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Posted Thursday, November 28, 2024 at 10:00pm

How Vermont (and Travis Pastrana) Saved The Legacy of Japan’s Greatest Rally Team: Part 2

In 2000, at the age of 16, Travis Pastrana was already one of the most accomplished motorcyclists on Earth. He won the World Freestyle Motocross Championship in 1997 at the age of just 14, and would continue winning that championship every year through 2003. He’d won freestyle motocross gold at the X Games and the inaugural Gravity Games in 1999. There were precious few places left for Pastrana to prove himself on two wheels. He’d… Read More →

Posted Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 9:53pm

How Vermont Saved the Legacy of Japan’s Greatest Rally Team: Part 1

We know Vermonters love their Subarus. 11.3% of new cars sold in the state are a Subaru—vastly more than the company’s nationwide share of sales, which hovers around 1%. But the state’s ties to Subaru run deeper than Foresters parked in quaint little driveways. In the forested hills outside Burlington, there’s a warehouse where Subaru’s rally racing pedigree has been kept alive for two straight decades. This is the story of Vermont SportsCar, builders of… Read More →

Posted Monday, November 11, 2024 at 9:53pm

Archive Road Test: 1998 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS, the First Rally-Inspired Subie

Archive Road Test: 1998 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS, the First Rally-Inspired Subie

Wait a minute. Fun? In a Subaru Impreza? Are they kidding? Strange but true. Despite the televised pronouncements of Paul Hogan, a.k.a. Crocodile Dundee, fun and Subaru are two words that don’t form a natural electropsychological bond in the mind of the average enthusiast. Particularly when you attempt to weld the idea of driving pleasure to something as unlikely as a nearly invisible econocar. Over the years, we’ve come to asso­ciate three traits with Subies:… Read More →

Posted Wednesday, September 18, 2024 at 8:58pm

Where Exactly Does Subaru Make Its SUVs and Cars?

Subaru is a brand that has not only cemented itself in rally racing history, but it is also the go-to automaker for capable all-wheel-drive vehicles. The Japanese manufacturer has a long history that spans over 50 years and is going strong into the future with its Boxer-powered cars and SUVs. The carmaker first entered the automotive world in 1954, but it wasn’t until 1968 that it started producing cars in America. Read More →

Posted Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 10:39pm

The 1986 Subaru 4WD Wagon Can Go Where the Sick Cows Are

y the middle 1980s, the Subaru Leone had become bigger and more powerful than its butt-of-jokes predecessors, and its optional four-wheel-drive system was a bigger seller than ever. Here’s a magazine advertisement hyping the ability of a turbocharged 4WD Subaru wagon to get a Wisconsin large-animal veterinarian to his patients. Read More →

Posted Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 10:29pm

The Subaru Legacy Still Holds This Incredible Speed Record from 1989

As of spring 2025, the Subaru Legacy is dead, and we are all sad. But maybe not too sad. The Legacy doesn’t really sell in appreciable quantities anymore. There are more efficient and attractive offerings out there, such as the new Toyota Camry, and, generally speaking, the mid-size sedan segment is as unfashionable in this modern era as polyester pants or lane discipline. The Legacy delivered on its mission, and now it is time to… Read More →

Posted Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 9:56pm

The beginner’s guide to Subaru

What’s Subaru and when did it start making cars? Subaru began back in 1918 as the Nakajimi Aircraft Company, founded by engineer Chikuhei Nakajima. It was Japan’s first aircraft manufacturer, but forced to close in 1945 after defeat in World War Two as the Allies banned aircraft production in the country. Broken up, five of the companies came together in 1953 as Fuji Heavy Industries. Fuji used to make buses, train carriages, bin lorries, wind… Read More →

Posted Monday, March 25, 2024 at 10:05pm

Top 10 Best Subaru Cars of All Time

Before we get into the meat of this top 10 list, let’s set a few parameters. When talking about the best Subaru cars of all-time, it would be very easy to just list a collection of 10 WRX/STI models. But we want to broaden this list, and in turn, make it more interesting. Therefore, from an model’s entire history, we’re only allowing one example to make the list. That means just one Impreza-based car, one… Read More →

Posted Monday, February 5, 2024 at 9:50pm

Subaru’s All-Wheel-Drive Obsession Began with the Pipsqueak FF-1

Subaru’s All-Wheel-Drive Obsession Began with the Pipsqueak FF-1

This may just be the rarest you’ll see this week. It’s a Subaru FF-1 – sometimes called the Star in the US market. Subaru sold thousands of them in the early 1970s, in Europe and the US, as part of its expansion into new markets. Then they all just disappeared into neglected, rusty piles. This little coupe has been saved, however, and its story is the genesis of Subaru as we know it. Jamie and… Read More →

Posted Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 8:29pm

The Story of Subaru Trucks: Engineered for Adventure

The Story of Subaru Trucks: Engineered for Adventure

The Chevrolet El Camino and Ford Ranchero were the first vehicles to populate a segment of the auto world known loosely as the “coupe utility.” As their popularity grew in the 1960s and ’70s and other compact pickup trucks began to enter the U.S. market, Subaru decided to throw its BRAT, er, hat, into the ring. The Japanese automaker took its Leone station wagon, chopped off the back of it, fitted it with a pickup… Read More →