Car Fanatics

Gavin asked me along to his Subaru club meeting last night. The club’s called Rexfactor and everyone there is passionate about their cars – the Subaru Impreza WRX (or “Rex” for short).

I went along for a few reasons. Firstly, I was curious about this whole car fanatic culture I was reading about. Secondly, Gavin was genuinely nice about asking me along, eventhough he knows I know nuts about cars. Thirdly, J, a friend of mine was brought along to her pal’s Honda Civic group meeting and that had really made me want to find out what this car crazy culture thing was about.

So we drove in Gav’s Subaru TS 1.6A (which is the entry Impreza, related only to the “Rex” because they look alike. Engine-wise, Gav’s is 95bhp, and the Rex is minimum 280bhp (without tuning). Gavin was really proud of his car. He had authentic gun-metal grey “Rex” rims, good tires, a rear spoiler that only 5 other cars had in Singapore… et cetera. But back to the meeting…

It was held in the car park at Kallang McDonald’s. We got there late and by the time we were there, there were at least 40 souped up WRXs in the parking lot. All kitted up with various bodykits, exhausts and accessories it was a sight to behold. That was only the beginning, till some of them started their engines and you hear the familiar growl that comes only with performance engines.

Okay, so there were not only Imprezas there. There were 2 Foresters, and a few Legacys. But all were welcomed all the same.

Once we started chatting with the people around, I was amazed by the amount of passion in the eyes of the car owners. They were like children in a candy store, with their eyes lighting up at every mention of a new modification or accessory and where are the best shops to get them. There were 3 women owners there too. All of them owned WRXs. The amount of lingo and technical knowledge these people had were amazing. Gavin had an animated 20 minute conversation with some others about tyres and rims et cetera. As an wannabe car enthusiast, the language baffled me and all I could do was stand in a corner and nod, and occasionally share some wit into the conversation.

Contrary to popular belief, not ALL the owners were Bengs. There were some professionals, just off from work who had rushed down to the meeting. These were the people with the most souped up and best performing cars – well, cos they had the most money to import the parts from Japan. And also contrary to belief, there was no racing. There was no point, because these people were so “in” to their cars that by looking at the engines and knowing the tuning et cetera, they knew who had the fastest car! (Well, I think its Conrad and his Spec R[A]). Although, most of the cars did do a sprint in the car-park before exiting.

Oh, Thursday night seems to be a night for car-owners to meet up. There was a Mazda club meeting in the adjacent car-park, and as Gavin and I were driving out, 20 Honda motorcycles (Super 4’s and GoldWings) vroomed vroomed out of the lot.

It was an eye-opener, but unless I read up more about cars, I’m going to resigned to being a “vase”. Haha. Just stand there and look stupid.