RIP STi

[wdb]

I was involved in a serious accident in my STi last night. I'm okay, although I'm feeling it a little more as the day goes on; what started as a sore hand/forearm is now reaching up to my shoulder. It's still mild, especially considering that I was inside a car was hit hard enough to spin around 180 degrees.

The other car flipped over onto its roof. The driver was removed by the EMTs, who ripped a door off to get her out. She was rushed off to the hospital so I did not know her condition. This morning I went over the shop to clean out the car and learned that the woman in the other vehicle had been there earlier. Drove herself there. She has a bruise on her stomach and that's it. I feel like my soul has been given a reprieve.

Here's the wreckage. That piece sticking out is the bumper beam, which was completely torn off the frame rail on one side. My Subaru indy wizard/mechanic says it's likely that the passenger side frame rail contacted the front corner of the engine, stopping the camshafts on that side and basically bending everything inside into pretzel shapes. 2005, 117K miles; I'm anticipating that they'll total the car.

[Sean486]

Oh man what a shame. Glad there were no serious injuries.

[Landshark]

glad you're ok, and hope your injuries heal up soon.

those were the best-looking STi's, IMHO.

[Sean486]

Will you buy it back and part it out if they total it? I would think that car being a STI would have a lot parts that are pretty valuable.

[wdb]

Now that the shock has worn off and I know nobody was badly hurt, other stuff is starting to sink in.

I'm heartbroken by what happened to the car. I was going to keep it forever.

I'm going to look into buying it back but if I do I'll sell it again right away. Rich at Flat Four Specialties is interested in buying it. I'd like to see it go there because he will do cool stuff with it like converting an earlier 2-door coupe into an STi or using bits on a kit car. Depending on what's left I might even think about a kit car myself.

I've been going back over what I've done to the car over the years and dang it was a lot. It was actually in pretty darn nice condition despite the age and miles. I had just had a bunch of stuff replaced such as front subframe, because of rust-through. The body didn't rust, just the frame - weird right? I also had found a place to garage the car and so it was going to stop deteriorating from being outside.

Next up would have been rear subframe replacement (rust again but not as bad as the front end), at which time I'd install stiffer bushings and other stuff to tighten up the rear end. Plus finally putting on the coilovers that I've had sitting at home since 2011. Then in all likelihood I would have put in a rollbar so I could compete in local hillclimbs, in the Street Prepared class. It's the one thing I always wanted to do in the car, ever since I bought it new. Now it will never happen. I'm sick about that.

[Lookin4SVX]

Glad you are ok. From that pic I would think they will probably total it..

My insurance company totaled my 2001 2.5RS over this in 2010:
http://i.imgur.com/Xe5ySLh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/m1w4mgZ.jpg

Damn insurance companies.. If I bought it back, it would have a salvage title..
Well I have an SVX now because of this, love my SVX, but damn do I miss my RS.