Volks:

I took my first really loaded camping trip this weekend in my 84 Westy.
2 friends and I drove to Shreveport, LA. to the Cross Lake Combeaux.
It's a sailing regatta consisting of triangle racing on Saturday and a
LONG distance race on Sunday. The turn out was pretty slim due to the
rainy weather.  But the bus was awesome!  This was my first camping trip
in my 84 Westy.  It was really an improvement over the 71 Westy I used
to have.  The refrigerator, stove, TV and....oh yeah....the ability to
tow a Hobie 16 3.5 hours to a race at 70-75 MPH.  That's right folks,
70-75 MPH.  I've got a 90 Subaru/84 Westy.  And with new 215/75/15
Yokohama HT's(on close out at tirerack.com) on Merkur Scorpio Wheels the
ride was sweet! It was turning 3600-3900 RPM's and pulled all but the
longest grades at 70+.  So for those of you sitting on the fence, the
Soob is it! I got 17mpg on the way over and about 15mpg on the way back
due to a head wind.  I just got the tires mounted about an hour before
we left.  The Yokohamas provided excellent traction in the rain and
really improved the handling over the iffy 14" C rated tires.  I noticed
the engine noise dropped dramatically after I dropped off the boat.
This leads me to believe the greatest noise with the new engine is
intake related. I'd appreciated any suggestions to deal with that.

Well, there you have it.  This is what I built this thing for.  To got
to regattas pulling a boat and live in luxury.  And BOY did it perform!

Now to finish those brakes, and the sink pump, and the............

Fair winds,
Shawn Clark
84/90 Westy/Soob