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Second blog entry for you guys.  Hopefully I'll have more time to write a more regular column.  Anyway onto one of my Christmas Gifts to myself. The Escort Passport 9500i Radar Detector. Let's start this off with my driving record.  My official record includes 2 tickets, one for an "unsafe lane change" and the other "disobeying a road sign".  This doesn't mean however that I haven't been pulled over a lot of times.  I also drive about 30-40k miles a year so I'm a bit above average in terms of miles driven each year.  I haven't been pulled over in about 2 years or so but felt that with the purchase of my 2005 Legacy GT Wagon w/5MT it was only a matter of time before I would get pulled over again.  With that said, I did my research and as most enthusiasts have said, you come down to either a Valentine 1 or an Escort.  I'm a gadget guy, and could not pass up the Escort 9500i with it's built in GPS chip.  After having it for about a week I finally got into all the features.  It has the usual X, K, KA, KU, Pop, Laser, and a few other bands that it will detect.  It also does SWS signals which some road signs emit giving messages to you in a digital readout.  Those are the "regular" features.  In addition, it has an adaptive volume control, so if your ambient interior sound is high, like if you have your stereo up or window open it will be louder than normal.  Once you get familiar with the bands and the warnings you can flip it to "expert" mode where it actually gives you the frequency of the radar in addition to the level of radar you are being hit with...

Ok, so I finally am able to sit back, relax, and give you guys my impressions of the 08 STi, first hand, non journalist view, non professional view of it....   Let me preface my write-up in that I've been a Subaru fan for years, starting in the late 80s when my cousin bought a 1988 XT6.  I bought my first Subaru in 1997, a 1988 XT6.  It wasn't perfect, the air-suspension needed replacement after some time, and this started my work on Subarus.  Since then I've been working on them in my spare time and even grew a small side business out of it.  My Subaru resume includes the 1988 XT6 Automatic, a 1991 XT6 Manual, a 1992 SVX AWD, 1996 Impreza L AT, 1994 Legacy Turbo Sedan 5MT, and now daily drive a 2005 Legacy Turbo Wagon 5MT.  I also have been road racing and track instructing since 2002 and auto crossing since 2000.    Enough of my Subaru background, as I could write for hours about my Subarus and the good fun I've had working on and driving them.  You are reading this for the '08 STi info!  So it was a fairly cool evening here in the Northeast, a few friends got together for dinner in NJ.  Chatted about Subarus and reminisced about the past, past Auto-Xing and the future of where Subaru will be heading too.  After dinner, we headed out to the parking lot, very similar to the old days in the late 90s when we would meet in parking lots and look at our cars and talk for hours about Subarus.  The 2008 STi was parked right next to my 2005 LGT Wagon, interesting how similar in stance these cars both have.    I sit down and begin to explore the car, the legend, the car that has grasped us since time began!  This was my first time getting a close up look at a car long before the general public would even be able to order it! Could this be?  I guess after being a loyal fan for so many years I finally got a peek at the future :)   Ok, so I sit down and immediately I feel that the seats are a tad wider than my Legacy GT seats.  The elbow room in the driver's seat is also a bit more, allowing my ample 300lb frame a comfortable seating position.  Forward visibility was superior to that of the previous STi due to a more elegant and slender intercooler scoop, slightly larger than the scoop on my LGT but subtle.  The dash was well laid out with the GPS/stereo unit placed high on the dash, something that I have missed since my 1997 Isuzu rodeo which placed the stereo at the top of the dash, above the HVAC controls, and above the air vents.  Being a driver, this is very important to me because when I drive, I like to drive, and controlling the stereo atop the dash like that makes it much easier while keeping your eyes and senses on the road...