A Very Special Subaru

Those who follow this blog know that the Demaras family is a habitual subject here and the reason is simple, they are one of the most active bunch of gearheads in town. I eagerly follow their adventures on Demaras.com and if you like racing, you should too.

It is well known that every gearhead has a favorite automotive brand to which he or she devotes unconditional love, in the case of the Demaras, the brand is Subaru. The car from this very traditional Japanese automaker has been in the family for generations. Nowadays, they have two Subies in their garage, a 2003 Impreza WRX, and the other one is a model that, in my opinion, is the coolest Subaru ever built, the SVX.

Besides being a very rare model, Chris’s SVX received some very tasteful modifications, making it even more special.

No one is more suitable to talk about a car than the owner himself, and that is why I asked Chris to write about his Subaru. It is a great story, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Text by Chris Demaras.

When I was a kid, my dad bought his first Subaru. It was a white 1986 Subaru XT with a 5-speed manual and a turbo-boost gauge on the dashboard. I loved it! After six years and 350,000+ km, dad returned to Scarboro Subaru to check out the new model; the SVX. This Subaru was more powerful, more beautiful, and WAY more expensive. It was nearly $28,000 in 1991 (approx. $60,000 in today’s dollars). We went out for a test drive, and I remember the car was just so futuristic looking to the eyes of 17-year-old me. But there’s NO WAY my first-generation Greek-Canadian dad was going to spend that kind of money on a car. We quietly returned the vehicle to the dealership after the test drive, and thanked our young salesman, Guy. I stored the memory of that test drive in my brain for a couple decades.

I always liked that SVX and cherished the memory of my dad and me doing car stuff that day, since he’s not much of a ‘car guy’. Over the years, my father bought 5 more Subarus, and I got a WRX for my wife. I’d mentioned to Scarboro Subaru that if a good-condition SVX ever came up for sale, they should let me know.

Twenty years went by, but the same salesman Guy (the General Manager now) called with good news. A mint condition 1992 SVX was just sold back to the dealership. The original owner, Mr. Wagman, had passed away. The car was ‘babied’ since new, and needed a new owner. Mr. Wagman’s widow asked that the car be sold to a new owner on the condition that they don’t mess with the car, don’t paint any idiotic flames on it, and don’t put a big dumb spoiler on the rear end like you see on all the other Subarus. If I could refrain from doing any of that… the car would be mine. I hustled over to Scarboro Subaru and didn’t even ask how much. Guy just handed me the keys for a test drive, and I didn’t come back for two days. That’s how it all started.

It really turns heads! Being such a unique car, it attracts attention from people who recognize what a rare bird it is, and people who have no idea what they’re looking at but couldn’t help but be attracted to the sleek body. Acquiring the car also gave me the chance to become part of the car scene, to be part of the shows I had been attending for years. My SVX was one of two or three at the Toronto Subaru Club’s annual ‘HyperMeet’ event, compared to the hundreds of WRXs and Foresters. It was definitely the only one playing ‘Speed Racer’ cartoons on DVD in the Kenwood.

The Subaru SVX is a rare car. It was manufactured from 1992 to 1997, but my early production example was actually built in September 1991. Total production was just over 14,000 cars during the 5-year run, and less than 1,000 ever made it from Japan to Canada. This specific car was originally sold at Scarboro Subaru in Toronto’s east end and continues to be dealer-serviced to this day

The SVX (called the Alcyone in Japan) is a front-engine, all-wheel-drive, four-passenger, two-door Grand Touring coupe. This was Subaru’s ‘halo car’ and was meant to compete with other GTs like the Jaguar XJ-S and Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC cars of the era.

Not quite a high-performance vehicle, the SVX was powered by a naturally aspirated 3.3 L ‘boxer’ engine rated at 230 HP / 224 TQ. The 24-valve, DOHC flat-six engine was only available with the 4EAT four-speed electronic automatic transmission, and an all-wheel drive system called ACT-4 which varied the amount of torque sent to the rear wheels. The torque split was normally 65% front / 35% rear, but based on driving conditions, the split could reach 50% / 50%.

The original SVX transmission is its weak point (torque-converter clutch and high-clutch failures) so the first modification to my SVX was to install an updated “Phase 1” 4EAT transmission from a Subaru Legacy. A big difference is the ‘new’ transmission has a 4.44 rear gear ratio (compared to the original 3.90 gears) which means the car now launches off the line way harder but revs a little higher at highway speeds. This was a complex modification, as the original LSD carrier from the SVX had to be swapped into the new 4.44 rear differential housing.

Over the years I made other minor modifications like lightweight engine pulleys and braided stainless-steel brake lines. The stock 16″ wheels were replaced with bigger 17″ BBS wheels from a Subaru WRX STi and a set of Yokohama Advan tires. The original ‘waterfall’ grill was replaced with a more modern-looking 1996 SVX grill, plus some clear corner lights.

A Delta Speed body-kit (knock-off) was installed, including side skirts, front splitters and the taller JDM rear spoiler. Last year I finally had the windows tinted, and then wrapped the roof with black vinyl, emphasizing the ‘jet-fighter cockpit’ look that famed Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro (also responsible for the BMW M1 and DeLorean DMC 12) was aiming for when he sketched out the SVX in the late 1980’s.

The SVX is long, low, wide and heavy; at 3,500 lbs it is no lightweight! The soft springs and comfy shocks made for a very smooth ride on the highway (it was designed as a Grand Tourer, remember) but all that weight caused some serious body-roll on twisty roads. The original suspension components were old and tired, and new components were no longer produced, so the second major modification I made was a set of coilovers, plus a stiffer anti-roll bar. The car sat about 2″ lower, and the stiff springs really kept the car planted. The coilovers had adjustable valves to fine-tune the bounce/rebound of the shocks, but the ride was just never comfortable. And those coilovers were just so noisy! It got to the point where I’d only bring the SVX out a couple of times over the summer. Very sad…I even thought of selling it.

As with many things in life, I solved the problem by throwing money at it. Two years ago, I contacted NV Auto in Hamilton to discuss retro-fitting an AirLift Performance series air-suspension kit (originally designed for the 2002 – 2007 Subaru WRX) to the 1992 SVX. Some components from the SVX are interchangeable with the WRX, but it would still take a lot of cutting, welding, trial and error. Many months (and many dollars) later, the SVX was back on the road. There’s a 2.5 gallon aluminum air tank in the trunk, taking up all the space, but who cares! With the bags ‘aired-out’ the body rests flat on the ground with the wheels tucked up into the fenders. It looks amazing now, and at 45 PSI, the car rides like a Cadillac.

Every time I drive the SVX, I feel like a movie star. People stare at the car and give me thumbs up. Drivers of more common Subarus will always chat me up at the coffee shop, since this is a model many have never seen in person before.  Now that the car has some custom touches, like the suspension and body kit,

The SVX finally feels like it’s mine, and not like a car I’m looking after for Mr. Wagman. I bet he’d be proud to see his baby is still cruising the streets of Toronto more than 30 years later.

Note of the editor

On Friday, Sep/22, Chris invited me to attend a Toronto Subaru Club meeting, in Newmarket. There I had a chance to hang out with the guys and Chris even allowed me to take the SVX for a spin. The car drives amazingly and it sounds like an F-One.

Thanks, guys.