2009 Subiefest - AVO

[apexjapan]

Subiefest 2009 - October 10th

 

Subiefest is held annually by the magazine of the similar name, Subiesport. The main course is track events, from tuner battles to time trials, a drag race, and a parade lap for Subaru owners. Which is what Subiesport is all about, Subaru owners and Subaru's in general. This year, as like last year, Subiefest was held at Willow Springs Raceway in California. Located about an hour outside of Los Angeles in the Mojave desert, this is probably the last place you'd find an AWD Subaru in normal circumstances.

 

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But here we all were. Quite a few of us at that, with a crowd of owners from the greater California area, and more than a few from outside it as well. Subiefest traces it's own origins to the Pacific Northwest area (where AVO is located as well), more of a stronghold for Subaru's than California is. No surprise in that, the Northwestern corner of the United States specializes in inclement weather. Weather reporters in California have it easy (aaaaaand today, it's sunny too!), whereas up here the weather predictions are a bit more imprecise (today, it'll be sunny! And it'll rain. Plus there's a possibility of snow showers, hail, and typhoons!).

 

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The Mojave desert held no such surprises - it was sunny, hot, and sunny. This year was quite a bit better than last year, where it was in the 115's in the shade, and water was about as valuable as you'd imagine it would be in the middle of a desert. Not so this time, with temperatures being quite acceptable in the shade. Which is where you'd stay if you had the choice, as it was quite a bit hotter out in the sun, especially on the tarmac in the later stages of the day. The morning was quite nice, brilliant really, and the crowds circulated around the vendor booths quite a bit at that time.

 

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There was quite a few events throughout the day, including some D1-style drifting. Unfortunately this year the demands of work kept me away from most of the action, though I got to catch a bit of it here and there. Everybody was much more prepared for the heat on the track this time around, so less cars overheating and blowing various expensive components. The vendor list was quite a bit shorter this year, thanks to the economic times. Besides us, there was mainly Cosworth and COBB tuning to round out the main booths. Kind of appropriate, as Cosworth makes the engine parts, COBB the tuning hardware, and we make everything else needed to go fast. 2009 was truly a year of the survival of the fittest.

 

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We got to show off some of our latest goods, with the latest in our turbochargers making an appearance. We've made some updates to the compressor housings for a bit better performance there. The main work has gone into our exhaust side housings, moving to a new stainless steel alloy for them. This is much harder, and has a much higher temperature rating than our older designs. It also some other nice features that I'll go into in a later article. Also out was our latest in downpipes, which underwent some major redesign and has just finally started coming out of production.

 

Soon the end of the day came by, and it was time to pack up and get back on the road for another 1200 mile trip back up home. It was a good trip, and a great event. Thanks to Subiesport for putting on a great show, and thanks to Subaru for providing the major backing for it all!

 

Regards,

 

Paul Hansen

http://www.avoturboworld.com