The purchase

I began actively searching for a BRZ sometime early to mid-November. While chatting with my car buddies on our discord chat room I remembered that my friend Clyde had sent me an autotrader link to a Lightning Red BRZ a few weeks back that was fairly local to us here in N.J. At the time when he sent me the link I wasn't really interested because I was set in finding an Argento FR-S. However, after a few days of extensive car searching I came to realize that the Lightning Red he had sent me was a good deal, and 30 min drive from my house. By this time I now knew that I also wanted a BRZ vs an FR-S because my eyes prefer the BRZ front-end and I also knew that I wanted a Limited trim because comfort & convenience for daily driving duties.

 Limited adds:

• Alcantara seat inserts with leather bolsters All-Weather Package (dual-mode heated front seats, heated exterior mirrors). The heated options are useful up here in the Northeast U.S.A
• Auto-dimming rear view mirror with homelink.
• Dual-zone automatic climate control system.
• Key less access and start(used to it with S2000 and wife's SUV.)

The Limited trim offers other minor differences but the above are the ones I cared about. I would have preferred no rear spoiler but it is what it is. 

A quick search in our chat room to find this link again and I was happy to see it was still available for sale and price had been reduced $1k since I first saw the ad.

Drove to BMW of Bloomfield one Saturday afternoon where I met with sales rep Jerry Martinez, nice gentlemen, never felt pressured by him to strike a deal. I'm not a fan of buying from dealerships but Jerry and the team made it pleasant. I test drove the car which had just around 13,323 miles on it. Did my own personal inspection , carfax checked out, visual inspection for all VIN tags were good, paint matched on all body panels, everything worked, no visible leaks anywhere, no weird noises(other than the infamous fuel pump chirping) and the test drive showed no signs of transmission, engine or other problems.
Looked good, felt good.

I left the dealership not striking a deal but felt good about that particular car. I wanted to go home and sleep on it. I decided to do a bit more homework on pricing and one final car search for local inventory within 100 or so miles to make sure nothing new that caught my eye had just been listed.

Fast forward a few days past Thanksgiving and my car search yielded this particular vehicle as being my best option at that time which met my criteria (fairly local, under $19k, mfg warranty still left, limited trim, under 15k miles on odometer). Called up Jerry and made an appt. to go see the car one more time, one more test drive, one more once over and then we sat and struck a deal.

Funny thing....on this day Jerry says "My manager says he knows you and your S2000"....err.....what?

Turns out one of the managers at BMW of Bloomfield is a local racer friend. Small world, I felt even more comfortable buying now.

Deal made and a couple of hours later I was driving her home. Woohoo

I spent a couple of hours when I got it home clearing out the garage to make room for Knuckles to sleep tucked away next to the S2000. Interestingly enough the red paint on both the BRZ and the S2000 are so close to each other. Heck, even my snow thrower's red paint matches!

So, why a Subaru BRZ?

It was a really hard decision on letting go of the Honda S2000(up for sale soon). It's such an amazing drivers car. The twin platform has now been out for 5 or so years and there are now hundreds of articles, reviews, forum threads etc speaking of how great the platform is. 

*not comparing to the S2000 or saying one is better than the other*. 

With the popularity of the platform within the import world and within SCCA (STX, DS) my interests had been slowly increasing. Sometime early 2017 I decided I wanted to start off by just driving one casually at a parking lot or around the block. Luckily for me being a member of the autocross community affords me the privilege of being around a variety of cars with friends more than willing to let you take it for a spin....literally. I was lucky enough that my friend James Tatad has had his 2013 for a bit now and was gracious enough to let me drive it up/down the service road by Metlife stadium. I just wanted to get a quick feel for its steering, visibility, seating position, cockpit layout and transmission. That short test drive peaked my interest even more. All of the above characteristics felt great. The 2017 season had just gotten started and it was time for me to concentrate on my STR car and my driving, so the BRZ/FR-S interest was put away for a bit. 

Fast forward a couple of months and now I'm wanting to go to Solo Nationals. There are basically two ways of attending Solo Nationals. 

a) you go in your own car

b) you fly & co-drive someone else's car.

I had limited time off left at work and other logistics such as recently moving to NJ from NY that taking my S2000 out there just seemed far fetched. So I set out to secure me a fly & drive. It just so happens that it was the same year that James Tatad was planning on taking his own car out to Nationals. James had gone to Solo Nationals for his first time in 2016 as a fly & drive arrangement of his own in Steve Seguis's STR Honda S2000 (Lupa). James was gracious enough to offer up the co-drive in his STX car for Nationals to me. How could I say no?

I was excited for many reasons. 

1. It's Nationals

2. It's Nationals

3. hanging out with a bunch of my friends, meet a bunch of new friends and get to race against the best in the country, in a car I was very interested in. Yea...I was excited. 

First things first...had to co-drive the car at a local event to start getting used to the cars dynamics. 

Co-driving James's STX 2013 Subaru BRZ with NNJR SCCA

Co-driving James's STX 2013 Subaru BRZ at the 2017 SCCA Solo National Championships

To get a feel for what Solo Nationals is, check out this video

Speedway Motors 2017 SCCA Solo National Championships Video

The test drive back home, then the local event co-drive, then the Nationals co-drive and finally the announcement of the much rumored twin Spec Class by the SCCA at Solo Nationals pretty much solidified me wanting to buy an FR-S or BRZ as my next car for the next couple of years.

The Solo Spec Coupe class was announced at the right time for me. Here I was needing to significantly keep my racing budget much lower than previous years while wanting/needing to downsize on number of vehicles in the household while still being able to enjoy autox. Yes I could have done stock class.FOMO

This is how I ended up deciding on an FR-S or BRZ for SSC class. It checks all the right boxes for me right now.  

Those close to me know that I was not looking for a red car again. When I set out to find a twin (FR-S or BRZ), I had decided on wanting an Argento FR-S but the forces of the universe landed me at BMW of Bloomfield, picking up a Lightning Red Subaru BRZ Limited. This particular car, a 2015 Subaru BRZ Limited, just so happened to meet my other criterias(price, mileage, trim, distance and history). I couldn't pass it up.

Most of my racing friends know me for my red Honda S2000 and they all say they can't picture me in another color. I guess this works. 

For those wondering why this blog's URL is KnucklesBRZ.

Simple...

I also race with a death grip, tight fisted , so this also fits the bill. Need to loosen up....