ones.
Those modifications are also more than skin deep. I know I said a whole lot about Subarus being popular up north because of all wheel drive, but that's not important here so two of these cars are RWD. Obviously, one of those is the BRZ. The converted car is Zach's Impreza which began life as an NA 2.5RS. The car was converted to rear wheel drive but stayed NA even after having engine failure at a track day resulting in a JDM EJ253 swap.
A few exterior mods make a big difference starting with the Cusco front lip, Ganador mirrors, and a super cool wing riser for the factory Impreza wing. The car's supported on a fat tire equipped mix of Kansei KNP and Gram Lights 57DR. Despite the RWD conversion, this car's built for grip.
Mason's Pandem V3 kitted BRZ caused a huge disturbance everywhere it went. Even louder than the car's appearance was the exhaust which comprised of headers and a Tomei Expreme titanium exhaust that's essentially a straight pipe as all the "muffling" can be see from behind the car.
His wheel choice was probably my favorite part of the whole build. Super wide re-lipped Work VS-MX sit within fat R888s tucked into his fenders when aired out.
Ethan's WRX wagon hides a full STI drivetrain conversion, including the engine, trans, and 5x114.3 hubs. At the point of typing this, the car's receiving an STI sedan front end with STI rear quarters waiting for the opportunity for the car to really go under the knife and complete the car Subaru probably should have made from factory. Even with all the added power from the swap, it may have gotten hassled by a modded Ford Raptor... The exterior is kept restrained with light touches throughout and a purposeful stance.
Local PD seemed pretty interested in the cars too. I asked them to pose and they denied my request.
After cruising around a bit more and shooting the shit about cars (what else?), I peeled off in my horrid shitbox rental Chevy Malibu heading the few hours south to Marco Island where I was staying. I definitely didn't get as many shots as I would have liked, especially of Josh Hobb's D21 Hardbody pickup of which I got one blurry, dark photo of so I'll definitely have to scoot up there one weekend this winter and snap a bunch more for some possible full write ups and possibly a podcast.
Also I have a podcast now. Go check it out on the site or on iTunes and Spotify.