Hello Everyone!

Long time lurker and excited to start my project thread!

A bit of car background, I've always been into JDM cars and never really looked into anything European. In 2017, I was in search of a nice wagon to serve as my road trip/adventure car and discovered the E46 Touring. I fell in love with the platform after purchasing a 325XIT. I also discovered the ZHP at the same time but couldn't justify owning one since I already had a "fun" car (2016 STI) at the time. So I became a wierd lurker here and kept an eye on the market.

Fast forward a few years to 2020 and due to an unfortunate accident, I lost my pride and joy STI. I eventually replaced her with an IS350 but it just wasn't the car for me. Amazing daily driver with lots of creature comforts but I just missed the have a manual. Cars are also getting way too big and I missed having something a little smaller. I sold the Lexus and began hunting for a smaller compact car with a 6MT. After failing to find something interesting (GR86 was at the top of my list), I decided to finally start looking into the ZHP again.

After searching for a few months and missing a few deals, I finally found the one for me and picked her up over the labor day weekend! I flew with my wife to Seattle, WA and drove the car back to San Diego, CA. What a blast! Definitely a keeper car! Plans are to keep up with maintenance and to keep her as OEM as possible (maybe aftermarket shocks/struts like Konis?). Not many photos yet as a I was rushing home to pick up my dogs (dropped them off suddenly with friends to make the flight to Seattle).

Picking her up in Seattle


Rest stop at my folks home


Washing off the road grime at home





Some photos of fun cars past:
2021 IS350: Comfy as heck but also pretty boring. Thought it was a more mature move but just ended up not liking it...



2016 STI: The first car I ever purchased new and paid off. Called the dealership to place an order the moment I was promoted to a full time position from an intern. Still upset that she's gone from my life.