I was going from a 160-ish HP, FWD, naturally aspirated car with quite a few suspension modifications to a 100% stock, 265 HP, AWD, turbo monster. Time to throw out the rule book. Everything I had learned in the last few years about pushing my car is practically useless. And I approached every event in that same way… starting from scratch.

I just wish that someone had reminded me at the first two events that I had this new, fancy thing called traction control – and that I could turn it off. No matter… even with the traction control off I still finished 3rd in PAX at both events. I’d call that acceptable.

Throughout the season I’d end up as low as 7th in PAX and as high as 1st! That’s right, I even managed to win my first PAX trophy once this year (Event #7, Arnot Mall). And again, as a reminder – PAX is meant to equalize or handicap everyone’s times as if they were driving the same cars. So you’re essentially comparing driver to driver.

Even from the beginning of the season I had just assumed that I’d win my class (D Stock) for the year… but that was more or less because I’d never have any steady competition, as usual. Early in the season I noticed I was also leading the PAX points for the year… suddenly I had a new goal. PAX is far more impressive than just a class championship, IMO. But the thought of winning something like that with a brand new car was a bit of a pipe dream early on in the season.

As we approached the 6th and 7th events, I started to realize it may be possible! As it came down the wire it looked like it was going to be a 3-way battle and I was literally in the driver’s seat to hold on (yay for cliches!). A surprisingly ridiculous time at our Arnot Mall event gave me my first PAX event win and extended my points lead going into the last event. It was down to 2 of us.

After my 4 morning runs, I was really worried. I needed more time – but then found out we’d only get 2 runs in the afternoon. Ouch. Thankfully I managed to push just enough in the afternoon to better my morning times… by about half a second. Turns out that’s all I needed. I didn’t need a PAX win… I just needed to be within a second or so of Nile, breathing down my neck. I was just a half second back. Plenty of time.

Final PAX Results

Eight events. Our six best times. And I get the win by a whole 1.2 points. I looked back a few years and this is definitely one of the closest results in the last few years. And really it makes me more excited for next year.

I already have better tires stashed away for next season (ran OEM tires this year). I have a front sway bar and some brake pads on my xmas list… and I’m hoping these things give me just that little bit extra for next year to stay competitive in PAX yet again.

So how did I really do this year? Well, here’s a full summary with photos and videos!

Back? Awesome, let’s go.

So after waiting over a week to get an appointment because they only have ONE certified Subaru technician (this makes me very nervous) I dropped my car off yesterday to finally get everything fixed (and by “everything” I mean fixing the wheel bearing, replacing the steering rack, fixing the rear seat latch rattle, and checking out a rattle in the passenger door). Thankfully Subaru’s warranty program gave me a decent loaner – a new-ish Subaru Legacy. It was in absolutely terrible condition because apparently Simmons-Rockwell doesn’t give a shit about their loaners… but whatever. It could have been worse.

I went about my day and by about 3:30pm, I was getting curious – so I called up to see what was going on. It was apparently just going on the alignment rack (something was being calibrated, so they couldn’t do it sooner). Cool, should be done soon then. About an hour later the guy called and said it was done. I asked if everything was fixed and done completely… he couldn’t answer me.

Not because he was mute – but because the technician that worked on it had already left for the day and apparently told no one what was actually done or if there were any issues or problems. But according to the service rep, it was “done.” Fine. I just want to pick it up and be done. I’d worry about the paperwork later. But really, how does that even happen? How do the service reps NOT know what has been done to the car when they’re returned? How does someone allow that technician to go home before someone is aware of what he did?

Anyway… I pick it up after work, drive home… and it seems fine. I was surprised actually. Then I got in to go to work this morning. Started it up and turned the wheel to back out and then came the screeching… for some reason it was making a horrible noise the more I turned the wheel to the right. Turning back to the left was OK and even turning to the right again was OK after I had already turned that way. But very obviously something was not correct. Figuring I’d just have to end up back there at some point anyway, I ignored it for the morning.

Later I left work to come home for lunch and something didn’t feel right. It was kind of fighting me on the drive home. There wasn’t any play in the wheel but something felt wrong. I decide to check the fluid when I got home. Figured hey, they replaced the whole steering rack, maybe the system is just bleeding out (FYI: you need to bleed a power steering system just like you do a brake system – any air in the lines is also a problem). I look at the fluid and it is about 3/4″ BELOW the Minimum Cold line. Errr what? Yes, WAY below the minimum fluid level.

