WICKED WEDNESDAY — PREPARING FOR WICKED BIG MEET 2026

Prime Motoring and the $1,000 Car That Refused to Die

What started as a throwaway flip — a rust bucket buried in Jersey snow with a screaming transmission and no power steering — turned into one of the most honest builds in the Subaru community right now. Demetri Xanthos, owner of Prime Motoring, sat down with us to talk about building his shop, the legend of the original Eggplant, and a $1,000 GD that just keeps making more power.

Meet Demetri Xanthos

Demetri's path into cars wasn't the kind that starts in a garage with a dad handing over a wrench. His parents had other ideas — the kind that involve a desk and a clean shirt. "My parents obviously pushed me towards different avenues," he says. "Working in corporate and all that stuff. And I just hated it."

So he started where quite a few car enthusiasts start. Detailing. He wasn't wrenching — he just wanted to be around cars. That need combined with a parking lot friendship with a couple of Audi/VW guys, eventually turned into a shared warehouse rental. They pooled resources to cover the space, stored project cars, and little by little the revenue from the work started to outpace the outside help they needed to keep the lights on.

The first lift came from a mechanic who approached them about working on the side. "He's like, oh, I can work here — do coilovers, etc." So they hired him. The partners slowly started quitting their day jobs, Demetri last. "I was the last to quit and took the plunge."

That was 14 or 15 years ago. For the first six or seven years, he wasn't making a living wage from it.

The Subaru Pivot

The turning point came from a guy named Junior — a dude with a Forester that made 600 horsepower for a quarter of the cost of Demetri's supercharged V8 S4.

He started digging into the JDM world — found early ETS content, saw Evos running nines on bolt-ons — and the door cracked open. Junior started doing street tunes at the shop on the side. They bought an FRS, started tuning it, moved to a bigger space, and then the conversation became: do we get a dyno? "I was like, oh my God, that's crazy. I don't have that kind of money."

They financed it through a partner with good credit (now Demetri's brother-in-law, funny enough). And the growth came, because the demand was already there. Being just outside New York City, in a region dense with Subaru owners who'd otherwise have to travel for serious tuning work, was the right place at the right time.

They brought in an engine builder. Demetri bought an STI, then another. The other partners weren't that into Subarus so ended up going their own way. "I just stuck with it. I got fully engulfed in it. And we're here."

The Eggplant — and Chasing Eights

Drag racing became the shop's calling card, because drag racing is the clearest way to sell a service. "It's an easy number to relate to. It's an easy motorsport for someone to get into casually."

The original Eggplant — Junior's 2012 purple hatch with a rotated setup and a built motor — became the car that defined the era. Demetri remembers Junior showing up at H2O International and just annihilating everything on Coastal Highway. "Him, his wife, his Rottweiler, a friend, all their luggage in this car, just going up and down coastal highway."

He took the car over when Junior moved to a VA, financed it, and built it into a legitimate race car — dogbox, Belaks, stripped interior, custom arrow bumper, drag wing, a 7685. It ran a 9.5 on its very first pass and eventually got to eights. Then it crashed.

"It took so much out of like... the chase constantly." After the crash, the fire for drag racing dimmed. He redirected his energy into customer cars. CJ's car went 8.1 at 182 mph on a Cobb — stock ECU. He's still proud of that one.

The $1,000 Car

Now at a new shop two miles from Island Dragway, Demetri started building a purple GR sedan as a second serious drag car. Then a $1,000 GD fell into his lap and kind of took over.

He'd bought it to flip — cheap GDs move, they're easy money. But when it showed up, it was a disaster. Screaming transmission, no power steering, leaking from everywhere, driving like horseshit. He was close to just sending it back to auction.

Then life came back into their YouTube channel. A kid fresh out of high school came on to film. And the beater sitting buried in snow became a content car. "I was like, let's see how fast we could blow this thing up. I'll just sit on the rev limiter for a bit. It'll punt the rod and it'll be funny."

