LUCIANRIDERS

Well today is a sad day for me as Jon Watson’s Subaru WRX STI 555 project has come to an end as the car has been sent to the shippers and will be leaving the island tomorrow for good! To get an idea as to the scope of this project, check out the following forum link where the car has been featured: The story of the 555

Jon has decided that the car would be better off in the US where it can be properly tuned on a four wheel dyno and race on tracks suited to the performance that this car has always promised. It will also be able to compete against cars of similar performance, particularly against other WRX cars which is what is most relevant about a project like this.

As John F Kennedy stated about going to the Moon, “We do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard!” This has been the maxim behind building the 555 to the present state of tune. There are much easier cars to get a similar type of performance out of and that is what most people attempt to do. Jon on the other hand wanted to build something out of the ordinary, a car so incredible that people not only here in St. Lucia but also around the world would follow, hanging onto every post that I or Jon have made both here and on many other forums.

In this Jon has succeeded beyond what we had ever thought possible. Building this car even in the US or England would have been both extremely difficult and expensive but doing it here in St. Lucia was beyond difficult! And as for the price, well I believe Jon must have nightmares about the money that has been spent! As anyone that has seen this car up close and hopefully can see from the pictures that I have posted, this car is a work of art! There is virtually nothing that has been left untouched and Jon has not only crafted a working and moving piece of art, but a car that is now so singular of purpose that to think of it anywhere but on a drag strip is almost blasphemous.

Unfortunately St. Lucia will almost certainly not see the likes of a car like this again, as it is hard to believe that there is anyone here that is as this committed to spending as much personal time, money and effort as Jon has to build his car. One also has to remember that Jon lives in Soufriere and the car has been at my home at Cap Estate for at least 90% of the three years that the car has been building. Just having the energy to drive up just about every weekend to work on the car must have required a herculean effort.

The car is now safely ensconced within a shipping container and will be put aboard a Tropical Ship to be offloaded in Miami. The car will then be trucked to P&L where they will put the car on their Dyno for final tuning. There is nothing else that is left to be done, the car is complete! The car was driven out of my driveway and up and onto Connies trailer. I have video and I will post it as soon as I have done the editing.

I had really hoped that the car would have made some last passes at the base just to prove what this car is really capable of, but without final tuning; this would have been either fool hardy or a very limited display of what would have been expected. But the cost of having to bring the tuners back just to basically scratch an itch was financially not feasible. The plan for a while was to compete with the car in the US so the risk of breaking it just to prove a point here in St. Lucia was not worth it. I whole heartedly stand by Jon’s decision on this, too much has been invested to date!

Here are but a few pictures to remind us of what a great car the 555 is.

Still wet from the shower and ready for the trip!

There is no bad angle to this car!

Now that is a beautiful engine bay!