I have multiple issues with this… 1 being that if they’re changing this stuff, do they not know the system needs to be bled? And 2, if they did bleed the system, how did no one think to refill the fluid reservoir? HOW?!

This was actually a bit infuriating to me. Instead of going back to work I took off for the dealer. This needs to be addressed NOW. Nevermind that on the way there I found that they never even fixed one of the other problems I asked about – a rattle in the passenger door – which to me sounded like just the door panel vibrating against something when the music was on. Nothing done with that what-so-ever.

I get back to S-R and get a chance to talk to one of the service reps… she wasn’t there yesterday so I had to explain what was “done” yesterday and the problems I have now and all but insist that it is to be fixed immediately. I’m honestly trying to be polite at this point but it is getting pretty difficult. I’m pretty sure I’ve given these people more than enough chances and really shouldn’t be bothering with them again – but there I was… like an abusive relationship.

So she gets me a loaner (actually started to get me just a random POS -non subaru- loaner – but I stopped her and explained that yesterday I was given a Subaru based on my warranty and would prefer that again). I go on my way and tell her that I was OK if they had to keep it overnight to fit it in and get it fixed the next day – I just wanted it completed and done right.

I get a call at about 4:30pm that it is better. They apparently found an ‘air bubble’ in the power steering line and topped up the fluid. I asked about the door panel and she said they didn’t find anything with the door but she moved the visor around and a sound went away.

Let me explain one thing really quick: If I say there’s a rattle in the door panel – whatever you think you found with the sun visor is NOT THE PROBLEM.

Moving on… I go on to explain that there’s no way that’s the issue and it is most certainly the door. Again I explain that it gets worse with music (which I’m sure that I explained before – though possibly to the FIRST service rep I talked to the day before – when it wasn’t fixed or even looked at). She said they’d take it for a drive again and listen (no idea why they needed to drive it to hear it, it’ll rattle sitting in the parking lot).

I wait a bit to pick it up and go after I get out of work and make a couple stops. They said they found the rattle… and that they ordered a speaker. A speaker! Now I’m all for giving people the benefit of the doubt… but I’m about 80% certain that it was NOT the speaker that is the issue. But again… I’ll let them apply their fix and see what happens. I’m supposed to trust them as the “experts” … right?

Oh… there was one other part they ordered along with the speaker; the trim cover to my rear seat latch – which they broke AGAIN! Yes, they broke this once before when they first replaced the seat latch and striker. And apparently they did it again. At this point my level of frustration is just astronomical. I’ve still been putting off calling Subaru about the whole thing because I want to be sure it is done and over with. Then I can call them, explain my grief and start using another dealer for service. I can’t keep doing this to myself… or my car.

All were fixed promptly and correctly. The first time.

I’m at just over 11k miles with my WRX and I have already lost count of how many times I’ve been back to the dealer. Given, some of them are dealer issues and some others are car issues, but still. It’s a bit ridiculous.

Let’s highlight some of the car problems:

• Rear seat latches/strikers rattling (both sides) – replaced under warranty
• Rear seat latch/striker rattling again (driver’s side) – waiting on parts
• Front right wheel bearing going back – waiting on parts
• Power steering rack issue (unsure of ACTUAL issue at the moment) – waiting on parts

The rattling bits are kind of a minor thing – but 1) it’s a mechanical rattle with replaceable parts, not a plasticy/trim rattle and 2) they were both replaced once already and now are doing it again. This should be a stupidly easy fix of just replacing parts… but apparently not.

The wheel bearing has been getting progressively worse for the last two weeks or so. Initially I thought it might be the tire wearing funny, but rotated the right side tires and it was still there. And to be honest, the power steering problem is a complete surprise that they apparently found when investigating the wheel bearing. As I mentioned, not sure exactly of the actual problem with it yet.

In any case… parts have been ordered as of today and I will have to drop my car off for practically an entire day of repairs. But my problem is that with a car that is less than a year old and less than 12k miles, these things should NOT be happening. So either I got some variety of lemon or Subarus are junk. Ok, maybe not junk… but WTF?

