Weekend Road Trip (Long - slightly rambling)

[Capt Spaulding]

A wee bit of background. I am a 60+ yo lifelong (50 year+) motorcyclist. Colonel Spaulding and I really enjoyed touring on the bike(s) and were in the market for a BMW GS or big ST to do some longer distance trips now that the kids are on their own.

In January of 2014 a local auto driver had a brain fart and ran a red light resulting in my parking my KLR 650 and my face in the side of her Tahoe. I've nominally recovered, but am carrying enough titanium to make an SR71 envious so getting back on a bike is not a good option. I looked at several options for a motorcycle replacement and wound up like Goldilocks. I'm 6'6" so Miatas were out. I looked at well used 911s, but the only series I could afford had a tendency to frag their IMS bearings and commit ugly suicides. Other Porches were just too darn expensive. In the fall of 2014 I saw a BRZ on display at the local Costco and fell in love. It seemed the perfect solution to my problem. Small, light, nimble, connected to the road. In short - a four wheeled sport tourer. The Icing on the Cake - I FIT!!!

Fast forward to Oct 2015. Found a '15 Z-sled at the local Subaru store and bought it. Christened her "Baby Blue" [BB} and proceeded to spoil the hell out her.

FF again to mid June of 2016 and Colonel Spaulding and I took Baby Blue on a three day 1000 mile + spin around south to east central Texas. We left Edinburg (TX) on Thursday morning headed for Houston to take care of some family business interests. It's about 350 miles and pretty much a straight shot 5 1/2 hour 4 lane drone. To be sure, a BRZ is not the best interstate sled in the world, but this car is not half bad at it. My DD is a fairly recent F150 and, unquenchable thirst notwithstanding, it makes a very good Interstate flyer. The Colonel drives a '12 Camry SE v6. It's a neat car and has enough power to execute passes on 2 lane backroads with some degree of authority.

BB doesn't have the mass of the F150 or the power of the Camry, but more than held her own. 3500 rpm generates 80mph indicated and the engine seems happy as a clam. It will accelerate, but really prefers a downshift to 5th, not a problem as, in the same situation, the Camry downshifts as well, usually twice, sometimes three. BB's suspension is on the firm side but it absorbs sharp edged bumps much better than the Camry and her seats are worlds more comfortable.

Even stranger, BB's cabin does not seem noticeably noisier than the Camry. Texas uses a lot of chip seal on its back roads and I don't think anything short of a Maybach would keep the din from that crap out of the cabin. Again BB held her own with Camry on the garbage roads and when you can find good hot mix, it's pretty darn good. Add some bends and it’s Shangri-La. The engine lets you know it's there, but after I plugged the sound tube doesn't try to shout over the audio or in-cabin conversation. There's little to no vibration and, if anything, the car seems less prone to wandering around in its lane and needs less shepherding than the Camry to maintain course.

Got to Houston about 2:30. What a CF the Houston freeway system is. Dealing with it rewards good brakes and light feet. BB had plenty of both, and enough ummph to keep us well out of trouble.

Got things done Friday morning and set out for La Grange. The Texas Quilt Museum is located there and was hosting an exhibit on late 19th and early 20th century Amish quilts the Colonel was dying to see. The upside is, on the back roads the trip from Houston to La Grange can morph from a 95 mile boredom fest to a 175 mile cruise down bucolic farm roads loaded with 15 to 45 mph corners and loads of small towns and interesting folks inhabiting them. I grew up in Houston and spent several decades strafing backroad apexs between Sealy and La Grange on bikes and, thankfully, not much has changed out there in 20 years. The museum closed at 4 so we made notes of some spots to visit on Saturday and drove into La Grange.

30 years ago, La Grange was a town on the edge. For years it was a small farming community and county seat whose primary claim to fame was the "Chicken Ranch" and once Walmart showed up the downtown area seemed destined to do a slow fade into oblivion. A few years ago, however, it became trendy and now the town square is ringed with a number of nicely restored shops selling antiques, clothing, and … along with several interesting looking restaurants. We picked out a sandwich shop/wine bar and the food was better than good. A Cuban sandwich on artisanal bread might have been more at home in Austin, but it was pretty tasty in La Grange.

