09 wrx

[Needcaffine]

Hi All. I'm new here, please be nice

I'm in the initial stages of planning a small expedition. Girlfriends said she'll come along wings, but wanted to come here for any advice you might give.

I've had 4 subarus in a row, 3 of them WRX's and I continue to be impressed by them. The latest one, an 09 WRX, I find brilliant on both dirt and tarmac, with a friend of mine comparing the ride and handling of it to as good as or better than the new BMW 735 he'd just driven (I get to drive his 740 regularly, much prefer the WRX). I've had this thought running around my head for a year or more now of taking it for a bit of a drive to see a few sights on my list, and a recent discussion with a friend and my girlfriend's convinced me to start making it a reality.

The trip. Leave home from here in Melbourne, Australia. Head across to Perth via Ayers Rock. Ship the car to Cape Town, South Africa. Head up through Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Take the ferry across to Spain, see family there, head to London, see some friends, then do a couple of small trips through Europe. Drive through Sweden, Finland and enter Russia.
Head to Kazakhstan, back into Russia, to Mongolia (see if their beef's anything like I get at the Chinese restaurant), back into Russia for Siberia and eventually find my way to Magadan via the road of bones (yes, I saw Ewan McGregors Long Way Round).
Put the car on a boat to Alaska, drive to Canada, head through the Yukon, check out Vancouver (one of the next places I want to live), head to Michigan to see friends, to Arizona (via Zion National park, one of my favorites in the US) for GF's family and see more friends.
From there, Mexico, Belize (facinated by the place for some reason), Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina before heading back to Phoenix, AZ or to Aus.

I figure it'll take over a year to complete, if I ever do. Will have difficulty going back to reality after something of this magnitude. Qualifications to do a trip of this size. Well, none really, except the desire to explore and take the time to see parts of places I'd intended to while living overseas that I didn't get to. I'm a computer programmer who's been working who's spent the last 7 years in large scale corporate software development, on anything up to 3/4 billion dollar projects. But I find the greed and incompetence of certain vendors and contracting companies to be soul destroying and though I love the type of work I do, I was happiest when travelling.

Mods, I'm thinking of skid pans, 3" lift kit, A/T tyres (size haven't figured out yet, see what fits), a Maggiolina camper and driving lights mounted to the roof in a custom housing. Add in radio, find some maps to fit GPS installed in car, recovery and emergency gear, toolbox and build some housings inside the car for food, clothing etc, then see what I'm missing.

I'm running into a few challenges though. I'm a little worried about prep for the car and what else I'll need to get it ready. Internal space isn't too good, Forester or Outback would be a more logical choice, but I really don't want to change vehicle if possible. How to integrate the full size spare somewhere without losing too much internal space or making it too top heavy. Fuel availability and quality through Africa and Mongolia/Russia. Safety through Africa and South America. Not enough to stop me, but questions do come up. How well it'll go with river crossings and what I'll need to modify for it to cope with up to 3ft of water (not sure if it's realistic, but it'll form my benchmark).

If you've got a place to start, feedback's appreciated. I'll be coming back on here from time to time asking more specific questions I'm sure

Joe
:coffeedrink:

 

[Applejack]

WOW:Wow1: You've certainly got a lofty goal and that's great. IMHO I would be looking to get into an Outback or Forester for this kind of trip that is if you're dead set on staying with a Suby. It would eliminate the need to make certain modifications to your vehicle. On trips like these, simplicity is key. Things *will* go wrong and keeping things as simple as possible eliminates the possibility of other things going wrong.
Good luck!

 

[gjackson]

Yeah, that's no 'small expedition' :Wow1: Couple of notes on my first read:

In Africa your biggest problem will be with ground clearance. If you intent to go into the Okavango or on any of the desert tracks in the Kalahari you'll need to be lifted as high as a 110 or TLC to avoid getting hung on the center mound. Same in East Africa although a bit more mud involved. If you plan to stay more to tarmac / improved roads, then you'll have no problems.

Ferry crossings may give you some clearance issues as well; that is getting onto and off of ferries.

The route through North Africa, while really cool, is not possible as you plan it at the moment. May be in a few years, but some of those borders (notably Algeria / Morocco) are closed and have been for a while. For that section get a copy of Chris Scott's Sahara Overland.

Looks like a grand trip!

cheers

 

[bootzilla]

Very cool (and ambitious) trip!

