The biggest Subaru meeting in the world proves that diversity is more than a marketing message

Each car meeting has its own atmosphere. Some focus on power, others prioritize hooliganism more. Some crowds welcome cars that have seen certain things, obsessing over the original patina and smells of a vintage interior, while other events unfold in a veritable cloud of quick, citrus-scented details.

What was the atmosphere like at this year’s Wicked Big Meet, the world’s largest Subaru gathering, located in Stafford Springs, Connecticut? It was all of the above, and more.

On one side of the parking lot, I chatted with a group of GC Impreza drivers, owners of the classic model that established Subaru’s motorsport pedigree in the late ’90s. Next door, a fleet of Foresters, Land-ready Outbacks and Crosstreks monitored the action from atop their lift springs. Meanwhile, an endless sea of ​​pristine new VB-era WRXs gleamed in the sun, their numbers punctuated by a few dirty rallycrossers bearing fresh battle scars.

There were surely some themes at the Wicked Big Meet, including more big wings and gold wheels per capita than anywhere else on the planet, but the only real consistency here was a lack of consistency. That, and strong mutual respect, whether you arrived with a purple BRZ in a bag or a base Impreza L wagon.

I’ve attended many brand-specific gatherings over the years, but I’ve never seen one as comprehensive as this one. In retrospect, this shouldn’t have been a surprise given how much of a volume player Subaru is these days. The company is experiencing 22 months of consecutive growth and has sold more than 630,000 cars in 2023, up from 556,000 the previous year. It’s a mass market success due in large part to expanding its offerings into new niches.

Lately, it’s all about the off-road world, with the Wilderness series spanning from the Outback to the Forester to the Crosstrek. While jacked-up wagons are nothing new to Subaru enthusiasts, they were certainly rare when the Wicked Big Meet began in 2005.

95.3 WDNH FM DJ Adam Owens has been the voice of Wicked Big Meet since the very beginning. “Eight or 10 years ago, SOA (Subaru of America) really got involved officially. And that’s when it accelerated,” Owens told me. “It went from a meeting in a parking lot to, you know, the real deal.”

This original parking lot from 2005 was Nashoba Valley Ski Area in Westford, Massachusetts. However, the event’s growing popularity necessitated a change of venue.

Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway has been the place to be for over a decade, right in the heart of the Subaru-crazed northeastern United States. A half-mile oval track best known for its days on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour might not seem like the right venue for a brand whose motorsport exploits usually involve sliding on gravel, but it turned out turned out to be a great place.

For one thing, it has acres of parking, enough for the nearly 8,000 attendees and their bellowed cars.

But, perhaps more importantly, it provides excellent hunting space. This year, Subaru invited three stars from its various motorsport endeavors to the show: rally driver and extreme superstar Travis Pastrana, his rally co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino and professional skateboarder/rallycross driver Bucky Lasek.

The trio was a huge draw for attendees, who packed the oval stands to watch Pastrana and Lasek turn one set of tires after another into smoke. Pastrana was driving the Family Huckster, a 1983 GL wagon that Subaru built to enable it to climb the Goodwood hill in 2022. With 862 horsepower on tap and active aerodynamics, the donuts and drifts were extreme.

Even though Lasek’s old Subaru rallycross machine, which he calls “Betty,” wasn’t as powerful or as advanced as Pastrana’s, he found the momentum and commitment to launch the thing on sideways through turns one and two and halfway down the back straight before physics finally caught up. This was a considerable deviation in every way.

These are antics designed to appeal to younger audiences, but the packed stands featured as many gray beards as brown beards. Age was also a demographic that this event easily overcame.

Among the attendees I spoke with, Shane Chaudhry was the brand’s newest devotee, making the trip to Connecticut for his second Wicked Big Meet after purchasing his first Subaru two years ago. He brought this car, a 2018 WRX Premium, from his home in Arizona when he moved to New Jersey. But it didn’t take long for him to add another one to his collection, a 2018 WRX STI Type RA.

Chaudhry and his friends started the Mayonaka project (“midnight” in Japanese) as an ode to Japan’s iconic Mid Night Club, which, at least officially, no longer exists. But unlike its namesake, the Mayonaka project does not aim to circumvent the law in the early hours of the morning: this club is rather devoted to boba races at 2 a.m.

“When we moved here, we kind of wanted to start building our own little team, this idea of ​​late ’90s car culture,” he said. “We are passionate about food. We really like those late night races, but we’re not those drivers where we’re trying to race or anything at night.

Respect and appreciation for Japanese culture was certainly present everywhere at the show, including many cars sporting kanji and katakana decals, but the overall vibe of the event was all-American. There is an open and friendly atmosphere here that is not to be missed. Everyone was happy to talk about their own cars, and everyone took great pains to express admiration for each other’s machines, even ones that wouldn’t turn heads in a grocery store parking lot.

“The coolest thing about Subaru is that it doesn’t matter what kind of car you have, and it doesn’t matter where it is in the building process,” Chaudhry told me. When he attended his first Wicked Big Meet last year, he was nervous because his only mods were reproduction wheels and a fender. “Everyone loved the construction,” he said. “They were all complimenting him and making me feel really good.”

“The original motto of Wicked Big Meet was ‘Come for the cars and stay for the people,’ and they’ve moved away from that motto, but it still remains true,” Nick Rabchenuk told me. “You can show up and tell anyone about their car and they will be just as passionate about your car as they are about theirs.”

Rabchenuk owns a 2001 Impreza RS, modified to the hilt “except for the engine,” he said, in an ode to the “slow, fast car” philosophy. Rabchenuk volunteered during the original competition series when it was just a gathering in the ski resort parking lot, but took a step back during the transition to his current status, more big, in Connecticut.

Even though the culture has evolved over that time, Rabchenuk said, the overall vibe endures. “It’s a strange thing to describe because the culture, by and large, stays the same, but the audience it appropriates changes. So there are a lot of younger generations who appreciate the newer cars and what they can do off the beaten path, which is a lot. Cars have become much more capable, no matter if you’re off-roading, if you like street performance, or if you just want a family wagon that’s pretty peppy and has an aftermarket,” Rabchenuk said .

“And then there are weirdos like us who pay attention to 20-year-old cars. For example, we reverse engineer floor mats and stuff like that,” Rabchenuk said. As a weirdo, I can appreciate this change, but Rabchenuk says Subaru has done a great job meeting the needs of this niche despite expanding its overall market into the mainstream. “I don’t think they’re any less enthusiastic,” he said.

And the proof is in the car that Subaru of America revealed at this year’s Wicked Big Meet. The new WRX tS is a special edition of the WRX sedan, including some choice upgrades that enthusiasts have been clamoring for, like an adaptive suspension, six-speed manual transmission and sport seats.

This follows last year’s WRX TR, itself offering features that enthusiasts had been demanding online, sometimes rudely. Despite their gregarious nature in person, Subaru fans are known for their harsh tendencies in online forums, complaining about anything that doesn’t look and drive like a 22B and isn’t available for under 30 000 $.

If there’s one thing fans complain about the most, it’s the lack of a modern WRX STI, but Rabchenuk doesn’t pay much attention to that: “Oh, they don’t have an STI anymore ” he said, rolling his eyes. “Who cares? They have a WRX that will outperform an STI from 10 years ago. It’s all you make of it.

Regardless of the lack of an STI version on the current WRX, “what you do with it” was indeed something that everyone at the Wicked Big Meet respected. Young or old, factory fresh or vintage from the 90s, dirt or asphalt, everyone here made the event their own and did not hesitate to share their passion.

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