And just to get this out of the way – before anyone makes any claims of my autox activities causing these problems, I present my counter argument: my previous car. My tC lasted nearly 5 seasons of autox without any problems even close to what I’m finding right now. Not to mention I would like to believe that a WRX is built to withstand a bit more abuse than a lowly Scion.

Once my car is actually fixed and I get it back, I will be calling Subaru to go through all of these things as well as the problems with this particular dealership… which could be another post entirely.

Back in May I noticed a rattle… I actually thought it was something with my suspension. It sounded like a loose sway bar endlink or something (I’ve had that problem before, on the tC). It started on the driver’s side and eventually also started on the passenger side as well. So I took it in… When my car was “ready” the first time he said it was a seat latch and they had to order parts. In the meantime they had “taped” the latch to stop it from rattling.

That tape actually worked. After a while, I didn’t recall getting a phone call about my parts being in – so when I was there getting oil for an oil change I checked with the service manager – ya, parts were in like 2 weeks previously. No one called. Awesome.

Made an appointment and got the new latches/strikers put in. All was well… until a couple weeks ago. It returned. So far it has only returned on the driver’s side. This past Wednesday I had another appointment to have it checked out. Well, they said they “adjusted” the latch and it was OK now.

Lies.

It STILL rattles. And now I drive around with my rear seat folded down just so I don’t have to hear it. Have to go back and make a THIRD appointment for the same problem.

And did I mention that the first time they looked at it they broke the trim piece surrounding the seat latch? Ya… broke not only the little white clip, but the grey trim itself. At this last appointment I was sure to mention that as well and they ordered a replacement. That makes 2 times that I’ve gotten my car back from Simmons-Rockwell worse than when I dropped it off.

Maybe it’s just me, but of all people that should know how to properly disassemble my car, it is a dealer that sells it. But no… the apparent monkey’s in the service department just rip and tear things apart and ruin them. Not cool.

I have to make a point to call Subaru customer service at some point too… this is all getting a bit ridiculous. Both the rattling and the dealer continuing to ruin my car. Kind of annoying.

I got another one yesterday from Maritz. This one is a “Vehicle Comparison Study.” My assumption is that they want to figure out why I bought the car that I did instead of a few others. Their choices for comparison were interesting… There are 4 other cars they list: Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Honda Civic Si, Mazda Mazdaspeed3, and Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Now if you recall, when I narrowed my list down, it did include the Genesis and the Mazda. Both were options that I was shopping for along with the WRX. My other initial options included a VW GTI, Volvo C30 and a Mini Cooper S. The Eclipse and Civic were VERY far from the list.

The Civic is… well, it’s a Honda. I really have zero interest in it for many reasons. The Eclipse is… just an Eclipse. And it’s ugly. So considering what I had initially shopped for, it was surprising to see those on my survey thing.

Anyway, the survey goes on through some of the features that came with the car vs things I would have wanted. But the thing is, if I wanted it, I got it. There was no real middle ground of “I really wish my car had x.” If there was, I would have gotten the car with it or it was not that important. I did THAT much research beforehand.

There were also some strange questions on if my car were a person, what “traits” would it have (ex: passionate, spirited, tough, daring, cheerful, etc). It asked the same about Subaru as a brand.

Then there was the typical “what would you consider for your next vehicle” and gave me some brands and asked how familiar I was with them. Thing is, I could have probably answered “very familiar” for all of them… considering that if I wanted to know something about a car, I’d look it up. I may not know everything about every Acura at this moment, but give me a computer and a couple of hours and I could tell you what you needed to know.

My favorite part though was the “alternative engine” section. It started by asking what “alternative” engined cars I’ve driven or researched. As it pertains to my new car shopping, the only thing I looked at was the Golf TDI. It was a nice car (especially with the VW interior!) but not really what I was going for. It was just something the dealer offered based on my choices. It wasn’t a bad suggestion – just not my thing.

The one part that stuck out at me was the “if you were looking at 2 models” with the only difference being one was hybrid (or diesel or electric) and one was not – how much more would you pay for the “alternative” one.

I like this question because I was able to answer “would want the option, but would NOT pay more for it” for all of them. That’s one problem I have with hybrid and diesel cars. Many people want to buy them because they’ll save money on gas – but in reality, the extra money you’re spending on them is absurd based on your savings. Of course, this is something I’ve already covered previously.

