Our first MFortyFive trip! Early Thursday morning myself, CJ, and Ethan flew out of Tampa International Airport, heading to Indianapolis with our sights set on several exciting features, and of course the first SubieFest Midwest event in Joliet, Illinois. The two hour flight consisted of Ethan sleeping, CJ and I talking about wheels for our cars and Ethan sleeping some more. That Thursday afternoon we explored Ethan’s hometown of Fishers, Indiana and visited some friends. We later went downtown Indianapolis and had a great time. The next few days we met up with a handful of online Subaru buddies and worked on getting some killer content that we can’t wait to share with you guys. Sunday morning rolled around fast. We met up with our friend Drew, the owner of an awesome lifted SF Forester. Roughly fifteen minutes later we rolled out, rental car stuntin’, and obviously making a pit stop at Starbucks (we literally had Starbucks twice a day, every day, when we were up there) for our caffeinated desires. For what felt like more than an hour, we eventually made it to Route 66 Speedway in Joliet, Illinois where SubieFest Midwest was being held. We were already running a little late and we paid for the early bird tickets (which weren’t even necessary – we definitely weren’t the early birds, in typical us fashion). We were guided to our parking space by a very friendly staff who made it quick and easy. After sun-blocking and gearing up with business cards, stickers, and camera gear, we started heading towards the main entrance. We kept getting distracted by all the cars in the parking field and were already really overwhelmed at the amount of Subarus to see.

From a distance, I saw a set of MFortyFive door stripes on a World Rally Blue bugeye WRX and knew it was our friend Jaden. It was super cool to see another homie repping the brand, so I had to go snap a picture!

After we got through the gates I was very overwhelmed – in a good way that is. To my left was the former 2015 Isle of Man STi, which was now modified by Prodrive to run down a bobsled course in the Swiss Alps, and it did – sporting some battle scars to prove it.

To my right, was a white 2018 Subaru WRX with Sharpie signatures all over it for a pet charity fundraiser that a donation was made to on behalf of every signature. We all had to sign the car, because who doesn’t want to write on a car to help out the doggies?

I started making my way through the energetic crowds to figure out where I wanted to start in the sea of Subarus. I ended up getting over to the Subaru USA cars, made up of an extremely mint hawkeye STi, blobeye STi, Impreza 22B STi, and a few other significant models. I couldn’t get over how cool it was to see a bone stock, out-of-the-showroom Subaru collection – makes me appreciate the owners who are satisfied with how they came from factory and haven’t modified them. Props to you for keeping and preserving a car that doesn’t have many clean OEM examples left!


I love seeing a car in person that I’ve only seen on social media. An example would have to be Renz’s 2018 Subaru WRX STi that was parked in the show section. Something about this car is just so appealing. Maybe it’s the not-so-common Work M.C.O Racing Type CS wheels, the stance, or just those factory highlighter yellow Brembos, I love the way this car looks – simple, yet aggressive. I ended up talking with Renz for a little, and hopefully in the near future we can link up again and get a Limelight article going.

I made my way over to the IAG booth while Ethan was talking with some folks and CJ was running around getting all the photos he can. I couldn’t help but absolutely drool over this Forester. Between the engine bay, the custom ‘15+ STi exhaust, the aero, and everything in between. An absolutely perfect Forester to shut down a show.

While walking around, we came across this World Rally Blue S204 STi clone. The one thing I could not get over was the interior of the car. The owner had real Recaro STi S203 carbon seats – the holy grail of OEM+ seats in the world of the GD chassis Subarus. I’ve heard these seats can go north of $7,000… Craziness, but I can see why.

Another car that I was pretty pumped to see in person was Graham Gaylord’s time attack prepped STi. If you are familiar with the Gears & Gasoline YouTube channel, they have covered a good bit of track footage of this car specifically at the Gridlife events, which we hope to attend soon. Graham is a very talented driver and does extremely well in the Street Mod AWD class and I’ve been rooting for him all year.

In the mix of Subarus, I came across a white BD Legacy which really stood out to me. The beautiful bronze Volk Racing TE37’s were a big part of that. Under the hood was a JDM EJ207 with a bunch of rare Abbey Road Company (ARC) products – I was really digging this thing and don’t think I’ve ever seen such clean BD before.

A couple hours went by and I realized I didn’t put enough sunscreen on. I grabbed my SubieFest goodie bag and shirt from the main booth and headed back to the car to fuel up on some water and reapply the sunscreen I desperately needed. As I walked back to the main entrance I was reminded of the autocross sessions going on by all the tire squealing. Ethan, our friend Drew, and I made our way over to check out some of the action. At that moment, I really wish I had my car with me. Autocross at an event like this makes a “car show” a whole lot more fun.

Subaru Rally Team USA was also present and not only did they start up the car, rev it, and talk about it – they even had a few team drivers go out on the autocross course and absolutely rip it. I’ve been to a few Red Bull Global Rallycross events and it’s always a treat to watch these cars go, but something about seeing it slide around in a big open parking lot was much more intriguing. This went on for 30 minutes on and off between letting the car cool down and switching drivers – I loved every minute of it.


CJ and I decided to go back out into the parking field, get some water, and look around to see anything cool we might have missed. Between the show itself and the parking field, I was extremely surprised to see how many new Type RA’s and 50th Anniversary STi’s were there.

With only an hour or so left to the event, we were all getting really tired and worn out from the high 90+ degree temperatures. The Midwest came in heavy with the Subaru scene and we were blown away. We met a few of you guys at the event which was amazing, and we know for sure we will be coming back to the Midwest in the future!

I learned a lot on this trip, but one thing that I can say for all of us here at MFortyFive is how much we truly love doing what we do. This brand is our passion. As bad as Ethan sometimes wants to sell his car for an E46 M3, CJ for an S2000, and myself for a Tacoma, we truly love Subarus and more importantly, the people who make up this amazing community. Thank you guys for the support, it’s been a long process but we could not be more amped on what’s to come for MFortyFive.

Ethan/@supwagon (Left), CJ/@tryhardsti (Center), Zach/@momentum.rs (Right)

By Zach Osborne – @momentum.rs

 

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