Blink and you’ll miss this on the road

THERE has never been anything even remotely mild-mannered about a Subaru. One could speculate that its design has fused the proverbial essence of the American “V8 Musclecar” with the technological graces of the best of Japanese engineering.

The result, perceivably, is a genre of sports saloon created with monstrous brute force and paired with an equally impressive resonating tone. Such is this week’s featured vehicle, a very cool and quick, 1997 Subaru GC8.

If you can catch a glimpse of this car standing still, you might get to meet its owner, 17-year-old Yesthiel Harilal, a car crazy pupil who lives in Kharwastan, in Durban south. “I like fishing and working on cars,” said Harilal, whose parents gave him the car for his birthday.

Beneath the hood of this awesome Subaru, thumps the heart of an imported EJ20, short block, turbo engine. It also features the uprated, though minimalist, performance merits of a cold air induction kit and a performance exhaust system.

The interior, while mostly standard, boasts a Momo steering wheel as well as a set of Momo pedals. A sports gear knob and a boost gauge and controller were also fitted.

The car’s crimson exterior boasts an impressive arsenal of factory standard Subaru spoilers and skirtings as well as a host of graphics.

It sports a standard factory spec suspension system and 17-inch Rota Racing mag wheels mated to 215 45 17 Falken Semi Slik rubbers.

As for the acoustics, there’s a Pioneer head unit with 6-inch mids, a set of Alpine Tweeters and a pair of Targa SVC’S coupled to a digital Starsound monoblock amplifier.