The best track car is the one on your driveway. The second best is waiting for you on Facebook Marketplace.
Back in December, GRIDLIFE posted their, “Best of 2022 – Top 10 Livestream Moments.” Sandwiched between highlights of drifting around Lime Rock Park and high stakes wheel-to-wheel racing was a track car that didn’t really seem to belong. Mostly stock looking, a Subaru Legacy came around the turn leaned over almost to its door handles. It wasn’t fast in any regards; in fact, it set some of the slowest times of the weekend. Yet this mostly stock Subaru was tossed on to the track, and in turn, created a few smiles to both driver and spectator alike.
This “Ancient Subaru” (per Adam Jabaay), running on stock suspension, cheap brake pads, and Prius wheels, was my fourth track car of the season. It never set any lap records, but as someone who wanted to be on track and compete, the little old Subaru did its job quite well. My story of how I came to acquire this 1998 Subaru Legacy wasn’t my best plan. But when you are desperate to race on track, I’d say most of us would go to just about any length to turn laps.
The predicament: 12 hours till show time, and no car to race.
Picture yourself in my shoes for a moment: it’s the night before your fourth race of your rookie season. You currently don’t have a vehicle to drive on track. The car you had originally purchased and modified to compete blew up the engine after the first event. The second car you purchased ended up having a bad title, leaving it legally stranded in your driveway. You recently sold the third car you purchased and raced in the previous event to look for something more competitive. What are you to do, with only twelve hours remaining until your first session?
Simple! Find a car on Facebook several states away, purchase it at midnight, and drive it several hours to the track to run unprepared on track the next day!
Now, purchasing a Subaru eight hours before race day was not my intention. My original plan was actually a Volvo V70 located in Iowa. While it was around two hours away from my home in Kansas City, this would have been a lot closer than trying to find a vehicle somewhere near the track in Colorado. Prior to making the trip up to Iowa however, the owners let me know that it was facing some starting issues. While it would be fixed and available to purchase in a few weeks, it wouldn’t be ready in time for Alpine Horizon Festival.
As the week turned into days before my wife, daughter and I made the trip to Colorado, I continued to search for potential options near and far. I was able to find a few options near Kansas City, but the owners either sold the vehicle before I could get ahold of them, never responded to my inquiry, or wasn’t able to make a time work where we could both meet. There were a few vehicles around Chicago or along the way from there into Iowa, however, the logistics of trying to check out the vehicle, purchasing it, and driving it West just didn’t work out.
Once Wednesday rolled around, I knew that finding a vehicle at this point was going to turn into a road trip. We loaded my tools, tires, and our items for the weekend and hit the road. Though we stopped and looked at a few vehicles along the way, in the end, we continued to drive empty handed, driving through the rest of the night to put the miles behind us and ponder on my next move.
We arrived in the Denver-area early Thursday morning. My searches through listings on Facebook left me with three options: a white Legacy just north of Denver, a red Legacy near Colorado Springs, and an EG Civic south of Pueblo. Two hours of driving, plus additional time waiting and coordinating with their respective owners, meant that if one of these vehicles didn’t work out, I would be out of luck.
The white Subaru was the first to be viewed. The interior was impeccable, enormously surprising for its over 260,000 miles. Exterior wise, quite a bit of hail damage, but otherwise in pretty respectable shape. It wasn’t fast, not with the 2.2L motor and all, but if nothing else it was an option we could work with.
Over the next few hours, the other two options didn’t prove to be as fruitful. The owner of the red Legacy was asking for just as much as the first, but this car had much more mechanical items I was concerned with. I was excited for the Civic, but the cracked windshield, creaking suspension, and oil lathered all over the engine (a lot of it from a half-missing VTEC solenoid) would most likely fail tech inspection and would leave me in the same situation as before, just a few thousand dollars lighter in my pocket.
With the evening drawing near, and a long two days full of driving behind us, we dropped off our gear and equipment at Pikes Peak International Raceway. It was near midnight by the time we got back to Denver, but after a few moments signing some paperwork and a fuel up, I was the proud owner of a Subaru Legacy sedan. Two hours later we pulled back into the track infield, finally able to get some much-needed rest.
While the Legacy did pass tech inspection the next day and made it on track, a single session is all it managed. As perhaps one would have expected, generic all-season tires, unknown brake pads and questionable brake fluid doesn’t appreciate it when you try to abuse it to track-level forces. I attempted to rectify some of these issues trackside, but after struggling with some new brake pads (thanks ASM for lending me a grinding wheel to make them fit) and purchasing the wrong size wheels late at night off of Facebook due to lack of sleep, I decided to keep the car alive for another day, and instead enjoy the rest what the festival had to offer.
With more prep, even the mundane becomes amazing.
Unlike the other cars I raced the season, the Subaru has managed to keep running as well as convinced me to keep it around for a little while. It was the only car that I raced for more than one event last year, having the opportunity to earn its redemption at the GRIDLIFE Finals at Heartland Park. I gave myself more than 12 hours to have it ready this time, and it got refreshed brakes and some junkyard Prius wheels to reuse the track tires I had purchased earlier in the season, but otherwise still had the same aged motor and suspension as it ran its heart out in the Finale. For the first time, my car completed every session of the weekend, and didn’t fuss about it in the slightest. Sure, there were some groans here and there, and by the end of the weekend one of the brake pads was completely destroyed, but she pressed on. The suspension designed to manage off-road rally stages surely didn’t help in the high-speed corners, nor did the lack of camber in the wheels to help offset the weight.
However, as this white Subaru came screeching around the corners, tipped over on its side like a cow on a Wisconsin night, many smiles were had. Many by those watching, laughing at the absurdity of it all, but still enjoying seeing a mostly stock car giving its all. But even more by me, completing my dream to race on track, to finish a season full of difficulties, and competing against some of the best drivers in North America. All in a random car, purchased on Facebook, several states away, with hours to spare. The Subaru has earned its Winter’s rest, but I’m thankful that she obliged me as a racecar, even for just a season.