Shoot for the Sky - Subaru Legacy Wagon

Let’s be real – never give up is a stupid motto. AKA: Dumb advice. Basically, if you pat a loved one on the back & tell them to see it through… you suck. Is that how you’re gonna parent your kids? Because look, when things get hard, you probably need to give up honestly. It’s the wise option. Cut your loses, quit, and walk away. Maybe take-up an easier hobby… like golf. And if you hit a ball in the woods… walk away from that too. Just get drunk in the golf cart. Slur. Who cares. It’s just not worth it. Building an STI-swapped Subaru Legacy Wagon drift car? Really??

“When life gives you lemons, just say fuck the lemons & bail.” -Kunu

But we’re not gonna quit, are we?

Because we’re men, we’re idiots, and we’re stubborn as all get-out. Well… about 92% of us are men according to our analytics. The other 8% are super hot chicks. And about 3% of those are actually lesbians. Analytics can tell that?? Yep. Maybe. You’d be surprised. But see – those lesbian girls prove my point, because they knew how to quit when they weren’t feelin’ it. And now they’re happier for it. Of all articles to mention lesbians… it just had to be a Subaru article. I guess that’s fate. Bet this article’s SEO is completely trashed now huh? Oh well, no turning back, cause like a dummy… I never give up either.

Love… it’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.

Skylar Gray lives in Jersey where cars are rusty & you can’t make left turns. He bought this Subaru Legacy Wagon as a bare shell 6-7 years ago. It was very rusty & it was an obvious mistake to buy it. But he was 19 & dumb, so whatcha gonna do?

What he should have done was cut his loses, douse it in gasoline, and shoot fireworks at it. But instead, Skylar spent a year & a half doing rust repair. He cut up 2 other good non-rusty cars to make 1 non-rusty RHD shell. Never give up.

Yes – this Subaru is right-hand-drive.

Back in the day, you could buy Subaru Legacy Wagons in post office trim… complete with RHD. Who would want that? Mailmen of course… and Skylar. It’s almost impossible to find aftermarket parts for an old Subaru Legacy. But fortunately, a lot of stuff interchanges between Subaru models. So Skylar got a front subframe from a GC Impreza & bolted that bish under there. Mustang tie rod ends also give him more steering angle. Follow your dreams.

Skylar saved up & bought a Japanese phase-1 STI engine…

That’s an engine out of a 1997-ish STI. The problem is – he bought a phase-2 intake manifold… out of something like a bug/blob-eye US-model STI. Now I might get a little lost in the semantics here, but that’s ok because so did Skylar lol. Apparently, unlike a lot of other Subaru stuff, phase-1 & phase-2 intakes DO NOT interchange. Phase-2 is drive-by-wire; phase-1 is not. But Skylar had already bought a Haltech ECU & rewired the whole car. So instead of giving up like he should have done a long time ago… Skylar continued to be stubborn like bull. Luckily, Skylar’s brother is a mechanical engineer, so together they spent literally months creating a beautifully over-engineered solution to a problem Skyler created. See it through.

For the drivetrain…

Skylar is using a BRZ transmission with a custom bell housing. He had to move the starter & shave its mounting points off the bell housing, because it was interfering with the turbo placement. Skylar then had to re-home the starter to the opposite side of the bell housing, and create a new mounting solution for it. He could have been inside heating up Bagel Bites like a winner. But instead, Skylar has a true RWD-converted Subaru Wagon… sporting an S14 diff with 350z axles, and 300ZX wheel bearing & brakes. There is no “i” in STI.

Aesthetically…

This Subaru Legacy Wagon has an S13 front bumper, which had to be extended to fit. It’s also got S13 skirts, and molded S13 vented fenders. Skylar made custom rear over-fenders by taking a set of regular OEM Legacy quarter panels… and rolling/pulling on them until they had the look he wanted. He then mounted them onto the original quarter panels. And now the car clears meaty 18×9.5s.

Long story short – after years of not giving up…

Skylar Gray finally succeeded at not giving up. Practically everything Skylar did to this car was ‘a first’. His first engine swap, his first wiring harness, his first time welding, his first time painting etc. Everything was 100% hands-on.

And now – Skylar’s perfected the skill of making things really difficult on himself… while never wavering or buckling under the weight of his own bad decisions. Rather – he’s learned to double, triple, and even quadruple-down on the bad decisions until they finally get force-f*cked into becoming good decisions. Because that’s the way. Quitters never win, and winners never quit. Now let’s go break it. 😉

Text by Wooley Photos by Alex Blassingame