2005 Subaru Legacy
I'm going to start this story out in stereotypical Corvette owner fashion - and to note, the Legacy community seems split on this. This is the rarest combiation of Subaru Legacy: 1 of 42 in white exterior, black interior, manual, turbo, 2.5GT. I actually drooled over these stats a decade before actually finding this - thinking that I'd never have the opportunity to own one.
A few months after purchasing the RX-8, and making vocal complaints about the transmission, I was browsing Marketplace one evening. Mostly looking for some turbo Subarus, but really just anything that seemed interesting. I came across a listing for a 2005 Subaru Legacy. Not many details and four poor photos. I could tell it was a manual. Could this be the unicorn?
I sent the seller a message. The next day I recieved a reply - confirming what I thought. After wooing my wife to let me buy this car before moving the RX-8 along, we made the trip to Indy to meet. Ron was the original owner and had kept it in the garage since day one. We shared some fun Subaru stories and ultimately made a deal.
He had installed some upgrades over the years to improve the power. Cat-less downpipe, gen 1 Cobb tuner, Cobb short shifter, and an aluminum skid plate. The car was in incredible condition. No rust, the interior was nearly mint, the AC worked...I couldn't have asked for a better example of the fabled 42.
I quickly got to work in my typical ways. Sourcing some JDM parts like OEM HID headlamps and tail lamps. With those on the way, I turned to making it louder. HKS Hi-Power Silent cat-back helped get it just right, even with the cat-less downpipe. Along my search, I also found an HKS EL header. During the installation of the header, the cat-less up pipe flex section split in half. So an HKS version was sourced and installed with it.