How does a family end up ‘hooked‘ on a car brand? Sometimes it’s circumstance. If you grew up in Oshawa with your dad working at the GM plant, chances are a Chevy sat in the driveway. That just makes sense.
For the Demaras family, that Subaru connection started with Grandpa Bill, the original travelling salesman. Back in the ’80s the patriarch of the family business needed an all-wheel-drive car that still fit his blue-collar business image. So he picked up an Arctic White, four-cylinder Subaru XT Turbo, a car so quirky that most people had no idea what it even was! From there, he was all in: a Subaru XT6, Forester, Impreza, and now a Forester XT Turbo with the loudest Invidia Q300 exhaust this side of the Subie Showdown.
These days, Demaras Racing’s team mom Alice has an orange Mini Cooper as her daily driver. It’s been a great car, but after a decade, it’s starting to show its age. Since it still has some trade-in value, now feels like the right time to upgrade to something a bit roomier and more comfortable, without going down the road of those bloated SUVs everyone defaults to.
A small, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive car sounds just about perfect. And with Alice having previously owned an ’06 Impreza and an ’09 WRX, sticking with Subaru feels like a natural fit. It would be familiar right away, and with the team at Can Jam Motorsports handling maintenance, reliability isn’t a concern.
A visit to a used car dealer on the edge of town gave the family a chance to try something fun: back-to-back test drives of a VA-chassis WRX (2015–2021) and the newer VB-chassis WRX (2022–present). The two generations are pretty similar in size and style, but under the hood is where things change. The VA runs Subaru’s 2.0L turbocharged FA20 engine, while the VB steps things up with a 2.4L direct-injected turbo FA24F. The newer engine delivers a smoother power band and helps eliminate that mid-range torque dip the previous gen cars were known for.
And let’s be honest, there’s something pretty cool about the idea of a WRX that’s 20 years newer sitting in the driveway beside the classic Bugeye WRX… especially if they’re both painted World Rally Blue.
❤️
My wife and I have been VW folks since the early 70’s, 7 Beetles, 1 Bus, 1 Squareback, 1 Dasher Wagon 7 Jettas and 2 Tiguans. Loved them all, but HATED the lack of heat on the air cooled ones in the winter. Made a strong attempt to start a Formula Vee team in the late 70’s as well. (Family issues killed that quickly).
I can understand your love for Subies!