01/28/08 It's been a while since I bought a new car and these days I have an occasional need of a 'practical' machine, so M and I went test driving. The original idea was to look at sub $20K and so we drove the regular Impreza. Nice, has AWD for road trips and drives much better than the Scion tC we tried earlier in the day, but it didn't really satisfy. Interior was a bit eeeh. Then we saw an STI sitting in the showroom. Neat, but too much for the intended mission and too boy-racerish. Besides, at $40K there are lots of other options and I wouldn't be shopping in that range at a Subaru dealer. Then we looked at a regular WRX wagon. Now this is more like it. Pretty much meets all the criteria, not too expensive, and relatively stealthy to boot, with only the hood scoop to distinguish it from the vanilla version externally. And it's the right color. Sold.

The car only has 11 miles on the clock at this point so obviously (?) I haven't really opened it up yet. Just putt-putting around town, the impressions are that it's a pleasant and competent machine with no hard edges. Turbo is virtually unnoticable and the power delivery is linear. Good torque down low. Shift linkage is not the best I've tried but ok. Handling is very good. Ride is firm but not harsh. They've got a brand-new double wishbone suspension on the back and it seems to work very well. So overall, a pretty nice, low key device. Approximately 3100 lbs, 225 hp, and AWD is a good thing for trips in iffy weather. It has very sligthly better power/weight ratio than the Mini. Should be an OK grocery getter. Of course it will find its way out onto a track or two and should do OK there too. In other words it is perfect for the intended purpose :)

03/02/08 The first trackday for 'Rux', an Alfa club event. Given the car's obvious bias towards being a street machine we didn't expect any miracles but even so we ended up slightly disappointed. The biggest weakness by far is the brakes. They vanished in one lap and the car had to be really babied the rest of the time. The all-season tires and soft suspension didn't help either so the best either of us was able to extract from this beast was a 1:46 (M was actually slightly faster than me, I was being very conservative with the brakes when the GPS was on). Of course part of it also is due to the fact that both of us still have the flu we brought back from China, but the bottom line is that in stock form the car is not happy on the track. It would need brakes, tires and suspension - in that order - and that's just not something we want to do right now. On the plus side the handling is quite neutral and there are really no vices, so maybe if we're ever stuck doing a trackday in the rain this would be a good choice. In the dry, the Mini is a much happier track toy.

A number of interesting cars showed up, the most notable being a Euro Alfa Spyder and a dark grey Murcielago - it's a lovely color for the car.

Neither of the cars ran at the track though, but it was cool to see them there anyway. Now that the WRX has had its ceremonial track outing it will likely stay away from the track as well. It's a great street machine and hopefully we'll do a few road trips with it worth writing about. We'll see.

11/22/08 We've had the Rux for 10 months now and aside from a single (and somewhat disappointing) track outing there hasn't really been much to write about. It is a good and practical daily driver, much more tolerant of the broken pavement around these parts than the Mini is. So that's what we've been doing with it mostly. Recently though we were talking about why we got this car in the first place, which is to take road trips in adverse weather conditions. It was time to do just that - and that's exactly what we did. With Mt. Hood only 50 miles away, Timberline Lodge on its slopes (where 'The Shining' was filmed) is a good day-trip destination. Fall is in full swing down in the city but up on the mountain winter is here. A mix of clouds, rain and snow on the way up and it's clear on top. Not a whole lot of snow yet but it's neat to drive for an hour and see a change of seasons. I used to do this a lot in Southern California - just need to get out more here in Oregon :)

Timberline Lodge is rather obviously named and it's quite neat to see it - forest below, barren rocks and snow above. Right at edge of the trees there are numerous broken trunks and small clumps of trees scattered around the slopes.

After walking around in the snow for a while (didn't feel like skiing today) it was time to head back down. The return trip included an exploratory detour down a narrow forest road - fun! Dark Helmet would have hated this but the Rux took it in stride. Yep, it does have a purpose :)

11/30/08 We actually could have taken any car here (all nice paved roads, twisty albeit crawling with slow-poke Sunday drivers, and a parking lot at trail head). But we did take the Rux. A hike in the Columbia Gorge is always picturesque with waterfalls ranging from mere trickles to the towering Multnomah falls. And lots of moss. The first picture below I call 'M Meets Moss Monster'.

Not bad for a half-hour drive from our downtown dwelling. And yes, I did resist taking any pictures of the Multnomah Falls itself - it's allegedly the most photographed waterfall in the country and was jammed with tourists to boot. Thankfully in the upper reaches of the trails peoplage was sparse and tranquility plentiful. We needed that.