I've just returned from a family visit to Toronto. Subaru Canada kindly presented me with the keys to a 2009 Subaru Outlook PZEV wagon to enjoy for a week; also to test and review for About Cars, my former Internet employer. PZEV stands for Partial Zero Emission Vehicle, a designation meant to meet the most stringent California environmental regulations. Under some conditions the air leaving the exhaust is cleaner than the air entering. With no fuel economy or performance penalty, that's quite an accomplishment.

While exploring the south-central Ontario countryside in search of suitable test roads I came upon the Halton County Radial Railway Museum, a haven for old streetcars suitable for restoration. The museum also operates weekend railfan trips aboard a Toronto Transit Commission streetcar, one on which I probably rode in younger years. Unfortunately the museum was closed but I managed to slip past the gate, snoop around, and take pictures.

As if that were not enough, the test drive found me at the foot of Milton's rattlesnake Hill. Okay... so I went out of my way to find it, for the twisting uphill road is the scene of long-ago hillclimb victories driving modified sedans. In those years the surface was dirt whereas it is now paved and a pair of residence driveways interrupted any attempt to simulate repeats in the Subaru. A pair of cautious runs proved that all-wheel-drive is now the way to go yet I missed the fun of those tail-out slides around a 180-degree hairpin.