worthingtontw
Observer
So the purpose of this build is actually mainly to set the car up as a fun "rally" car, but seeing as I love the prospect of overlanding and a lot of the modifications will be will be relevant I'd thought I'd share. It will mainly be used for travel in Death Valley and Saline Valley but I have aspirations to travel both the Dawson Highway and up to Inuvik in Canada which I think it will do quite nicely. I find it to be a pretty capable platform as I've hit 32mpg at 70mph (post weight reduction) and I helped my girl friends, parents pull 7 18" truck rotted stumps out of their creek with the Subaru when their (albeit 2wd) Suburban couldn't, so I doubt I will encounter traction problems with what I plan to throw at it.
A bit about me, I'm a 21 year old college student that grew up around gear heads. My dad was a Can Am mechanic, so we all ways had something interesting to work on, so naturally I learned from him. We've built a replica of a Lotus 11 from scratch, and I've done some autocross racing with a Miata so I like stuff that goes fast. I've always had a passion for rallying but never had a good reason to go down that path with modifying a car until now. I love the outdoors. I love to snowboard, mountain bike, and hike. I used to be into back packing but these days I'm more into the idea of overlanding because a) cars are my life b) the ability to go so much farther in a given period of time because transportation is quicker.
The car is a 2002 Subaru Impreza OBS which I purchased from a salvage auction 2 years ago. I rebuilt it and took it to Saline Valley after doing only 40 miles of shakedown and it did great!
Since then I have stripped the interior less the front door cards and dash, manual transmission swap and put a light weight fly wheel in.
Recently I pulled the heavier than a lead brick double din radio head unit and replaced that with a a 2ch amp with 3.5mm plug for Sirius Radio and iPod (which surprisingly sounds better), and a carbon Fiber switch panel. Since picture was taken switches have been added.
Current projects are a rear disc brake conversion, bigger brake conversion, and a rally style light bar which are being pieced together now.
Projects in the future will include,
removable rear passenger foot well fresh water tank
gear tie downs for tent, chairs, etc.
replace current Nuvi 255w with topo capable GPS or possibly a removable old tablet with topo software.
removable power inverter
skid plates for fuel tank, rear diff, under engine/trans
mud flaps
improved fender liners
rewire car to simplify wiring harness
HAM radio
rally intercom with practice headsets
larger alternator
reconfigure spare tire hold down
Grp N rally spec suspension
gravel wheels
gravel tires
fixed back Sparco race shells (I think they are comfortable, for whatever reason)
4pt harnesses
4pt roll bar
(If you can't tell I like to pretend I'm a rally driver)
For camping gear I will be using initially my back packing gear but I expect to add things like some sort of collapsible sun shade, chairs, etc. to my "over landing kit". I do however want to stick to the adv mentality of light and simple. I'm going out there to unplug and live simply so I don't need to bring half my apartment with me. At some point I would also like to piece together a really good first aid pack as I haven't really found a kit I like yet.
As you can see it's really going to be more a sports car but it should be very capable getting me to 90% of the places my girlfriend and I want to go, as well as doing it quickly and efficiently.
A bit about me, I'm a 21 year old college student that grew up around gear heads. My dad was a Can Am mechanic, so we all ways had something interesting to work on, so naturally I learned from him. We've built a replica of a Lotus 11 from scratch, and I've done some autocross racing with a Miata so I like stuff that goes fast. I've always had a passion for rallying but never had a good reason to go down that path with modifying a car until now. I love the outdoors. I love to snowboard, mountain bike, and hike. I used to be into back packing but these days I'm more into the idea of overlanding because a) cars are my life b) the ability to go so much farther in a given period of time because transportation is quicker.
The car is a 2002 Subaru Impreza OBS which I purchased from a salvage auction 2 years ago. I rebuilt it and took it to Saline Valley after doing only 40 miles of shakedown and it did great!
Since then I have stripped the interior less the front door cards and dash, manual transmission swap and put a light weight fly wheel in.
Recently I pulled the heavier than a lead brick double din radio head unit and replaced that with a a 2ch amp with 3.5mm plug for Sirius Radio and iPod (which surprisingly sounds better), and a carbon Fiber switch panel. Since picture was taken switches have been added.
Current projects are a rear disc brake conversion, bigger brake conversion, and a rally style light bar which are being pieced together now.
Projects in the future will include,
removable rear passenger foot well fresh water tank
gear tie downs for tent, chairs, etc.
replace current Nuvi 255w with topo capable GPS or possibly a removable old tablet with topo software.
removable power inverter
skid plates for fuel tank, rear diff, under engine/trans
mud flaps
improved fender liners
rewire car to simplify wiring harness
HAM radio
rally intercom with practice headsets
larger alternator
reconfigure spare tire hold down
Grp N rally spec suspension
gravel wheels
gravel tires
fixed back Sparco race shells (I think they are comfortable, for whatever reason)
4pt harnesses
4pt roll bar
(If you can't tell I like to pretend I'm a rally driver)
For camping gear I will be using initially my back packing gear but I expect to add things like some sort of collapsible sun shade, chairs, etc. to my "over landing kit". I do however want to stick to the adv mentality of light and simple. I'm going out there to unplug and live simply so I don't need to bring half my apartment with me. At some point I would also like to piece together a really good first aid pack as I haven't really found a kit I like yet.
As you can see it's really going to be more a sports car but it should be very capable getting me to 90% of the places my girlfriend and I want to go, as well as doing it quickly and efficiently.
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