David Higgins confirmed on telecommunications whether he was ready or not. I responded in a positive tone showing my thumbs up.
I lost control of the steering before I could complete it and for all this I kept my enthusiasm and the Tilton racing clutch of the responsible car. David told me not to rush, but to release the clutch slowly and move forward by gently increasing the throttle.
Some of the moments in my life made me wonder if this was real and yes, this was one of them. In fact, this was one of the best moments of my life. After all, he was occupying the driver’s seat in a Subaru STI that has a powerful 330 horsepower engine. This car is very competitive to compete in Rally America. We’re at Team O Neil’s rally school, which is a great place in the sub-zero New Hampshire woods.
We took all kinds of fancy gear with us on this frosty morning including fire extinguishers, a roll cage, two scalloped goats, harnesses, a steering wheel, and a tally hydraulic handbrake. This car has a Sadev six-speed transmission gearbox that is mounted 3 inches to the left of the handbrake. Any resemblance to the base of the production car is not present, except for the signal arm. In addition to many instrumentation devices, the car contains a digital tachometer and Coralba odometer showing that it is 12 o’clock.
The exterior of this car is inspired by Vermont Sports Car. The upgrade to this car was made in December 2013 which included a custom roll cage for added safety and strength, a welded body with seams along with a replacement composite panel, much stronger Reiger suspension rally shocks, method gravel wheels that are 15 inches tall and 7 inches wide, a fuel cell with FIA specs, much better and stronger drive and propulsion axles, Alcon brakes with a larger size and DMAC tires, to name a few.
Just a few minutes before I stopped, the pipes on our Subaru STI made a loud noise that was probably due to dirt inside. The cabin inside the car was filled with the smell of combustion from the burned racing fuel. My fingers and toes are almost frozen at the moment and I could barely steer the wheel. The heat radiation from the 2.0-liter turbo engine provides great relief.