The FaceOff 2 is a yearly car show/drift event held at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, FL.  Since it was only about an hour and a half drive for us, we decided to enter all three of our cars.  Once parked in our spots, we looked around and were disappointed at first to find that there weren’t many Subarus in attendance.  There was, however, a sea of R32 Skylines with the occasional R33 or R34 (how they got there, I have no clue).  There had to be more Skylines there than any other car model, with Mustangs following behind.  Anyway, we wandered around throughout the day (in between thunderstorms every 30 minutes) checking out all the cool stuff the show had to offer.

What really caught my attention while walking around was this row of S550 Mustangs.  On the end there was that beautiful and well done 5.0, sitting on air suspension and authentic Work CR Kiwami wheels.  I loved this car in particular because of how awesome these things look on bags with splitters and wide wheels.  It was even cooler that the owner did something different on a domestic and chose Work wheels – a wildly popular Japanese wheel company.  I appreciate nearly all cars, and I love Mustangs mostly because my Dad has had at least one for most of my life; a silver 2005 V6 that I learned to drive stick in, and a black 2015 GT (also a manual, of course).  Since he got the GT, I’ve been trying to convince him to have some fun with it and lower it with some wider wheels and a loud exhaust, but it still hasn’t happened yet…  Alright, back to Subaru content.



On one of our laps around the show we noticed this gorgeous Legacy GT Spec B sitting on some Gun Blue-colored Rays Gramlights 57DR wheels.  I have never wanted a Legacy so bad in my life before.  I absolutely fell in love with this car.  Quartz Silver Metallic paint with the Spec B Brick Red leather interior and a black Nardi steering wheel hanging from the mirror made this thing even cooler.  Unfortunately, the Legacy 2.5GT Spec B was only sold from 2006 to 2009 and had pretty low production and sales numbers (only 500 of them sold in 2006, the highest amount out of the four production years), making them rare and desirable among Subaru enthusiasts like myself nowadays.  These cars also came from the factory with an altered version of the STi 6-speed transmission; possibly considered the holy grail of transmissions when it comes to Subarus.  The Spec B also shared a similar suspension setup to the WRX STi at the time, along with Subaru’s new and innovative Intelligent Drive system, also known as SI-Drive.  These cars could be seen as “sleepers” or a “wolves in sheep’s clothing” since it is basically an STi in larger and more luxurious form, making it a truly special Subaru.



The rain certainly was annoying (and consistent), but the water on the cars sure looks cool in photos.  This was my first show on my new white Work CR Kiwamis, so I was pretty excited to show them off.  Zach had just put his custom TC Design Fab half-cage in his RS, so he had it parked with the windows down whenever it wasn’t raining to show it off as well.  CJ had just installed his freshly painted BlackTop Aero wing a couple nights before, so we were all unveiling new parts on our cars in a way.



We watched drifting for a while out off to the side of the show, which happened to be pretty entertaining.  Dozens of Nissan 240s with the occasional E36 BMW or FR-S would take turns sliding around a course set up with cones and then swing back into the grid after each run.  We came across this wild FR-S/86 (I’m not even sure what you Toyota people refer to these as now) while walking back down a row of cars.

 At first glance, this is a textbook definition of a show car.  The owner actually daily drives it, believe it or not.  This thing definitely looked like it was ready to go out on the track.  The aggressive Rocket Bunny V3 body kit, the crazy canards and splitter – even the huge wing showed that this car wants to be thrown flat-out around some curves.  A cool JDM vintage-style touch was adding the fender mirrors instead of the regular old door mirrors too.  It looks great sitting on some sweet 3-piece ISS Forged wheels wrapped in Hankook tires.  All of this crazy aero adds a very intense and dramatic theme to the car, which works very well as you can see.



Last but not least, and perhaps my favorite car there (aside from my own) was this gem of a Subaru.  A real first generation WRX STi.  This was the first time I’ve ever seen one in person, and I was seriously obsessing.  I’m unsure of the year or any other specific details, but it truly was an awesome sight to see.  It was up for sale by Black Ops Performance, and trust me, if I had the money I would have bought it.  I unfortunately have never driven or even sat in a GC Impreza, but I have always had an appreciation for them.  So small and simple, less advanced technology and driving assists, and just the overall classic 90’s Japanese style – all things I loved about these cars.  It’s really a shame that we never got the GC WRX or STi stateside.  I can’t wait until they’re legal for import and start becoming more common over here, I would snatch one up quick if I had the means.



These cars were revolutionary for Subaru.  The Impreza WRX made its debut in 1992 with the STi variant arriving two years later.  The 1994 STi made about 247 horsepower thanks to its 2.0 liter turbocharged engine, and was unfortunately only sold in Japan.  These cars are a big part of what helped Subaru move up in the rally world in the late 90s.  The world famous 555 Subaru Impreza was introduced in 1993 and was often piloted by the late Colin McRae himself.

The STi variant of the first generation Impreza came from the factory as a beefed up version of the Impreza WRX with better-tuned engines and stronger transmissions and suspension setups.  The cars quickly became rally and street racing legends, and are definitely classics in the eyes of Subaru enthusiasts.



Since I was unable to talk to the owners of this gem, the details and history of it are unknown to me.  All I know is that some lucky person out there now owns this beauty, and hopefully enjoys it as much as I would.  Someday I’d love to import one of these just to own something so important in Subaru’s history, plus I’m sure they’re fun little cars.

 

The FaceOff 2 was definitely a good time.  Aside from the rain, it was cool to walk around and see all of the different groups of people come together to enjoy a day of checking out cars, watch and/or participate in drifting, and just hang out with friends and have fun.  It was cool for us to get some photos of our cars and other Subarus for a write up of the event, since it was technically our first event as a “team.”  Although there wasn’t too much Subaru content there, the Subarus that were there were pretty awesome and somewhat special.

 

By Ethan Pfab – @indecisivewagon