Get your Subaru Fix! | Subie Freaks

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The Local Subaru Meets Series showcases some of the Subaru meets running all across America. This time we’re heading over to Iowa and checking out the Des Moines meet which happens every first Wednesday of the month! I interviewed the founder of the meet, Kristi (Imprzya from NASIOC), to see what the deal is. She gave us some great responses! Now I know what I’d do if I ever visit Iowa! Check it out! (Minor editing was done by me.)

So tell me about yourself: My name is Kristi and I am 25 yrs old, I got my first Subaru when I was in high school, it was an 87 Subaru GL with push button 4wd. By the end of my senior year of high school I had sold the GL and bought a new 2000 2.5 RS coupe. I kept this car until college when the 02 WRX came out. I sold my coupe to one of my college professors with just under 30k miles on it and bought a WRB 02 WRX sedan. With the WRX I was part of a local car club. I got into moding and bought a Cobb exhaust and accessport for it and had a Cobb stage 2 WRX. I moved from Wisconsin to Iowa to go to grad school. Before I moved I posted around on few boards asking if there were any Suby people in the Ames/Des Moines area. I pmed a couple of people and ended up meeting up with Justin (who is now my husband J ) . He had an 05 STi that he has just got. We started meeting other Subaru people in the area. Also, with Justin’s help, I continued to mod my car. I got STi pinks, a vf34 and hyperflow tmic and Justin and I traveled to St. Louis to have the car protuned. After that, I was worried about the weak transmissions in the WRX and had just a job at an insurance company. I wanted a car that was a little better for commuting, so I found an 00 RS coupe and Justin and I went to buy it in Chicago. It was after I had this RS that we started monthly meets in Des Moines. It was summer of 2005 and we would Park at Bostons and sit on the patio and eat and stare at our cars. At first, it was just a couple of us. Me, Justin, Brian (04 sti), Troy (04 sti)… I drove my white 00 RS for awhile and Justin fixed it up quite a bit and then we sold because I decided I wanted my original 00 RS coupe back. I contacted my old professor and ended up trading him my 02 WRX for my old RS (with 40k miles on it) plus some cash. I finally had my high school car back! I also decided to buy and 06 Turbo Baja as a winter and trip car. Justin and I got married in July of 07 and we currently own 4 subarus. A 2005 Sti, 2006 Baja T, 2000 RS coupe and 1993 impreza L. (*Editors Note* Impressive! Nice collection.)

Could I get a brief description of your meet: We started out meeting at Boston’s restaurant in the summer of 2005, they would cone off a section of the parking lot in front and we would hang out, chat about the cars and eat dinner on the patio. Later we switched our meeting place to the parking lot of the biggest mall in Des Moines call Jordan Creek, we thought we would have more visibility there. We meet there the first Wednesday of every month. We usually all park in the back of the parking lot hang out and chat for bit, then we pick from a variety of restaurants in walking distance to go eat! Since the Subarus have a similar following as the EVOs, we changed it to an AWD drive meet and have a mix of Subies and EVOs.

Why or how did you decide to come up with it? Since both Justin and I had Subarus and we would see quite a few in the area, we decided to start a meet. We would leave notes on peoples’ cars if we saw a WRX or a STi in a parking lot somewhere. We started the thread on nasioc and the first meet there were only a couple of cars. However, some peak meets in the summer we had 15-20 cars. In the winter it dies off a little and there are just us regulars, but come summer, we always add more people. We have had a couple of people come from Iowa City, about 1.5 hours away.

How long has it been running? We started it in Summer of 05, so this summer, it will have been going on 3 years! (*Editors Note* Awesome!)

What’s the atmosphere like? Is it pretty chill? Its pretty relaxed, Pretty laid back atmosphere. Attendance is not mandatory and there is no roll call per se.

What’s the age demographics? Teens? Young-adults? Middle-Aged? Mixed? Ages are completely mixed, most of us regulars are mid to late 20s to early 30s. However, there are some kids in high school and college who join us occasionally, along with some older people with their kids have also showed up.

Can you name any of the regulars (NASIOC or real names)? The regulars are (I’ll use nasioc screen names, in case they don’t want their names out there):

• Jnorth85: (my husband) 2000 SRP 2.5 RSTi
• EXOIXMR: 2003 Red Evo
• Addicted: 2007 White STi
• Prez: 2005 White Evo
• IACT9A: 2007 Jeep Unlimited… Previously an Evo owner
• Roybfr: 2005 LGT wagon
• WE R ND: 2004 WRB STi
• Trkjnky: 2005 Black STi
• Roksax: 2002 SRP WRX wagon

What’s the average number of people that come to it? Usually the regulars (about 10 of us) in the winter, but in the summer we have had around 20 or more people show up.

Got any cool/funny stories? No funny incidents per se. We all have a good time ribbing each other or laughing about things said or things that have happened.

What’s some of the sweetest rides you’ve seen at the meet? They are all sweet!!!

Best parts of the meet? Best parts would be seeing new faces, new cars, new modifications done to them and making new friends.

Worst parts? Worst parts would be the bad weather and the lack of attendance sometimes. It’s no fun to stand outside and chat when it is only 10 degrees out!

Any events or plans that happened outside of the meet? There are couple of us (from the meets) who now meet up on Friday nights to go out to eat. Also, quite a few of us go to the local AutoX and track days in Omaha.

Have any cool pictures you can show(of the people & especially the subies)?

Thanks a lot Kristi for sharing information about the Des Moines Meet! I know I wouldn’t want to miss out on this if I lived there!

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