On Saturday, Mayday Garage was out at Gillman Subaru Southwest as Houston welcomed West Coast Subaru tuner Easy Street Motorsports (ESX) while Gillman Subaru was having their first shop day of the year.  Sunny skies and perfect temperature were the welcoming forces for the Subaru shop day as we collectively arrived to the dealership bright and early to start the day at 7:30 am.

The first thing that was killing me was my NEED for coffee, so that problem was immediately solved by my boy David Buehrer. David, who owns Tuscany Coffee in Houston Texas, rolled out and setup a gourmet espresso bar for the folks that were attending the ESX tour Subaru Shop Day. David, who is also a car enthusiast, makes some of the best coffee in Texas. I don’t think there is a better pairing than cars and coffee, wouldn’t you agree?

Shop day kicked into gear immediately as the bays opened, as Subaru tuners were anxious to get their cars into gear with the help of the Subaru techs over at Gillman. The really cool thing about Gillman Subaru’s “shop day” is that the Subaru mechanics actually assist these tuners for NO CHARGE leaving the result pay scale up to the tuner in tip fashion. It is a system of trust that these guys have been having over the past couple of years whenever a shop day is thrown and it seems to work really well. The formula is strong for building trust between the tuner and the mechanics behind the dealership wall, and it works well too.

Gillman Subaru in Houston has been known for helping the tuner community through various fashions throughout the course of the past couple of years. Headed by Wally Elostaz, events like the shop days, and invitations of special guests is their way of showing that THEY TOO, are enthusiasts. It also eliminates the stigma that surrounds going into a car dealership, by providing an atmosphere that makes you want to hang out, almost like a second home.

Gillman also brought in a BBQ smoker and all of the food was on the house, which was hella cool because you know car folk tend to spend much of their $$ on car parts. Sausage, Chicken, Brisket, Hot Dogs and Hamburgers were on the menu. I think I had about 10 chicken legs and probably 2 sausage links. They were very, very good and the brisket was SUPER tender. Way cool to have this out at a car event.

The event itself was not limited to just Subaru cars as you can see, many different cars came out. I would say the largest group of people that came out was local tuning team Import Allstars. They came out in a couple of fresh whips as they were meeting to talk about the up and coming show season.

I think it is really awesome that this dealership gets involved with local tuners on a level besides just that of selling cars. It shows that they understand what the heck is going on and that they are willing to work with people to make things better for both sides.

The Legendary Milin was also in full swing with his detailing shop, giving pointers to gear heads on how to keep the cars clean!

ESX brought out a model by the name of Stephanie, and I must admit she was stunning. She was awesome, and people LOVED taking pictures with here. Here she is seen with Mario, one of the Techs at Gillman Subaru doing a bit of salsa to the beat that Tito was throwing down.

Part of the ESX dealer tour was hauling around their crazy drag car. This thing is a beast, as it lays down a solid 8.9 second quarter mile. Although some of us have fallen out of drag racing, I would definitely travel to see this bad boy haul down the track. An eight second quarter mile, uni-body, and a turbo that looks like it could fit over your head, very cool.

A few hundred people showed up throughout the day to check out the ESX Subaru and hangout with the folks at Subaru, and the guests from ESX.  All of which got to participate in a raffle at the end to get some awesome Subie gear, unfortunately I didnt get any :*(.

Hopefully the next time those guys roll down, Mr. Afshar will come too. Rumor has it that these guys might have to go out and set some stuff straight at the Texas mile, if they do, we will see them there ^_^ ; .

The Subaru Shop Day and ESX Dealer tour at Gillman Subaru was a ton of fun, and I really look forward to what Wally and the Gillman group will be bringing to the plate for later 2010 and 2011.

“Stay tuned” – Wally

Pictures Courtesy of Dan Phan and Robert Castaneda.

More Pictures can be found here!

–JohnP