I’m told the Amish quilt exhibit was quite impressive and after a couple of hours we drove the 30 or so miles south east down TX – 71 to Columbus where we had a room for the night. After leaving some of BB’s snout plastic on the unseen dip turning into the hotel parking lot we looked for the chuck wagon. The young woman at the desk recommended “Nancy’s Steakhouse” across the highway and waxed eloquent about the virtues of the salad bar. She did not exaggerate and, once again, the food was very good. It was made better in that my sister bears the same first name as the restaurant, but adheres to a strict “plant based” diet. I’ve tried to convince her that steak is, indeed, “plant” based. Deaf ears. At this “Nancy’s” the loss belongs to sis.

After a quick breakfast at the motel breakfast bar we headed north in search of fun roads and photo ops. If you look around long enough, Texas has just about every topographical feature and climate zone you might want to inhabit, and a number you probably don’t. About 60 miles west of Houston the terrain begins to transition from flat former rice fields into gently rolling hills with stands of oak, a few pines, pastures and hay fields. North of the 200 mile stretch of I – 10 from Columbus to Junction this offers some of the best backroad driving in the state. Not as hair raising as the “twisted sisters” west of Medina, but much more relaxing. The towns’ names in this part of the state bear witness to the several waves of German immigrants who settled there when Texas was a not a state, but a country. New Ulm, Frelsburg, Blieblerville, Wahalla. Feels like the old country and parts of it are still unchanged since the 1940s.

If corners are the name of the BRZ's game, this a great place to play it. As a certified geezer with the T-shirt to prove it, triple digit blasts down the country lanes and near misses with roadside hardware are pretty well behind me, but corners marked 15 to 30 mph (and somewhat higher) are still more than this old fart can pass up. My general rule of thumb on the bikes was corners were probably good for double their posted speed. Those marked 20 should be taken at 40, 30 at 60 and so on. At posted speeds of 50 or more, life got … interesting. This was the territory of sharp handling 2 wheelers, quadracycles only place was to serve as rolling chicanes. It’s a very good thing cars like the twins were not available in the days of single cam Honda 750s and Z1 Kawasakis. They would have left us zit faced hotwire artists crying in our Sarsaparilla .

But any reader who hasn’t turned on reruns of Animaniacs by now is probably more interested in the car. A couple of things stood out for me. First, this car handles corners like these like nothing I have ridden or driven. Even on the stock Primacies, it is on rails. If the corner is marked at 15 – enter at 35 to 40, the front end will push a little, this will scrub off a couple of mph and with a light touch of the throttle the whole thing becomes delightfully neutral. I never pushed it hard enough to wake the nannies, but, Man, this thing is good.

Second, the car does NOT like grass. I missed a photo op and made a three point turn to reverse course. In doing so, I backed the car onto what seemed a level recently mowed grassy area. Hiding in the grass was a small depression, probably 6 inches deep, about two feet across. I dropped the right rear wheel into it. No big deal. No harm, no foul, no dice. The car was NOT going to climb out of that dip. Having limited time as PIC of the car, the Colonel was reluctant to take the helm so I could try giving the car a shove, but a Mercedes mounted passerby took pity on us, I asked him to take the wheel and a one – handed push got Blue out and rolling. I don’t know how Torsen LSDs work. But this one is pretty picky about when and where it does the LS thing.

Third, the car has more power than some people give it credit for. I know, 160 rwhp is only 160 rwhp. That said, in instances where I asked her to pass a slower vehicle on a two lane with short sight lines and limited passing lanes, I never really felt under powered. My truck, now that’s different. It doesn’t understand the concept of “acceleration.” It will gather speed, slowly, but accelerate? That is not in its vocabulary. The BRZ on the other hand required much less planning to execute a pass. To get around a 60 mph dawdler, it asked only for a downshift to 5th, a firm press on the accelerator (short of the floor though), a slight slingshot, and the pass was over, no drama, no runs, no slips, no errors. It would usually indicate 90 or so by the time I had cleared the offender sufficiently to move back into my lane. I’d say it was close to the equal of the Camry in the passing department, and a hell of a lot more fun everywhere else.

All in all, it was a great shakedown for the BRZ as four wheeled touring rig. The only flys in the ointment were the grass incident and the snout scrape. Both of those I know about going in, and both were more or less the result of miscalculations on my part. The upside was the Colonel had a ball and is making plans for the next trip.