Not that I expect my answers to matter… but I wanted to make a point of it where I had the ability to do so. Do I seriously expect them to not charge anything extra for a hybrid option over a regular car? No, not really. but when some of those options are well over $5k more than the original car, I think that’s ridiculous – regardless of the car.

Anyway… that’s survey #2 for the WRX… done and done.

Event #2 Conditions

To say that the 5th event was a wet one would be quite an understatement. It was a soggy one. It was beyond soggy actually. It was whatever that next level of ridiculously wet and uncomfortable would be. I don’t know the word for that.

Anyway… Jen and I skipped out on helping with registration for this event (there were plenty of other volunteers, so we didn’t abandon them or anything). And since it was going to be raining, standing out on course picking up cones while other people were driving really didn’t sound to appealing. That’s why I volunteered us for Timing & Scoring. When you do T&S, you get to sit in a comfy van, out of the weather. Best decision I made all day.

I was hopeful that with it raining and me having this fancy new AWD car that I should be able to do awesome all day. Not so much. The AWD is great and I’m sure it helped – but it was a slick course with more than a few tricky bits that I don’t really feel like I got down. But even with that said, I still had the fastest run of the first run group after we all completed our 4 runs. That’s not too bad. Turns out though, that time was the best I’d do all day.

Jen was also doing OK in her class – though she had some tough competition. She improved all of her morning times and was pretty satisfied after her first 4 runs. Similar to me (and everyone else, really) Jen would also not improve on her best time for the second set of runs.

After our half hour lunch break we lined up to start our second set of 4 more runs. During lunch the rain had subsided a bit to light (though still annoying) mist. As soon as the first car started off the line it started raining again. Not really what I would call “pouring” but more of what I would call “well this sucks, now the course is going to be soaked with more standing water” kind of rain. And that it was.

Like I said, not many people improved their times from the morning in the second session. There were a few that didn’t do so great in the first runs that had some room to improve – but not many people. That said, I did get within 2 tenths of my morning time on my 7th run (3rd of the afternoon session). I was fairly satisfied with that, given the conditions.

I was really hoping to be at the top of the PAX list for the day – but it was not to be. I was ousted at the top by two Minis. One, a regular cooper in HS. Pretty sure that guy has done this before. The second was a Cooper S that was slightly modified running in STX. Both of their PAX times beat me. Oh well though. Turns out not all is lost, as I’m currently leading PAX overall after 2 events!

So I don’t have any pictures from the event (because it sucked) except the one above. I do, however, have some video! First… here are a couple links to the results for the day:

Full Results & PAX Results

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWGPgV7vmQI

At this point, I can say that I’m slightly less worried about the “hard brakes per 100 miles” portion, but I still don’t know what to think of the number. At this moment, my weekly averages look like this:

• High Risk Driving Time: 0 hours
• Miles Driven: 190 miles
• Hard Brakes per 100 Miles: 14.58

So, is that good? Honestly the “miles driven” part is probably a bit misleading. I don’t normally drive that much. We had an unplanned trip to Rochester last weekend (100 miles one way) so that is likely throwing the average a bit out of whack. I also had a really bad day of hard brakes the other day.

I had to pick up a package at UPS but the truck wasn’t back yet. So I went back a little later when they expected the truck would be back. It wasn’t. One of the guys called the truck and he was apparently running really far behind. They got the street that he was on and I was going to try to meet him and just pick up my package that way. It wasn’t far (maybe 2 miles).

Problem was that this street has a ton of stop signs and is a very residential area. So while I wasn’t speeding around like some asshole (seriously, there were kids everywhere – I’m not an idiot), I was stopping at all of these stop signs and looking around for this truck. I’m sure that my hard brakes number was also not helped by my frustrations of not even finding the truck. So by the time I left that neighborhood and headed home, I was probably quite annoyed. That doesn’t translate very well to slow, calm, casual braking.

Then again, that’s why they look at the averages I guess. Hopefully it’ll sort itself out in the next 11 days and won’t look so awful when they go to review the data. Who knows.