I think it is a really unique idea to use a WRX, although I would think that route planning would be critical, just because of ground clearance (like Graham said). I still think you could pick a pretty cool route.

I don't know a whole lot about WRX's (or Subies), but is there a lift kit that big available? I'd be a bit concerned going that distance with that much lift could put a lot of stress on the CV joints.

You could put the full size spare up top - the Subie is so low to begin with, it wouldn't mess with center of gravity enough to really notice.

Sounds like fun to me - hopefully you'll keep us up to date on you plans, test runs and trips, etc.

 

[Needcaffine]

Yeah, that's no 'small expedition' :Wow1: Couple of notes on my first read:

In Africa your biggest problem will be with ground clearance. If you intent to go into the Okavango or on any of the desert tracks in the Kalahari you'll need to be lifted as high as a 110 or TLC to avoid getting hung on the center mound. Same in East Africa although a bit more mud involved. If you plan to stay more to tarmac / improved roads, then you'll have no problems.

Ferry crossings may give you some clearance issues as well; that is getting onto and off of ferries.

The route through North Africa, while really cool, is not possible as you plan it at the moment. May be in a few years, but some of those borders (notably Algeria / Morocco) are closed and have been for a while. For that section get a copy of Chris Scott's Sahara Overland.

Looks like a grand trip!

cheers

Ground clearance I always figured as an issue, and while 6" lifts have been done on the impreza's I'm a unsure on stability. But then again, given all the lifted older style subies, maybe it's workable.

Given the car, where I go I figure is always going to be a bit of a compromise. Sealed/improved roads I'll be on most of the time, but I'm expecting I'll still see places with a fair amount of mud, some river crossings and rough roads. If I have to go a longer route or don't get to see all places, I'm ok with that, a bit like there's going to be places which come up that I didn't find in planning stages.

Africa I hadn't looked at too closely as yet, lot to still look into there. Book sounds like what I need to read.

To me, the final destination and marking countries off the list is irrelevant. The journey, what I'll see about other countries and cultures, learn about myself and GF, and the people I meet along the way is what I'm doing it for. If it all falls in a giant heap, so be it, for while I'll have tried not all things can be controlled. But at least I'll have prepared and tried, which is further than a lot of my friends will ever take it.

 

[buddha]

Hope to see you move forward with this. Would LOVE to see an ExPo WRX.

 

[The Adam Blaster]

I like Subarus - A LOT!
I've wanted to get a WRX for a number of years, just haven't pulled the trigger quite yet.
But, after reading how far and where you want to go, and the type of gear etc. that you're thinking of taking, I am pretty sure you'll overload the carrying capacity of the car, and things will break.
Another concern for me would be the range of the car -- it doesn't have the largest tank, and loading it with 5 jerry cans goes back to my point about the weight limits of the car...

Sometimes being unique and different is really cool, and you get to do a trip with a vehicle no one has ever done it with before.
But, when things break in the middle of Africa, and the mechanics at the next closest 5 towns have never even heard of Subaru, it might be a bit difficult to get the repair completed properly.

I'm also thinking of the length of your trip...
For something a month or less, you could make the small space work.
You're talking about a year, maybe longer??? trip across pretty much the entire world hitting 6 of 7 continents. I think you'll need more space, and you'll just feel too cramped in the Subie.
And feeling cramped on a trip of this magnitude is not going to be fun.
And the tight quarters might prevent you from enjoying the trip to the point you want to give up and go home <-- probably not your goal... lol

I've never attempted a trip like this myself, I'll let others chime in on it and let them tell you about their experiences, but I would REALLY suggest going with a larger, more confortable vehicle for this trip.
A step up would at least be a Toyota Land Cruiser with a diesel engine - less concern about the quality of fuel you'll be getting in the "wilder" places. And tons more space, also you can fit the truck with an auxillary tank and double your range.
Along with that, you're looking at much better ground clearance, without any modification, around the world support and general knowledge by most mechanics. There is a TON of aftermarket support for these already, and lots of experienced people that can help you with the do's and don't when you start prepping the vehicle for your trip.

For a trip like this, I would do it with a vehicle that has been tested, and known to be reliable and succeed in the tougher conditions you are undoubtedly going to encounter - whether you intend to or not.

Whatever you end up deciding for a vehicle, I wish you the absolute best of luck, and you better post lots of pictures for the rest of us still stuck in our cubicle hells! :victory:


EDIT -- I by no means want to be too negative about your idea, but I'd rather see you scrap plans for using the Subie, and see you complete most if not your entire trip in comfort and good spirits.
And if/when you complete your trip, you won't really have cared what vehicle got you there, but rather, the incredible sites you saw along the way!