[ajaxthebetter]

I love well written endearment stories such as this. Not just for the car but for the connection the owner develops with it, the impetus behind their finding of the vehicle, and the enjoyment they derive from exploring the places and feelings a motorized piece of machinery can take one. If you made a build thread just with road trips and histories of the areas in which you travel, I'd be more than happy to check in on the regular.

As an aside, the very day I purchased the car I scraped on a massive pothole in the dealer lot. I also got stuck in a thin veneer of mud in my driveway.

Safe travels, and as a fellow said to me when regarding my BRZ, "keep the rubber side down, man."

[mdm]

Great story. By the way, I never trust those corner markings in my area. Some are marked 25 and I take them at 50 in a Corolla no problem. Other are marked 25 and anything above 20 gets tricky. Maybe it's better in Texas, but VA DOT sucks at it.

[bravedeer]

The reason why people think that the BRZ is under powered is because they're turbo drivers and when you have a turbo, you floor at any gear and in a couple seconds the turbo kicks in and you're on your way...

On a NA car, you may have to downshift to get to a higher RPM to get the power quickly. You have to be a better driver to drive the BRZ fast.

I drove much faster when I had my BRZ than I do with my WRX, which by the way is not half as fun as the BRZ was. I could take a 90 degree turn at over 40mph with the BRZ -- tried that with the WRX and ended up on the other size of the road

The steering of the BRZ is better than the WRX and when you press the gas you are directly engaged with the engine. The WRX's acceleration feels artificial.

I can't wait to get another BRZ. I had to trade my Impreza/BRZ for a WRX due to a recent illness in the family which made it harder to manage 2 cars.

[coxxoc]

I enjoyed the read. The BRZ is more of a 600cc motorcycle style power delivery and handling. It may be a dog on the low through mid range, but the power is just fine over 5000 RPM. I love the handling though. It is usually always good with a slight bit of understeer at times (safer for a road car).

I hope you enjoy the car. I made the transition from motorcycles and cars to just cars around 5 years ago. While I do miss the feeling of the open air on a bike, I don't want to see another hospital trip from a driver who isn't paying attention. I have little girls who I want to be with more than the risk of riding every day.

[Poodles]

Nice read. I've done the Hill Country stuff in my old '89 Supra, but would love to do it in my BRZ as I think it would be a blast. Really is my favorite area of Texas, though I've never been to Corpus. Also, screw Houston.

For future note, Torsen will act like an open diff if a wheel is completely unloaded. With all the nannies on, it should try to engage the brake on the offending wheel, but if not, you can either hit the brakes a bit or pull on the e-brake to supply the load needed to get it moving again. Minor niggle with the Torsen, but I like Torsen's better than clutch based LSD's personally.

[Capt Spaulding]

Thanks for the good wishes folks. And, @Poodles, thanks for the tip on getting cooperation from the LSD.

[bhmax]

Nice read! Might have hitting the traction button to off helped getting the car unstuck?

[pfaffendorn]

Originally Posted by mdm

Great story. By the way, I never trust those corner markings in my area. Some are marked 25 and I take them at 50 in a Corolla no problem. Other are marked 25 and anything above 20 gets tricky. Maybe it's better in Texas, but VA DOT sucks at it.

Doubling the suggested speed for a curve works pretty well here in mountain NC, but I have some favorite shortcuts where the warning sign for 15 mph is deadly serious and going into one at 16 requires crossing myself and meaning it.

Thanks to the Captain for the highly entertaining travelogue. My Colonel prefers the Legacy for anything more taxing than the road to Asheville, but it sure is easier for us old farts to get in and out of, and you can play cards while it gets there.

[pfaffendorn]

Originally Posted by ajaxthebetter

As an aside, the very day I purchased the car I scraped on a massive pothole in the dealer lot. I also got stuck in a thin veneer of mud in my driveway.

Safe travels, and as a fellow said to me when regarding my BRZ, "keep the rubber side down, man."

Ah, yes, if we couldn't laugh, we'd have to cry. Just try to focus on those smooth, dry asphalt curves, and ignore the lowest one inch of the body.

[Odd]

Great post, have you taken the BRZ on the sisters you mentioned or just the motorcycle? Its great that the chassis invites enthusiast of all ages