Love. It’s What Makes a Subaru a Subaru…and the secret ingredient to attracting an estimated crowd of over five hundred participants throughout Subie Invasion! For some it was love for “man’s best friend” with the Nevada SPCA Pet Adoption team present, and for others it was love for family health with ThinkFirst-Nevada’s injury prevention education and awareness program and free bicycle helmet fitting. For everyone however, it was a love for all things SUBARU!

Pioneered six years ago by Flat4 Las Vegas Subaru Car Club, Subie Invasion has evolved through the synergy created by partnerships with Subaru of Las Vegas, Subaru of America, and many others to become a destination automotive event--following on the heels of the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) show held annually at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Open only to industry insiders, the SEMA show provides some of the best, brightest, and baddest automobiles, parts and accessories available on the planet. Through the generous contribution and participation of Subaru of America, Subie Invasion has become the second stop for many of those concept vehicles as well as SEMA-participating aftermarket tuners, suppliers, and automotive parts vendors. Without a doubt this makes Subie Invasion one of the most unique locally organized, All-Subaru events in the world!

Starting on Thursday night, Subie Invasion kicked off with over 200 Subaru enthusiasts joining us at In-n-Out Burger for our parking lot meet and raffle. Approximately 70 Subarus filled the lot, turning a quiet burger joint into an impromptu car show. Flat4LV entertained the crowd by selling raffle tickets and their Subie Invasion 2009 T-shirts, while our event sponsor prizes were stacked up high to tease the onlookers. You may have seen Subaru Time Attack driver, Tarzan Yamada signing autographs, while appearances by some of our event sponsors were also made to help raffle off all of the prizes. We hope everyone made sure to get a hot Double Double burger!

On Saturday, with the conclusion of SEMA the day before, it was time for our car show and vendor display at Subaru of Las Vegas. Subaru of America brought all of the Subarus that were being displayed at SEMA including Subaru Rally Team USA driver and the founder of DC Shoes, Ken Block’s new 400hp toy, SNOWTRAX, built by Vermont SportsCar, Gymkhana2 STI and “Tony the Tiger” Time Attack car built by Crawford Performance, Travis Pastrana’s winning open class STI Rally car, Stylish Subaru Legacy 2.5GT VIP “Bippu” car, 2010 WRX STI by SPT, Track-ready Legacy GTk Wagon, Subaru Road Racing Team’s new 2010 STI, AQ Motorsports/Harman Motive Time Attack STI, Gruppe-S Time Attack STI, Subaru of Las Vegas’s In house Project car, 1969 Subaru 360 SPT Delivery Van and many other amazing Subaru showcars and race cars.

Nearly five hundred people joined us throughout the cloudless Las Vegas autumn day entertained by DJ kraM and MC JRock, free gifts for participants from Subaru of America, DC Shoes, Endura-Tech, IACE Travel, RallySport Direct, Invidia USA and a free hot lunch served up by Las Vegas Bad Boyz baseball team. Official Subie Invasion 2009 Drink Sponsor Red Bull had enough cold energy drinks handed out to many thirsty participants in the dry beautiful Las Vegas weather.

If the SEMA show cars got our adrenaline pumping and the awesome BBQ got our stomachs growling, then the dog adoption team from the Nevada SPCA tugged on our heart strings with a dozen dogs ready for new homes. Not only did the canines endure the crowds and the cars, but they endeared themselves to several families who opened their hearts and homes to over half of them immediately after the weekend event concluded.

On the home and health front, Subie Invasion 2009 partnered with ThinkFirst – Nevada, our state chapter of the National Injury Prevention Foundation to give away about 90 bicycle helmets and teach bicycle safety to kids. In operation around the U.S. since 1986, ThinkFirst programs deliver life-saving information in a clear, concise and valid manner through presentations at schools, health fairs, and community events.

Twenty-three cars participated in the highly competitive car show as Flat4LV is known throughout the subie world as having some of the best highly modified cars. Entrees such as a wide-bodied two door custom 2004 WRX Wagon, 02 WRX with fully built engine with custom paint, tastefully done JDM style GC8 Impreza owned by Jay Tarbell from Las Vegas and V-mounted ZeroSports 2006 WRX owned by Chris Dunbar from Washington did not disappoint the crowd looking for some Subaru eye-candy.

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the car show:

Old School (Pre-2002) Class: Jay Tarbell - 2000 Impreza 2.5RS

2002 - 2003 Class: Jason Chan - 2002 Impreza WRX

2004 - 2005 Class: Lance Caliti - 2004 Impreza WRX STI

2006 - 2007 Class: Paul Janik - 2006 Impreza WRX STI

2008 - 2010 Class: Marcus Kong - 2008 WRX STI
Race Prep: Crawford Performance – 2008 WRX STI Time Attack Car “TONY”

Hardcore/Custom Class: Michael McGuinness – 2004 Impreza WRX Wagon

All Others Class: Brad Claeys – 2007 Forester XT

Best Of Show: Christopher A. Dunbar - V-mounted ZeroSports 2006 Impreza WRX

And to conclude the Subie Invasion, a total of 38 Subarus went on an early group drive on Sunday, November 8th 2009 organized by MySubie.com and enjoyed the photoshoot at several photogenic spots in Sin City and another 24 Subarus joined the second group drive to the twisty roads of Mt Charleston and tested their All-Wheel Drive handling and safety features of Subaru.

Subie Invasion 2009 Committee, SUBARU OF LAS VEGAS and Flat4LV would like to thank the following for their involvement and support of our Subie Invasion events:

SUBARU OF AMERICA

DC SHOES

RED BULL

ZENKAI MOTORSPORTS

Endura-Tech

RallySport Direct

Invidia USA

IACE Travel – Las Vegas Office

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) YOKOSO! JAPAN

MOTUL / GT Spec / Crawford Performance /SUBARU RALLY TEAM USA / INGS USA / Team 5ZIGEN / EPIC Engineering / Prodrive /Mackin Industries / Rays Engineering / Harman Motive / AQ Motorsports / ENEOS / Prosport Performance / Primitive Racing / MYSUBIE.COM / MillerSpec / SUBTLE SOLUTIONS / Racecomp Engineering / RacePhotosLab / Amsoil / Pole Position Raceway – Las Vegas / Pacific Custom Paint / GRAFIK impact / Fitness for $10 / Desert Customs Window Tinting / Not Just Nuts / Liberty Mutual - Lydia Toscano / Las Vegas Region SCCA (LVRSCCA) / ThinkFirst Nevada / SUBARU DRIVE Performance Magazine / Car Sensor Magazine / Las Vegas Review Journal / News Radio 840 KXNT / Nevada SPCA and Many other supporting vendors and sponsors

And of course, thanks to the hundreds of Subaru enthusiasts that joined us, and that continue to make the Subaru community the best in the world. This was our biggest and best Subie Invasion yet, and we know 2010 will be even bigger and even more evolved!

Remember to visit http://www.subieinvasion.com to see this year’s photo and video galleries and guest commentary. SUBARU Drive Performance Magazine and many other online magazines will also be covering all of the Subie invasion 2009 events in their upcoming issues. Please take some time as well to visit all of our sponsors’ websites, also available through the above website.