 

[haven]

Welcome, Joe!

One consideration is the quality of gasoline available in the
remote areas. I'd check to make sure your turbo engine can
run on very low octane fuel. It may not be practical to take
a car powered by the Subaru gas turbo. At the very least, I'd
take several fuel filters, and maybe install a second fuel filter
in the fuel line. And I'd carry several cans of octane booster.

Finding tires that will fit your rims while traveling is another
consideration. The most common size wheel in many parts
of Africa and Asia is 7.50 x 16.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

The octane booster is a hopeless proposition. Those little bottles are junk and have almost no effect on the octane rating. Their advertising take advantage of the obscurity of the definition of a "point" of octane. Is that one integer (86 to 87), one decimal (87.0 to 87.1) or is 87.00 to 87.01 a "point".

There's only a couple effective ways to boost octane. One is with a large amount of high octane fuel, such as Toluene or Alcohol. So, you'd need to carry a bunch of 1 gallon containers to add every time you fill up.

Or, with concentrated boosters such as Tetra-Ethyl Lead or MTBE. Both are going to cause you problems on a modern car like a WRX.

The WRX should be able to handle 87 octane gas, but I don't know if I'd want to drive around the world with it.

 

[Needcaffine]

Update

Bit of an update on progress of things. My girlfriends going back to Uni for 18 months, so trip's being delayed for a bit. But between the end of her degree and graduation, there's a two month window that the Mongol Rally fits into.

I've been invited to it this year. The timings not quite right, but figure next year I'll be taking another unsuitable car on unsuitable roads, unless I can convince the organisers to allow me a WRX and donate it to the police as a pursuit car (or similar) at the end. I'll be using the rally as a trial run for the longer trip, gain some experience in countries haven't heard much of before and see how the girlfriend handles it (she's always been a bit nervous about travel, this scares the cr@p out of her).

Far as the current WRX goes, I find the newer body style to be more prone to scraping than my previous (05) one. Will still do a reasonable job, but have to be more careful around rocks/river crossings/large potholes.

Joe :coffeedrink:

 

[Needcaffine]

Derexification

It's been an interesting 9 months since I last posted about this. I've been using the rex quite a bit over the last year, for daily driver or camping trips away for weekend/1-3 weeks at a time, and come to the conclusion that I don't trust the build quality or systems in it for anything more than daily driving, and even that's marginal.
It's been on a tow truck twice, with electrical issues and having water sucked into the engine (hit a rain storm driving on highway, sucked water through air intake). Immobilizer works too well on random occasions and won't turn off for 2-3 days, to which Subaru tells me bad luck, it happens. The body felt like it was twisting apart on my driveway, external panels aren't held in place very well and constantly need to be clipped back in place, list goes on.
I could probably fix most of it given time and money, but I'm not sure I'd trust it again to the same level.

Currently weighing up options for what to move to next.

 

[saveitforsunrise]

iv always dreamed of having a 09 sti hatch, you should trade it in on a land crusier, or better yet ill give you my 97 tahoe for it lol

 

[mires]

Every time I see this thread it makes me think of this. Scroll down to post # 16 :drool: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5014051-Lifted-Subaru-s-DIR-or-DIW

 

[Scoob]

One consideration is the quality of gasoline available in the
remote areas. I'd check to make sure your turbo engine can
run on very low octane fuel. It may not be practical to take
a car powered by the Subaru gas turbo.

That was my exact thought.

 

[Justincredible]

Yeah, for a trip like that in an Impreza I would recommend a non turbo and a first or second generation.
Simplicity is key, and older models have macpherson struts at all four corners, while the 3rd gens have a multilink rear.

Subarus are pretty stout and can take quite a beating, but they are limited by ground clearance and AWD rather than 4WD.

Due to its rally history the Impreza is designed so that repairs/replacements can be done out on the trail, and since the Forester is built on the Impreza platform you can bolt up the Forester suspension and give yourself up to 9 inches of ground clearance using factory parts.
Another nice thing is that the differentials are from Nissan (r160 - r180).

Here's a link to some pictures of "lifted" Subarus.
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1228188
And if you want a wealth of info about lifts, tires, armor, etc... check out
http://www.dirtyimpreza.com