It didn't blow up. 

So they made a little more power. It still didn't blow up. More power. Still running. "And now it's like, let's see how much we can actually make."

It's currently sitting at 638 horsepower — rotated setup, running a stock 2.0-liter motor that came in the car with 247,000 miles on it. The timing belt was splitting apart when they took it apart, so they threw in an OEM belt. They replaced the failing engine harness. The oil pickup got swapped since the mileage was so high. And it still has the factory 10mm oil pump.

It's now on coilovers, proper tires, and a real clutch — the eBay clutch it came with lasted longer than it had any right to.

"Every single week it's like, hey, we're still here. And it's like, let's buy coilovers now. Okay, let's buy tires."

The goal isn't to blow it up for content anymore. He wants to see 700. Maybe pull the motor, drop some cams in, see what the two-liter can really do.

Why the 2.0

Everyone builds 2.5s. Demetri's been championing the 2.0 — specifically the EJ20X — for a while. "Everyone s***s on the 20X. They're like, this motor's garbage.

His take is the opposite. High compression, good heads, light pistons, short stroke — the motor spins smoothly up to 8,500 where a 2.5 is rattling itself apart because of the heavier rotating assembly. The purple car's 20X made 600-plus on a rotated kit and held together perfectly. "I was like, damn. This thing's actually really good."

The 2.5 gets all the glory, but the 2.0 is the one that loves to rev, and on E85 with a full effort build, it makes more sense than people give it credit for.

Prime Motoring At Wicked Big Meet

Prime Motoring has been deep in the Subaru performance ecosystem for years — IAG engine builds, full tuning in-house on the dyno, drag programs, the works. They're set up right outside New York City where the density of serious Subaru owners is high and the options for real performance shops have always been limited.

Demetri will be at Wicked Big Meet with the $1,000 car — his first time back since 2016. When Kartboy's own Mark Menzenski reached out to have his car in the Kartboy booth, he was actually already considering going. "I finally have a car that I kind of like. It's honest fun. Maybe go up there, buy some stupid s*** for the car, and have a good time."

What's Next

The purple GR sedan is still in progress and now has competition for shop floor space. The $1,000 car has taken on a life of its own and Demetri seems genuinely fine with that.

"If the motor blows up, I'll just put another two-liter in it. I'll probably do a 207 — I think that's the natural progression."

The wider point is that he and Junior have both arrived at the same conclusion after years of building fast Subarus, owning exotics, doing the high-dollar stuff: there's nothing quite like a cheap, honest turbo all-wheel-drive car you can just beat on without worrying about where you park it.

"I miss just having a f***ing s****y Subaru. Just to have fun in."

Advice for New Builders

When asked what he'd tell a new enthusiast — especially the ones who'll be walking Wicked Big Meet for the first time — Demetri didn't sugarcoat it.

"Don't listen to the internet. Find a tuner that you like, that you're comfortable with, from a reputable shop, and listen to their advice. The shop is the one doing it every day. They touch so many cars where the guy on the internet has done it one time on his car."

And on the fear of owning a Subaru: every brand has failures. Porsches blow motors from IMS. BMW M3s have rod bearing and crank hub issues. A Civic Type R just came through the shop with a fresh motor at 40,000 miles. The price of admission on a Subaru is lower — and if a motor goes, you can source another one for a fraction of what other brands charge.

"Stop being so scared of the Subaru. Just get in a car, do your due diligence, make sure your timing belt is done, put a good oil pump in it, and enjoy the freaking car."

The $1,000 car is proof enough. It wasn't supposed to be anything. It was supposed to blow up on camera. Instead it made 638 horsepower and it's heading to Wicked Big Meet. That's the Subaru thing in a nutshell.

Attend Wicked Big Meet

If you want to joint in on the fun, you can grab tickets to Wicked Big Meet here:

Prime Motoring and Demetri can be found at:

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