Jen’s data is actually a bit more consistent. She probably drive’s a bit less than I do (we take my car more often) and typically only has 1 or 2 hard brakes per day… if that. This is good. And honestly, her car is really the initial reason I signed up for the Snapshot thing in the first place. I know it doesn’t get used very often (just barely broke 16k miles after 2 years) and she doesn’t drive like a mad (wo)man or anything either. Somehow though, her car needs 2 more days of data than mine does before it’ll be ready.

Can’t wait to save some money.

Well… one other thing has changed. We lost a great competitor and friend a couple weeks ago. And the event was not the same without him. We definitely missed you, Tom.

But Tom wouldn’t want us to stop the show on account of him. So we proceeded as normally as we could. And turns out, the event was great. We had awesome weather, a very cool course, and 8 total runs. Can’t ask for much more on a race weekend.

As I said, this was the first event with my new car. It has been a long 5 months waiting to see how it will actually perform. And despite much learning still to be done, I think it turned out OK. I ended up in 1st of 3 cars in my new class, D Stock, and 3rd overall according to the PAX index. So 3rd out of about 30 drivers with a brand new car? I’ll take that.

It’s not just a new car though… when you compare a 160hp FWD car to a 265hp AWD car, you’re really comparing apples to orangutans. So I basically have to learn how to autox all over again. Sure, the concepts and principles remain the same. But how you apply and use those things is a LOT different. Unfortunately, a few cones may have to be sacrificed in that process… as a few were yesterday. Whoops.

Jen also did great returning to the course this year. Her morning runs were better than the afternoon – but she definitely wasn’t the only one with that problem. Not to mention that her progress in the morning was very good. She reduced her time by about 7 seconds in just 4 runs – ended up with a 67.something seconds as her best time. And that time was good enough for 1st place of 2 cars in H Stock.

All in all… it was a good day. And fun was had by many. And to show off that fun… here’s a video of all of my runs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMwd5s5T3k4

Despite the still-freezing-weather, I chose to have my summer tires mounted this past Friday. Fortunately when I bought the car, they were immediately removed (with only 5 miles) and put in storage. Now, they’re back on the car. Brand new tires for $0. Win.

And because of my ridiculous paranoia, I made sure to look over my car before I took it in. I even took a quick photo of each wheel, since those were going to be handled by someone I didn’t quite trust yet. And I can assure you that all 4 of my wheels were spotless when I arrived at my appointment.

The worst of the two.

Turns out, I had good reason to be paranoid. I made sure to look it over before I left the dealer… to find 2 wheels chipped. One of them VERY obvious and the other a minor nick.

Trying very hard not to flip shit and go into a crazy rage, I went back into the service area and told the guy I just talked to that my wheels are damaged. He came out to check them and after trying to assure me that there was no way their tire machine could do this, advised me to come back the next day (Saturday) to talk to the manager.

I don’t care if the machine can or can’t do it. There’s still a person and tools involved – which leaves plenty of room for careless errors. Certainly I would not settle for a “there’s no way we did this.” I told the guy that I had photos of each of the wheels from less than 24 hours ago. There’s no way they would be arguing out of this.

Fast forward to Saturday morning, I return to the dealer. I proceed to take the manager outside and show him the wheels. As a precaution, I also had printed up the pictures from the “day before” of all of my wheels – along with pictures of the new damage. Turns out I didn’t need them. Surprisingly, the manager was cool about it and I didn’t even need to argue. He said they’d order me 2 new wheels on Monday and call me when they’re in.

I was actually kind of shocked. This particular dealer has some good and bad reviews out there (and to be honest I was quite hesitant to even use them in the first place). So the damage to the wheels is a huge issue – but so far, the handling of the problem outweighs that. Of course, if they screw something else up, I’m not going to be able to keep going back for problems – regardless if they fix them or not.

Unfortunately, they’re WAY late, for me anyway. As anyone that has talked to me in the 6 months would know, I have my new car already. And sadly, the FT-86 wasn’t even part of the discussion. After rumor after rumor of delay, and no real news from Toyota on what was going on, I gave up waiting.

Word so far is that it will go on sale some time next year. That tells me either they will begin production later this year and it’ll hit showrooms early next year as a 2012 model or they begin production early next year and it hits showrooms later in 2012 as a 2013 model.

Either way, that’s a long damn time… and this is still technically a concept.

It makes me a bit sad actually… cause that’s a damn hot car. Especially in black. Oh well.