jhumason
08-28-2013, 07:47 PM
Hi, I'm John. My wife and I own a 2000 2.5 Legacy GT sedan with a 5-speed. Red, of course...like the one in all the advertising that year, even though I've never seen another on the road. We got it new when my wife was working at a Subaru dealer. It has taken us around for 210000 miles or so in that time and we plan to keep it for much longer. It has been a lot of fun places, like hot laps around the road course at Indianapolis Raceway Park (and visits to most of the other road courses - and many of the ovals too - east of the Continental Divide), a sprint down the Tail of the Dragon and general fun on the great driving roads of central Missouri, where I now live. It has competed in SCCA Rallycross and been the winning car at an SCCA road rally. We wouldn't part with it.
It has been primarily my wife's daily driver, although I have at least as many miles on it as she does as it is (even now) our "good" car when I drive us both. For that reason, it doesn't have many mods, just some body changes when repairing damage. But that could soon change, prompting my arrival at this forum. As a bit of history, I had a local shop put a junkyard engine in the car early last year. It has never seemed as powerful as the original, although power has never been the car's strength. I now need to have major transmission repairs done, so I'm considering performance upgrades at the same time. Also, most of the suspension is original, so it is time to look at shocks, bushings, etc., that I may also upgrade when replacing. So I will be prowling the posts here looking for answers to questions about transmissions (repair or replace?), engines (modify, replace or just live with what I have?), suspension and others.
On the car's body changes? In '05, one of the car's drivers (who I am not naming) had a space dispute with a Trailblazer that resulted in the Chevy hitting a house during its demise and new front bodywork for the Subaru. Since I never cared for the OE front end styling, I paired the deeper bumper/lights assembly from the '03 Outback with an aftermarket grille for a different look. A deer removed that grille and bumper last fall, and I let the body shop pick the current grille, which is (I think) from an '01 Outback. The last change was the lower center (splitter) of the front fascia was knocked off on a snowbank last winter, giving it a kinda toothless look...I have a plan to clean that up. I'll put up a photos thread when I track more of them down and get them hosted online, but here it is last December before the snow pile bit:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/08/121219_0004A-1.jpg.
It has been primarily my wife's daily driver, although I have at least as many miles on it as she does as it is (even now) our "good" car when I drive us both. For that reason, it doesn't have many mods, just some body changes when repairing damage. But that could soon change, prompting my arrival at this forum. As a bit of history, I had a local shop put a junkyard engine in the car early last year. It has never seemed as powerful as the original, although power has never been the car's strength. I now need to have major transmission repairs done, so I'm considering performance upgrades at the same time. Also, most of the suspension is original, so it is time to look at shocks, bushings, etc., that I may also upgrade when replacing. So I will be prowling the posts here looking for answers to questions about transmissions (repair or replace?), engines (modify, replace or just live with what I have?), suspension and others.
On the car's body changes? In '05, one of the car's drivers (who I am not naming) had a space dispute with a Trailblazer that resulted in the Chevy hitting a house during its demise and new front bodywork for the Subaru. Since I never cared for the OE front end styling, I paired the deeper bumper/lights assembly from the '03 Outback with an aftermarket grille for a different look. A deer removed that grille and bumper last fall, and I let the body shop pick the current grille, which is (I think) from an '01 Outback. The last change was the lower center (splitter) of the front fascia was knocked off on a snowbank last winter, giving it a kinda toothless look...I have a plan to clean that up. I'll put up a photos thread when I track more of them down and get them hosted online, but here it is last December before the snow pile bit:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2013/08/121219_0004A-1.jpg.