Northeast USA 4WD Compact Car Adventures

[blownb310]

The first northeast USA 4WD Compact Car Adventure went great! The two local Suzuki SX4's did not show up, so it was an all old-school turnout of compact 4WD's yesterday. The Historic Subaru forum's Paul S. easily took the honors for the most historic entry with his '78 Subaru 4WD wagon. He also took the honors for the lowest hanging exhaust system.



Paul and his son Luke drove out 2 3/4 hours from Bridgeport, CT.



Seeing one of these in the snowy salt belt of the northeast is quite a rarity these days.



Paul's 1600 cc flat four engine.

After meeting up in West Sand Lake, NY we headed straight for the hill climb portion of the event. For some reason pictures don't portray depth of field very well, or in this case how steep the angle of the climb was, but hopefully this will give you an idea of the length of the hill.





Mark's '91 Civic Real Time 4wd Civic wagon powers up the hill.



Another Historic Subaru forum standout [Subafreak] Jesse N. was next up the hill in his clean '85 Brat.





Next we headed out into the woods.













Jesse's Brat clearly had the best ground clearance of all of us. Nothing on this trail bothered the Brat!





Just before the lunch break I placed my meatball sub sandwich on my valve cover to warm it up. Worked out pretty well!













A good time was had by all and by the end of the day no one got stuck or had any mechanical problems. More pics will be added later as I get them from my friends that came along.

If there are any 4WD Tercels in the northeast I hope you will consider coming out with us on the next outing for some 4WD fun.

Mike

[toughtercel]

That sure look great s and fun too

[dlb]

wow, i've never seen a 4wd subaru wagon that old! being a child of the 80's with all the hard lines and angles that came with them, i'm not into the styling of that subaru but it is definitely cool to see one so old alive and kicking. the brat is quite cool, is it lifted?

very inspiring, thanks for the pics! my fave is the sandwich on the engine. my wife was grossed out but i love it.

[blownb310]

Here are a few more pics from my friend Jeff.







And check this out, Jeff's camera has a setting called "miniature effect" which make our cars look like Matchbox cars!

[toughtercel]

WOW , that fool me , it sure does look like 1/64 scale model . Great I should try that for my cars.

[Halden]

If I lived in NY I would totally have brought my Isuzu Pup... Would have been fun!

[Petros]

great pictures, thanks for sharing them.

[blownb310]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments!

[blownb310]

Since our event there have been a few fellow northeasterners that have taken notice and would like to join us in the future. One of them lives in Middleburgh, NY which is a gold mine for trails and unpaved roads. He knows where they are and is considering putting a run together like I did. Stay tuned for more details.

I too, will be looking for more roads/trails in the future. I am especially interested in steeper climbs as I want to exploit the 4WD feature of our cars more during future events. It's a balancing act to find just the right roads for our cars, smooth enough to stay damage free, yet challenging and fun. Of course snow will add a nice element of challenge for roads that may not be challenging enough when dry.

I also know a few peole who want to get in on the action and are looking for a 4WD car. I saw a Corolla All-Trac for sale on the side of a road in Canaan and will get info and pics tomorrow for them. This stuff is contagious.

[blownb310]

'Tis the season for Northeast Compact 4WD Car Adventures and thanks to our newest member [and Civic RT4WD owner], it looks like outing #2 will be on Sunday December 30th.

Send me a PM for details if you'd like to join us.

As the song goes: "Let in snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

[blownb310]

The meet is ON for Sunday. The route is snow covered and we are expecting more tonight. Perfect conditions to enjoy our 4WD compacts!