Dragon 2003 - my story

Greetings, everyone.

This weekend's event at Deal's Gap was absolutely awesome. Thanks to the SVXers who showed up, it was great meeting GreenMarine, Huck, gotsubarus, and Noir, and it was as always good to see Matt and Kim there in the black beastie.

My trip started on Friday morning (after an all-night suspension and brake install!) with a botched alignment job at a local shop... they somehow managed to shear the head off of one of the bolts that mounts the bottom of the front struts to the hub, and had to spend an inordinate amount of time going to the dealer for a replacement. I did get to get a haircut during the delay, so it wasn't all wasted.

On the road I go.. I hit Spartanburg and picked up GreenMarineSVX where he and his buddy were waiting, and after making a Kinkos run to copy some of my handouts for the group, we shot up I-26 to Asheville and across I-40 into the mountains. I'll save my suspension comments for the other thread in Mod Mania, but suffice to say the suspension behaved very nicely on the highway.

We arrived at Fontana in the early afternoon, plenty of time to check in and get things organized. Lots of administrative errands and details to cover on my part, and the crowd began rolling in and getting organized in the later part of the afternoon. Impreza RSes and WRXs of all flavors and descriptions were there... it was a Subaru lover's wet dream of modified vehicles. We had an RS with a WRX motor in it, a frankenstein '93 Impreza L with a big turbo bolted on the little 1.8 with a lot of Legacy B4 parts stuck in at unexpected places, we had a fully race prepped Blaze Yellow WRX sedan, the list goes on.

That night we all caravaned in to Robbinsville and gorged ourselves at the pizza place... the parking lot became a car show, the locals were amazed. After dinner we took the long way home and carved some corners up 129 and down the upper part of NC28 by Fontana Dam on the way home. Lots of late braking and my pads finally bedded in fully on a hard stop from 90 into a 30mph left hander. When we all got back to Fontana I organized the group again and we hit the bonfire... a big blaze and 100 of your newest friends makes for a fun evening. We even played frizbee on the baseball field under the lights.

The next morning we got down to business... gathering at 9:00 outside the hotel, we left at 9:30 with full gas tanks and ran north on 28 to the Crossroads of Time. Half the group followed me south through the Joyce Kilmer Forest to the start of the Cherohala Skyway, the other half went north across the Dragon to the TN side to swing around and meet us for lunch in Tellico Plains. Due to a large disparity in speeds, the front 10 cars in my group established a 20 minute head start across the Cherohala towards Tellico... we had a lot of fun along the way and stopped frequently. The driver of the frankenstein turbo Impreza L was right behind me, and behind us was a large gap... he was impressed at the handling of the SVX with the suspension on, especially considering that he was hauling pretty briskly himself and didn't feel like he wanted to pass. 200hp in a tuned 2400lb AWD car makes for an absolute go-kart, and to my surprise we were running together very capably.

Lunch became a big event in Tellico Plains, we absolutely overran the Tellihala Cafe and enjoyed the food immensely. It was there that we heard of Noir's accident. Everyone had some very tense moments until we got confirmation that he was OK.. he seemed in good spirits when he got there and we tried to help him straighten out the situation as best we could. Sucks to lose another SVX but it's wonderful that he was OK. Note to self... warn newcomers to the group not to try to follow SHObaru or Templar through the corners! Considering they can outrun sportbikes, Harry was definitely holding his own with the SVX to be keeping up with them. Unfortunately the oversteer bit him but I understand his driving was awesome up until that point.

After lunch we continued around the Tellico loop to the north side of the Dragon, and carved through a few good corners until we got stuck behind some "Cruisers for Christ" who apparently were completely new driving their motorcycles. These guys were idiots, trying to steer their bikes with the handlebars instead of leaning the bike, crossing the double yellow in every corner, etc. Not to mention the fact they were going FIFTEEN MILES PER HOUR! I got really pissed and started using my horn as a double yellow alarm... every time the idiot crossed into the other lane I would blow my horn until he returned to his own. People like that should be imprisoned on principle... they're a danger to themselves and everyone up there.

Once we got through to the other side of the Dragon, we did a few hot runs back up through the Gap and then collected ourselves and shot down the curves of NC28 to Fontana for the group picture. Our picture organizer Rebellion was MIA so I had to get several people to help me organize the shot, it came out OK on the spur of the moment but I think it would have turned out better had Eric been there with his photo plan in hand. Oh well... Jerry and Kristi (the groom and bride) were stationed out front, when the pic taking was over he executed a spectacular 4 wheel drift across the field on their way to the reception, Immortal_Suby caught it on film and I'm sure he'll post it.

Everyone scattered to do their own thing for the afternoon and we regrouped later in the evening for a big cookout and another bonfire. Killboy (Dwayne) of Killboy.com and the lovely Julia stopped by to show us the pics he took of the group as we came across the Dragon. A great time was had by all and Subaru provided spiffy handouts. Good food and tasty alcoholic beverages were the rule of the evening and we went to bed late.

