New England Bound

When I was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, I loved traveling with my family.  We'd load our '92 Ford Aerostar up with everything we needed and make the weekend trips to the beach or the mountains with family and friends.  From finding seashells to spotting the Old Man of the Mountain, adventure was never too far away in New Hampshire.  Even though I now live in Nebraska, it's always fun to go back and visit friends and family in the northeast.

Since moving to the Midwest, I've become a bit of a Subaru nut.  When I was first checking out Subaru, I was fascinated by the things I was finding.  I'll never forget the "how on earth did I miss this" feeling I got when I stumbled across footage of David Higgins scaling Mt Washington in New Hampshire in his WRX STI.  I had visited Mt Washington before and knew there was an auto road that went up it, but had no idea anyone would be crazy enough to race up it... let alone accomplish the feat in 6 minutes!  I saw that video in 2011.  Now I work for Subaru, follow Subaru Rally Team USA religiously, and proudly drive around a STI with "75 Higgins" stickers on it.  But there's still something I have yet to do: take my Subaru "Home".

If you've missed it, my 2016 WRX STI is clad in support for SRT USA and my rally heroes.  I've brought the car to the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and Ojibwe Forests Rally, which are a short 7-hour drive from my home.  Now it's poised to make a 22-hour trek to the northeast so I can cheer on David Higgins and Craig Drew at one of the most spectacular rally events in the United States: the New England Forest Rally.  Nestled in the mountains between New Hampshire and Maine, it's the home event I never knew existed until I managed to settle in 1,500 miles away.  It's time to change that.

This trip is a little more than 2-days worth of driving to see a rally.  For starters, it's my family vacation.  We'll be visiting friends and family in the area and staying in the mountains.  Recent trips have kept close to the beaches and cities, so it'll be refreshing to head back into the mountains after a long hiatus.  It'll also be a great time to be an uncle, as my 2-year-old Nephew who is coming along is a big fan of trains.  From the Conway Scenic Railroad to the Cog Railway to the top of Mt Washington, there should be no shortage of things to wow him.  This will also be the first time I've taken my wife to the mountains, as the other trips we've made together have been closer to the coast.  I'll have about a week with them to enjoy before the rally, so I'm looking forward to some great memories to come!

For the New England Forest Rally, I'll be joined by a good friend of mine who is making the trip up just to attend it with me.  We went to Ojibwe Forest Rally together last year, his first rally, and had a blast so I'm glad to share this experience with him there.  With all the teams there, the great mountain passes to wind through, and the excitement of competition that weekend, there will be a lot to do.  I hope we have enough time to see everything NEFR has to offer!

July can't come soon enough!  I'm sure I'll have a lot to share when we get back!

STI Intercooler Custom Shroud - Part 1

If you've got a carbon fiber hood for your WRX or WRX STI, chances are there's no ducting to properly feed air to the top-mounted intercooler (TMIC) diminishing it's effectiveness and effectively cutting performance.  Either that, or you've just gone and switched to a front-mount intercooler and the scoop is purely decorative at this point.  When I added my ViS Racing carbon fiber hood to my 2016 WRX STI, the first thing I knew I'd need to do was build something to channel air properly from the intake to the intercooler.  It's been about a year now since I got the hood and my temporary solution (a hacked-up piece of the OEM shroud) is just that: temporary.  Now that I've got some time, some ideas, and a deadline... it's time to get crackin!

That deadline, by the way, is this car's longest trip to-date.  I'm headed from my home in the Midwest to New Hampshire to watch the New England Forest Rally.  Since I don't feel comfortable driving 3,000 miles (round trip) with a temporary fix, that means this needs to be complete before I head out.

Most Subaru fans are familiar with the Subaru "Launch Control" YouTube Series.  In the very first season, they take a trip to Bucky Lasek's home and check out his STI.  He solved the same issue I'm tackling with a custom-built intercooler shroud, and I'm using that idea as the basis for this build with one extra element.  The shroud will be aluminium and covered in a heat-resistant powder coating.  The edges will be lined with a foam / rubber edge to complete the seal when the hood comes down to meet it.  However, the entire unit will be built around a protective mesh guard to keep rocks and bugs from dinging up the delicate intercooler fins.  For ease of installation and removal, the shroud will bolt to the outer edges of the stock STI intercooler.

Currently I'm mocking up pieces of cardboard to find clearances and build up a model that can be measured for dimensions to build the actual piece.  Part of the fiberglass frame on the ViS hood comes down right over the rear section of the STI intercooler, so getting the ducting to work around that has been a little tricky.  Also, the STI intercoole leans slightly to the passenger side (even unmodified STIs have this) so making sure each side has proper clearance is important.  The cardboard templates are done and I've made the cuts a little bit lower to account for engine movement.  A rubber seal around the edge of the shroud should keep any contact to a minimum and help create a good seal. when the hood is closed.  Once that's all sorted, it'll get measured and built!  More progress to come later!