S401 The Finale

Well, no more rally car for me 🙁

Since I purchased the Rover, I have been trying to sell the S401 as I needed the space and money. Last night, it sold.

I’m glad to see the back of it, because it’s been an endless hassle of time wasters trying to sell it (normal for Subarus), but I’ll certainly miss driving it. Out of all my Subarus, it’s probably been my favourite.

Thankfully it sounds like it’s gone to a good home, with an owner who is also a long time sufferer of classic car ownership. This will only be his second car with more than 4 forward gears!

This makes me happy, as it would gut me to sell the car to some munter that would ruin it (again). I spent too much time, money and effort getting the car back into the condition it should have been in, and it’s far too special of a car to just be treated like some normal Legacy.

So what exactly did I do?

Purchased a car sight unseen, filthy, with no gas and running badly
I started with replacing the spark plugs, which were toast
Tried some upper engine cleaner, but still running like a bag of rubbish
Removed a few tons of mud from under the car, in the rain
Found why the car ran badly, a dead coil!
Now that it was running sweet, it was time for a service
Replaced gross cabin filter and a very blown speaker
Changed the drivetrain oil, got some tools, and fitted some LEDs and an ash tray
Fixed the cup holder, stripped the nasty, sticky and ugly “soft touch” interior trim and coated in Plasti-Dip
Did some fully hektik hill climbing and gravel roading
Cleaned some stuff and did an exhaust video
Cleaned some more stuff, including the engine bay. Flash.
And finally, tried the Hose 10 mod, which was a bust.

The car page for the S401.

Good bye old friend, we had some fun.