~ by Chris #16 Demaras ~
Daniel got his WRX this. The car has been in and out of 5 different shops (mechanic, body shop, electronics, exhaust, detailing) over the last 90 days. Daniel paid for the car and did as much of the work as he could personally. I was glad to see the smile on his face when he finally turned that key and drove off. I’ve been waiting for this since I was 17.
When I first got my license, my dad gave me my big sister’s old car and sent me out to work for the family business. I was glad to have the freedom and mobility the car provided suburban, teenage me. And the job paid good money. But the car was so…boring.
It was beige. The interior was the colour of a double-double coffee. I wanted flash! So with the money I earned from my job, I began customizing the 1989 Eagle Vista (a re-badged Mitsubishi Colt). First it was things I could do myself, like sanding down the chrome trim and painting it flat black. Blacked out tail lights, tinted windows and fog lights.. Then a spoiler from an BMW M3 and a front air dam from the Japan-only Colt Turbo. Later, 5-spoke aluminum wheels and Pirelli tires. A Blaupunkt CD player in the dashboard and three Rodek amplifiers pushed power to the four 12″ subwoofers in the trunk. The speaker box weighed the rear end down so much, I had to install spring spacers to get the ride height back to ‘normal‘.
Those first coupe of years with that car impacted my approach to car ownership ever since. I’ve always modified, customized and personalized my cars. I’ve never bought a car and just been happy enough to leave it stock.
If I just had something cool when I was 16 or 17, I might never have been this way. Even now I have a lifted truck and a slammed sports coupe. Nothing stock. So, when Daniel got his license last year, I wanted to make sure he didn’t have a double-double coffee coloured econobox.
1 thought on “The Eagle”