2006 Subaru Legacy Awd Black W/ Sunroof on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2020 Subaru Legacy teased with luxurious interior before Chicago Auto Show reveal

The 2020 Subaru Legacy will be revealed at the 2019 Chicago Auto Show, and today we get a couple teasers for what to expect of the completely redesigned sedan. Both shots give us good looks at the exterior and interior, the latter indicates a move slightly upmarket. Plus we have spy photos from a little while back. Nothing about the Legacy's exterior comes as a surprise here. It's still a normally proportioned sedan with generic sedan styling. Spy shots from last year further indicate an evolution of the previous model's design language. Of course, with the proliferation of crossovers, simply being a sedan is becoming unique. New LED DRLs are striking as they surround nearly the entire headlight. Beyond that, we'll have to wait for the shadows to melt away to make any true judgements on styling changes. The interior has a bit more going on, specifically the vertical center screen that looks larger and fancier than any Subaru infotainment system we've seen yet. It reminds us of Ram's wonderful 12-inch vertical screen and its vertical banks of buttons. Each refreshed or new Subaru demonstrates marked improvement in the infotainment department, like the Forester and Ascent, but this appears to be on another level. The design and materials are nicer, too, with the brown stitched leather covering the dash leading to an elegant center console and gear shift area. In the darkened teaser photo, this looks like a luxury car interior. We'll be on the show floor ready to test out Subie's new infotainment after the official reveal next Thursday, and to see if the Legacy feels as luxurious as it looks right now. Related video:

Subaru reveals WRX STI racecar for 24 Hours of N"urburgring [w/video]

Subaru has announced that it will be running a race-spec version of the upcoming WRX STI in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in June. The 2014 race will mark the seventh year in a row that Subaru has campaigned a car at the day-long Ring race, but this will be the first race outing for the new WRX STI, which isn't set to debut until next week at the Detroit Auto Show.
Subaru will be in the SP3T class, for turbocharged engines displacing 1.75 to 2.0 liters, and is targeting its third class win, after finishing second last year. To do that, it'll be going toe-to-toe with racing versions of cars from Audi, Volkswagen and Seat.
The team will be led by Hideharu Tatsumi, who was responsible for last year's team. Drivers will include Toshihiro Yoshida and Kouta Sasaki, while another pair of European drivers will be announced at a later date.

Custom cabinetry gives this Subaru Outback camper cred

Where there's space, there's wood to make it more functional. At least, that seems to be the ethos at customization shop Solid Wood Worx. The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company has turned vehicles such as the Ram ProMaster, Nissan XTerra, Toyota 4Runner, and Ford F-250 into small, livable mobile homes. The most recent project is a Subaru Outback, which uses a unique series of cabinets to meet a fairly complex checklist of asks.  Noticed by Motor1, the Outback belongs to an adventurer named Sean who is setting out on a six-month climbing trip. She reached out to Brian, a woodworker and former cabinet builder, at Solid Wood Worx with her vision of the Outback as a sleep-in camper. She wanted a flat place where she and her 80-pound dog could sleep, a slide-out kitchen with stove and fridge, storage for climbing gear, storage for clothes, and a designated space for a water supply. Possibly the biggest ask was an integrated solar panel with a battery and inverter for off-the-grid living. Brian made it all work.  With the solar panel and spare tire hitched to the Thule roof rack and out of the way, Brian built an interior platform that stretched from the rear hatch to the back of the front seats. Since this eliminated any use of the rear seats, they were taken out. The platform itself has built-in drawers, and the upper portion is split into two functional spaces. The right side has just enough room to fit a small mattress, but Sean looks small, so it should work perfectly. Beneath the bed is the sliding drawer that stows the camp stove. On the left side is a massive amount of storage that doubles as secondary kitchen prep space. On top of that is a small fridge that opens on top like a cooler.  With the kitchen area in its "out" position, a secondary panel opens up to the space where the spare tire used to be. Inside that, Brian's team fitted the wiring, fuses and equipment for the solar panel's battery storage. For this project, Brian used a 100 amp-hour battery and a 100-watt solar kit from Renogy. That power feeds an inverter, a few USB plugs, and the small fridge. Looking through the rear passenger door, there are even more storage spaces for things such as clothes, bedding, shoes, and a laptop. The water tank slides in behind the front seat.  In most of his builds, Brian uses three-quarter-inch nine-ply pine plywood that he gets from Home Depot. It costs roughly $35 for a 4x8 sheet, and each piece weighs about 60 pounds.