Pinky.......
Day one

Nervous as a little lamb, a little lamb to slaughter!
I'll skip the road trip for no other reason than you guys want to read (I hope) about the car, not about how painless Russ made it and what a generous bloke he is. All I can say is that whenever he needs the favour returned I will be there and I will be happy to help

We arrived at the services north of Enfield, South Mimms. The sun was beaming down so bright it made scanning a packed car park difficult but within minutes I could hear the rumble so typical of Subarus, and true enough in came Dom and Pinky. Even though the pair were over 200 yards away, you could hear it ticking over and the gentle woomph-woomph of the flat four as it made its way down the car park towards us made me grin like a tramp with a fresh bag of chips! Dom hopped up, pleasantries were exchanged and then he showed me the car in the metal. Hand on heart, and I say this knowing that I have driven the car about 15 foot in total, Dom is one of the most honest people I have ever bought a car from. His detail in writing and on the phone has been superb and his decency with the deal second to none.
He slowly pointed out the niggles of which there are few and he highlighted some of the extras of which there are plenty. It has the intercooler spray kit, it has a robust underbody brace, it has all sorts of Samco hosing, it has a nice catch tank and many other bits. The pink spoiler was nearer to white but we (Russ and I) are confident that it will polish back up nicely and other niggles like stereo wiring being typically Jap import paled into insignificance when he fired it up. When you have gotten used to a 'normal' car, something like a mildly tuned Impreza can be a little shocking

I know it's only four cylinders but man, do they do their stuff with style! The exhaust helps a little and no sooner had he offered a ride out and I was in the pax seat in an instant. The STi seats seemed in great nick and provide better bolster support than my old Classic ones. Maybe the cars low mileage help? (85/90k from memory) The test drive was amusing; Dom drives like a 13 year old with too much sugar

If he could squeeze a pop, bang or whoosh from the car he would do it. No wonder he gets such poxy MPG from the thing! The banter was great though and it was tough to listen for knocks, whines and whistles when you're laughing your head off. I could 'feel' the rear nearside wheel binding but other than that it felt good and performed quite nicely.
Back to terra firma and Russ and Christian were keen to see my reaction. I tried to play it cool but fucked that right up

The deal was done, more banter exchanged and then we loaded Pinky up and spent the next hour and a half talking Subaru's until we arrived home at the shire. Time for my first drive, all of fifteen foot! No real impressions other than it making a wonderful noise, the seats are epic and it needs a serious over the top style clean tomorrow.

Thanks to
-Dom; a very honest, decent and funny bloke to buy a car from
-Christian; very grateful for the heads up and banter
-Russ; instrumental in making the morning a pleasure from start to finish. A great road trip made all the easier thanks to zero stress
Once the butterflies had started to settle tonight I took a sneaky look with her parked on the grass................I already feel more attached to this thing than three months in that Cupra
