[MikeO]

Well I have finally decided to start my own journal. I have been putting it off now for many months due to school, work, and laziness. However, tonight i am tired of browsing so i guess i will finally post up the back story to my car and I. I'm going to try and fit the last year's history into my intro journal entry, so it's going to be quite lengthy. I won't feel bad if you don't read it all...

The Beginning:

Since forever i have loved Subaru's. I think that it was perhaps because of a good family friends influence on me at a young age after returning from Europe and introducing me to rally racing. Anyways, when I turned 16 and got my license I never thought i would be driving an STi. However here I am today, a young man fortunate enough to have his mother's financial backing through college and the ability to pick up a thirty thousand dollar "sports" car; a dream come true.

I know most people think that any kid who has such an expensive car at a young age is spoiled, i tend to agree. However, I have been working since i was 13 all through college up until now while playing high school sports etc. Like i said before i am fortunate enough to have my mother's financial backing for college, so i pay off my car and insurance all by myself. I am now 20 years old and i have owned the car for a solid year now. I have loved every second of it.


Now on to the car!

I bought my 100% stock 2005 AW on Silver from Carmax in early June 2007 with 15,700 miles on it.

I immediately detailed the car with a friend and made my attempt at a photo shoot (pictures to be inserted later):
Linky for now: My STI pictures from cars photos on webshots
It was my first time with a DSLR, so some of them are out of focus. Oh well.

After this it took me a solid two weeks to get used to the power of this car and the AWD compared to my first car; a 1999 Acura Integra.

Then the mod bug came and bit me very hard... all over. I had welts for days.

After lying to myself for 3 weeks about "keeping her stock" i caved in and bought the COBB AP2. I immediately put the stage 1 map on and was very impressed. It smoothed out my power band greatly and made the car drive much better.

About a week after i was craving more power. A friend of mine was going external WG on his WRX and offered me a killer deal on his barely used Crucial catless divorced down pipe. We installed it and bumped the car up to stage 2. The increase in power was AMAZING, it felt like a whole new car.

Pictures of the new/old down pipe (to come):

At this point it was almost time for me to drive my baby out to school in Oregon. I left in mid September and 3 days and 3400 some odd miles later i was at school. Along the way, i hit a deer doing about 85 on cruise control in South Dakota. The deer did over $4,000 worth of damage to the body of my car. After an insurance check and a week in the shop, she was looking good as new.

Pictures of the cross country drive etc:

While at school i got to experience the awesome power of AWD in the snow, sand, gravel, and dirt. To put it simply, i fell in love with my car even more (if that is possible).

Pictures & Videos:
The Stee's first snow: snow snow snow SNOW!!!~ pictures from friends & fun photos on webshots
Videos:
YouTube - Snow Rally: STI

During my school year i was mostly scrounging money together month to month to keep up my payments on the car, appartment utilities, and booze, so not much modding ensued.

After a while i finally decided it was time to do a DIY and paint my wheels bronze. It took me about 5 hours all in all and i am very happy with the end result. I will probably be redoing them some time this summer because i wanted to spend a little more time in the prep job originally, but didn't have said time with school and work. I also picked up a Pioneer head unit to use with my Ipod. Both of these mods kept me quite content for the past few months.

Pictures of the wheels (to come):

It is now July of 2008 and i am currently planning (and hoping) to pay off the rest of my car this summer. It's really annoying to keep to this plan as i have quite a bit saved up which i want to spend on mods...

Recently i lubed my rear struts up with valvoline synthetic grease which has eliminated 99.9% of the knocking that has overtaken them from bad to worse over the last 14,000 miles. My car now has just under 30,000 miles and is still running strong. I can not wait to tackle my suspension and start modding again.

For the time being my friend lent me his Blitz Nur Spec CBE to put on for fun, which was amusing for about two days and i am now quite tired of the overly loud drone. If anyone is looking for a barely used, nice condition CBE he is selling it for $500 i believe. It sounds very mean, but i can not take it driving my car daily. After i hit the track this Friday, it will come off for good. PM me if you're interested in it. It has well under 5k miles of use.

Once i edit my pictures from forever, and take a few more this week i will post them all up for you all to see. That's everything i have for now. If you actually read all of that, you are a champ. I hope you enjoyed my car's life story... I can't wait until it grows.

Current Mods:
COBB AP2 Stage 2 OTS Map
Crucial Racing catless divorced down pipe & stock CBE.
DIY Intake silencer delete
K&N Drop in intake filter
DIY Bronze Rims
Pioneer single DIN HU
DIY "JDM" tail lights

Near future wish list:
1. Pay off car.
2. Dynamat trunk & maybe doors
3. Roof Rack
4. Mud Flaps
5. New A/S tires
6. New Speakers & amp & maybe sub
7. Front and Rear Sways
8. Maybe tint

Far future wish list:
Pro tune w/ boost solenoid, maybe headers, & intake
TiC SST Coilovers
Kenwood Nav double din HU
Full sound & alarm system
V2 Limited Lip
Rear diffuser
CF trunk w/ limited spoiler
Volk Wheels of some sort with nice summer tires

[MikeO]

reserved for laterrrrr.

[MikeO]

And one more reserve for later.