Sunday morning the group split up into two missions... one to challenge the rural Maryville, TN autocross and the rest to hit the Wayah Road with me. The original intention was to bomb some gravel roads but they had all been closed due to the extreme weather the week before. The Wayah Road turned out to be a great trip full of beautiful scenery and alpine-style lakes and we toured it in style. The switchbacks coming down the back side of Wayah Bald were the first time I experienced brake fade the whole weekend, and it was minor. Definitely a run we'll do again next year. We had lunch at a Mexican joint in Franklin and then split from there to head our separate ways. Part of the group headed north to corner carve the southern part of NC28, some people went northeast to Asheville on their way home, and I turned southeast and headed up over the mountains for the scenic route to SC. Best scenery of the trip in my opinion, I'll share some pics in a moment.

So there you have it... the Dragon 2003. Hopefully we'll see more SVXes there next year!

Thanks to everyone who attended! Keep in touch, we'll get together again soon.

-Porter

Can someone give me a rational explanation of why inline image linking is disabled on this board? It's my bandwidth I'm using after all...

I really want to [img] !!

Ok, maybe this will tickle your fancy...

Big pic, warning to dialup users.

Small Waterfall Pic

Large Waterfall Pic

More pictures and discussion are located here...

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...hreadid=363366

It's my understanding that [img] is disabled becuase most of the users of the forum are connecting through a dialup connection.

Originally posted by Green1995SVX
It's my understanding that [img] is disabled becuase most of the users of the forum are connecting through a dialup connection.

Aha... in that case, why not turn on the vBulletin switch that allows each user to disable inline images in their board viewing preferences? It's something you can change in your user profile on most boards, that says "Display Inline Images"... if you have it turned off, you just get a link but everyone else can see the image inline.

Seems like it'd be a better way to do it... though I'd definitely keep image linking disabled in the signatures!! Many boards disable signatures for that reason but I know you can disable the image linking function individually there.

[Subafreak]

I want your suspension and I want to go to the Dragon. Lets see from RI thats like, what, 14hrs.?

[immortal_suby]

Originally posted by Porter
Greetings, everyone.

. Oh well... Jerry and Kristi (the groom and bride) were stationed out front, when the pic taking was over he executed a spectacular 4 wheel drift across the field on their way to the reception, Immortal_Suby caught it on film and I'm sure he'll post it.
-Porter

It's in my locker under sube stuff

Originally posted by Subafreak
I want your suspension and I want to go to the Dragon. Lets see from RI thats like, what, 14hrs.?

Yep! Come on down in the fall, we're doing it again in September. We had people from Wisconsin, Miami, and upstate NY attend this one... all of which have similar drives. Miami is 16hrs I think.




As for the suspension, I'll be building them as soon as I move to Atlanta in August... so save your pennies and I'll ship you a finished bolt-in kit.

[Subafreak]

Originally posted by Porter


Yep! Come on down in the fall, we're doing it again in September. We had people from Wisconsin, Miami, and upstate NY attend this one... all of which have similar drives. Miami is 16hrs I think.




As for the suspension, I'll be building them as soon as I move to Atlanta in August... so save your pennies and I'll ship you a finished bolt-in kit.

Hmm. September. Should be ready for another vacation by then.


Do you need old strut casings for the job? I got some, and if your gona offer them as a bolt in kit that would be cool.

Originally posted by Subafreak
Do you need old strut casings for the job? I got some, and if your gona offer them as a bolt in kit that would be cool.

Yes! Let me know, I'd love to do a setup for you.

[Subafreak]

I'd love to get that set up, but right now I'v got some other bills I have to pay off, and I,m still thinking about my turbo prodject. Then again it would probly br a good idea to make it handle better before I make it any faster. Anyway I got the spare casings so when I ready I'll give you a call. Hopefully soon.

[Noir]

hey porter, i want one for my next svx. i also want the cool harry discount . when you get to atlanta we can drink ourselves silly and take a tour of the fun spots in atlanta. yup that's right, i'm going to get another svx and transplant as much as i can that i put into my last baby . then i'm getting a wrx or imprezza. gimme suspension i want round 2 following Brian and Kent

muohahahahahahaha....

i like your line subafreak. not how fast...but how fast you can..

[Subafreak]

[
i like your line subafreak. not how fast...but how fast you can.. [/B][/QUOTE]

Ya It's kinda meant like: Even thoe your car can do 150mph, if you back of at 120mph then I'm gonna beat you. Or in the case of my Loyal: Even thoe your car can blow me away at a stop, I'll still catch up eventually because I drive really fast. Anyway the line below is the simplest way put.

[immortal_suby]

geh, I thought it referred to how you modify your car to be faster.