The Adventures of Hoonigan
The Subaru Legacy station wagon of Zacck’s teenage dreams
“Suddenly she missed Hoonigan, it would never have let her down on roads like that.”
🎧 Fun Fact — This is an Audio Visual Story, please use this video as a backtrack while reading.
📼Tl;dr? Don’t feel like reading watch the video
So to understand the context of the mysterious Hoonigan, we have to first factor in a number of considerations…
1) The Hoonigan is a legend😉
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The 2nd main factor to consider is the fact that Hoonigan is now Zacck’s mom, Janet’s, car.
When Zacck moved to South Africa in 2015 he left Hoonigan with his mom, see.
I was introduced to the Hoonigan while in South Africa. Zacck always helped Janet fix the car, which means — find specified Subaru technicians in the Kenyan countryside aka find a needle in a haystack.
- For e.g. In order to fix the Hoonigan you need very specific electrical parts — that all specifically need to be Subaru originals (🤯 try find that in Kenya!).
So Janet called one day and said she was driving her cousin’s car and they got stuck in the mud. Suddenly she missed Hoonigan, it would never have let her down in roads like that.
Other times Janet would say she wants a new car because the Hoonigan is too loud (More about this in the ‘Adventures of Hoonigan’ Video).
The best call came — one day when Janet said she got an invite from a Subaru group in Nairobi.
A dude with a Subaru saw Hoonigan and introduced himself to Janet, asking where the owner of the car is — Zacck of course.
Janet told us she told the guy ‘but she is Zacck’s mum’ and ‘it is her car now’. He told her to meet more of Zacck’s friends on the facebook group.
Janet told us this calmly. I cried laughing.
Zacck was embarrassed or something 🤣.
Or I think he was actually scared his mom hears stories of how fast he used to drive — hehe.
All of these stories I heard and pictures I saw… Which built up a lot of expectations. So when I finally came to Kenya I was super excited to meet the Hoonigan.
At long last the day arrived, it was the 2nd day after our arrival in Kenya.
As we neared the house where Zacck grew up, I suddenly remembered I was about to meet Hoonigan for the first time…
Hoonigan, the legend, the loud and proud race car owned by who other Zacck’s mom.
It was a great moment I will never forget.
See I thought owning a Subaru was like a very rare thing. I dunno, it’s quite rare in South Africa, I don’t remember seeing alot of them there. However I’ve come to know that it’s a local known fact that Kenyans love Japanese cars — and Subarus particularly.
It all started to make sense now.
No wonder the first car teenage Zacck got was a Subaru. But the station wagon part still remains strange to me, LOL. Apparently it’s a rally🚗⛰thing or something?
Anyways, ok, so it get’s much more teenage than that though.
So, as I have been trying to tell South Africans, the roads here in Kenya are insane.
Besides the very few highways and bypasses that are sometimes smooth and without potholes or something much more uncomfortable to drive over, all the other rides remind me of dry riverbeds (Watch this video).
Basically most of the time the roads don’t even look like roads — for real!
What kills me laughing is that — Ok, so in this world, little teenage Zacck decided to, wait for it…
⤵ ️lower the Hoonigan.
Why we might wonder? Well I think it’s kinda what all teenage boys want to do, dont you think? It’s so teenager to care about looking cool, regardless of the discomfort looking cool causes.
LOL so that’s that explained. Wait, where were we?
Oh, that’s it, I met Hoonigan for the first time plus Zacck and Hoonigan got reunited again, after a 4 or 5 year hiatus.
It was so nice to see Zacck reliving his teenage years haha. But I must say, he was definitely not driving like a teenager 🏍️ (I know this because I will never forget how my older brother used to drive when he first got his licence).
But wow is the Hoonigan loud!
And fast! The G-force is intense haha.
Oh and to top it all off, I also got a chance to drive Hoonigan one day when Zacck had to take a video call for work. It was super scary driving on the Kenyan roads but I am happy it happened and I did it, it was less worse than I thought it would be🤛🚘.
Now that I know I can drive if needs be, I feel more safe being away from home.
See, here, road rules kindof don’t really exist — did I say ‘not really?’.
When you’re on the road here it’s you and you alone that decides rules, well that’s what it seems everyone else seems to believe here.
If it’s not a massive ‘Matatu’ (privately owned taxis aka colourful crazy-driving busses, watch this video) suddenly swerving in front of you — Oops! it’s a ‘Boda boda’ (colourful crazy-driving motorbike taxis) skipping, hopping and jumping from left right and centre.
Oh and don’t think sedan driving citizens are less crazy drivers. LOL sometimes the biggest outliers are the most ‘normal’ looking cars.
So yes, that happened >< LOL.
But now it’s all quiet and empty on the streets— well kinda️😷.
Let’s measure from 1–10; 1 being deserted and 10 being business as usual.
Here’s about a 4 I’d say.
How empty are the streets where you are?
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