UTE BEAUTY!

MY TRIP to SEMA turned out to be quite a bit more eventful than I’d originally anticipated, somehow landing myself in the middle of the Mighty Car Mods vs Roadkill challenge TV show. I’ve known Marty from MCM for years, so I tagged along when he and several other mates of mine flew into LA and picked up a 2002 Subaru WRX wagon to build up as part of their challenge against Hot Rod magazine’s Roadkill series. Using a borrowed workshop, we hacked into the WRX a ute and roughly stuck it back together a rollcage using for a Honda Civic, an underpowered welder, MIG Silastic and plenty of hopes and dreams. We also lifted the stock turbo through the bonnet (just because), banged a Haltech ECU, upgraded fuel pump and big injectors in it, then stuck some Datsun 240Z flares on the guards and replaced some bent control arms. We even hijacked tuning guru Dale Heiler’s family holiday to get him to come give us a road tune for E85! Dubbed the Subarute, we drove the car to San Diego for the battle against Roadkill and, after unsuccessfully trying to kill it, were invited to enter it as a featured display vehicle at SEMA – if it would make the 1.5-hour drive back to LA and then the five-hour drive to Vegas. Amazingly, the little nugget soldiered on, cruising at 75mph like a champ on the interstate, rolled and we into SEMA to some very puzzled looks. worry Don’t guys, we knew our car looked like shit, but when you’ve only had two business days to build it, you do what you can! Truth be told, we never thought we’d get a car into SEMA, especially a thrown-together heap like our Suby, and cruising it out of the show and into SEMA Ignited in front of thousands of people was a highlight I’ll never forget! Cheers to Marty, Benny, Hopko, Stints, Woody, Blair and Gav for making it such an amazing trip.