Thank you, Lee, for the nice words about the garage. It was a lot of fun and really gratifying. I was the architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer and landscape architect for the project. But, I can't give enough praise to my contractor, who added a lot of creativity to solving coordination issues, developing the patterns for the pavers on the patio and the parking court. He also added a lot of detailing on the finish trim that really added to the look.
As far as retiring the Subaru from track work, it's not because it was unsuited for that role. In fact, it was remarkably quick. (14.9 quarter) Evidence below, a weekend of very evenly matched dicing with a 1992 964 C2 Porsche (Note how he has more body lean than I do).
I was really beginning to learn a lot of the subtleties of the car on the track. Initially, I was guilty of over-driving: Turn-in a little slow, then hammer down well before the apex, power understeering (even with the rear tires also drifting) all the way through the corner, and it would rarely turn on you (did spin a couple of times this way). It was much faster (because of avoided power-on understeer) if I carried a little more speed through to the apex of the turn, apexed a little later, then put the hammer down with the wheels a little straighter. Driven well, the car can be very fast, and it is very stable and very forgiving.
Granted the car is heavy, but with my mods, it has good power. The 5 speed and suspension upgrades make it a very different car. I ran well with a lot of decent cars: stock E36 M3's; late model Preludes; pre 2004 WRX's, etc. I can't really fault it as a beginner track car.
The reasons I'm retiring it are straightforward. The car has over 100,000 miles on it. I'm worried about driving it 5 hours to Watkins Glen, then beating the sh!t out of it for a weekend, then counting on it to get me home. I have driven it home wounded, and I have driven a rental car home. Neither is fun. Also, it has the really bad overheating problem, which I've never been able to overcome even with the aluminum radiator. I could trailer it (assuming I fixed the overheating), but it's heavy (3400 lbs with the 5-speed), so I'd need to buy a Peterbilt to tow it. I know, an F150 would do it in a heartbeat, but in my wife's mind, that is the same thing as a Peterbilt. So I want to tow, so as not to be at the mercy of the track gods for my ride home, and I want to tow with nothing larger than my Subaru Outback. That says I'm not towing the SVX.
If I can fix the overheating problem, I could see trying it at Autocross. or maybe taking it down to NJ Motorsports Park ( 1 1/2 hours away). But prudence says don't rely on a 100,000 mile car to get you home after a grueling track weekend.