Jon Cooley is a Colorado native, and has lived here all his life, short of a few months in Los Angeles. He started developing his interest in cars at an early age helping his father work on his vintage Volvo P 1800 coupe. His first few car’s were an Audi 4000, and a Honda Accord Hatchback. They weren’t much in terms of performance, but once he graduated from the University of Colorado with degrees in Film Studies and Mathematics, he was able to purchase a 1985.5 Porsche 944, and his interest in cars and driving was now on the forefront.
Jon then moved on to a Saab 900 SE 2.0 liter turbo that he modified slightly with an intake and exhaust, and from this point on, the turbo bug was firmly planted. In 2002, one of his neighbors brought home a new Subaru WRX, and after a ride in that, Jon was set on getting one of his own. In 2003, Jon brought home his first WRX, a white 2002 Wagon. He began modifying that car, and got involved with the local Subaru community. He even decided to put on a track day himself, which was one of the first in the area.
After tinkering with the exhaust and suspension of his WRX and taking it to the track a few more times, he caught wind of an SR20 DET swapped S13 Silvia, and decided that he wanted to get back to a rear wheel drive car. So he sold the WRX, and started driving the Silvia for a couple of years. It was definitely fun while it lasted, but after realizing that a turbo sports car wasn’t that much fun in the snow if it isn’t all-wheel drive, he started to miss his WRX.
In late 2005, he began working at Flatirons Tuning in Boulder, Colorado, and shortly there after, tracked down a Sonic Yellow 2003 WRX wagon, and immediately began modifying it. In fact, it quickly became the Flatirons Tuning Project car, and he is constantly testing out new parts, and taking it out to the track.
Currently, Jon heads up Flatirons Tuning, and helps out with the Flatirons Tuning Rally Car. In an effort to help other Subaru enthusiasts have a good resource of information to modify their car, Jon created the Flatirons Tuning Project Car blog, and the Flatirons Tuning FAQ Blog. Jon has also run a number of track days put on by Flatirons Tuning with the help of Subaru and Go 4 It Racing School.
In his free time, Jon took EFI-101 about a year ago, and has done a lot of research and testing with suspension set-ups for the track, and might even be racing himself in the near future.
