The Summit is dead.... Long live the Summit!!
As many of you have witnessed the incredible offroad handling prowess of my 1996 Eagle Summit AWD 5spd, I'm sure you will be happy to learn that I have officially retired her from competition. After a full season of development, I simply couldn't make it competitive (even with my superior rally skills). The lack of available performance parts and my shortfall of engineering skill combined to derail my championship hopes. Hopefully, the Summit will have kinder new owners.
That being said, meet my next rallycross daily driver. It's a 2002 Impreza TS wagon 5spd in Sedona Red Pearl. Yes yes, I know, "oh look honey, it's another Impreza wagon". Well, I needed a baby friendly daily driver and rallycross car and for the life of me, there isn't a better alternative. It was either that or peer pressure.
I've been casually hunting the car sales for months but clean low mileage Subaru's are hard to find. Finally, this lil wagon popped up on cars.com with a low asking price of $7500. I ran the Carfax and learned it was a 1 owner car and had lived it's entire life in and around Baltimore. It only had 52,000 miles and all service had been done by one dealership. The only downsides were no cruise control, steel wheels, and it was in Baltimore! Buying a car 6 hours away is a crapshoot on a good day so I tried to do homework ahead of time. In addition to the Carfax, the dealer forwarded lots of detailed pictures and answered all my tedious questions. He wasn't willing to budge on the price and I didn't argue. I knew the car wouldn't last more than a few days so I made my travel arangements.
I normally fly to pick up vehicles from more than a few hours away. Southwest airlines cheap fares have traditionally made this the default one way mode of transportation. Recent fare hikes due to rising jet fuel prices and last minute booking put the plane ticket from RDU to BWI at over $200 one-way. Trying to find a ride from Wilson to RDU on short notice killed the idea of air travel completely.
I'll let you in on a little secret. AMTRAK. Thanks to heavy government subsidies, traveling by train is cheaper than ever. I booked a business class ticket for $67 a mere 1 hour before boarding. A coach class seat is only $46 for you iron bunned types. The Wilson, NC train station offers free parking and you can literally arrive minutes before boarding. Security amounted to a rather uncomfortable porty ticket person checking my ID with the type of enthusiasm only reserved for state employees and fast food cashiers. So much for the long TSA lines and ziplocked toiletries. My business class seat was a $21 upgrade over the standard coach seat but it was worth it for the free beverages, AC outlets, pillows, and big comfy seats. Nothing makes you feel more bourgeoisie than free Diet Pepsi! If you book 3 days in advance, you can usually save an additional 10% with AAA or similar discount. Estimated travel time was just under 6 hours one-way so I packed the laptop, some movies, and a few snacks.
If you've never traveled by train, I highly suggest it. It's a comfortable way to travel and once you add in all the delays and lines of airline travel, alot less headache. The cheap prices don't hurt either. It was a beautiful day and I spent alot of time just staring out the window at the countryside. The leaves were in full color throughout Virginia. The late afternoon sun and wispy clouds conspired to create some dazzles views across dozens of rivers and lakes throughout VA, DC, and MD. Beautiful scenery aside, traveling by train doesn't leave you with that "plane funk" feeling that you get when traveling in a small, loud, pressurized, germ riddled, steel tube, at 30 thousand feet. That and they never give you enough peanuts. And what's with the half a soda, leave the can already!
The business class car wasn't crowded and I stretched out as if preparing for Monday night football in my recliner. I brought along a vintage railroad pocket watch from my collection (a Hamilton 950B, for any watch collectors out there). I casually left it on the seat beside me. As the train rocked side to side and the train horn bellowed, I found myself wondering how many journies this watch had been on. Had it been to all fifty states? How many conducters had it been used by? Would this be its last boarding? Then I pondered how many train conducters may have looked towards the future and wondered what DVD the future owner of this fine time piece would be watching while traveling by train. Fantastic Four would be the answer.
It wasn't long before one of the conductors noticed my watch and asked about it. Within minutes my status was elevated and I learned more about modern trains than any person needs to know. I heard stories about their travels and learned alot about the current politics of the railways. It turns out that CSX owns most of the major tracks on the eastern seaboard and Amtrak simply rents track time to run their passenger trains. This is why passenger trains give the right of way to shipping trains. They all seemed surprisingly upbeat about their field of employment. Everyone felt train travel was here to stay and that people were rediscovering the train. While I couldn't agree more, I wonder if steamboat crews felt the same way when the train revolutionized travel in the 1800's?
I arrived in Baltimore shortly after dark and was greeted by Matt from Chesapeake auto sales. The car looked excellent, but closer inspection revealed some paint work that hadn't been disclosed. Eggfaced Matt grudgingly knocked $400 off the price and we shook hands. After a short test drive and the standard paperwork pleasantries, I guilted Matt into treating me to some famous Baltimore seafood from a local restaurant called Hella's. The massive crabcake sandwich was nearly worth the trip by itself. We talked cars, football, and women. Typical table talk for men. Women discuss hair, makeup, babies, and shopping right?
With my belly full of crab and the wagon full of gas, I hooked up my laptop GPS and hit the road. Of course the trip back wasn't so smooth. Traffic slowed to a snail's pace on several occasions and I realilzed once again why I don't live in a major metro area. I would kill someone if I had to drive in traffic like this every day. The sea of cars dwindled to a nice flow once I cleared DC and it was smooth sailing from there.
After a couple weeks of driving the wagon, it appears mechanically sound and ready for years of rallyx, commuting, and kids' abuse.
Anybody wanna buy a Summit?
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