Follow Denis on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram. Leave your comments below, share the article with friends and tweet it out to your followers! Skip to main content. Visit Torque News homepage for more stories. Automotive News. Performance Vehicles. Subaru News, Pricing and Reviews. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary Necessary. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary Non-necessary. If you wanted the big wing and bigger brakes, Subaru had that for you. After a hot gravel hatch that needs to handle a daily commute and haul a mountain bike to the trailhead? Subaru's got you covered there too. But with news that a new WRX was on the way for the model year, fans started worrying that Subaru was going to get things wrong again.
However, the wider stance doesn't affect overall grip as much as a decent tire choice. Save a bit of money, and spend it on upgrades. With the tiny TD04 turbocharger now replaced by a bigger VF52, accessing more boost through a simple reflash is quite easy. Yes, you can also get more power out of an STI, but boosting your WRX to north of hp requires little in the way of supporting modifications.
However, all the STI extras add up: bigger brakes, stronger transmission, differentials. If you're going to be doing serious modifications, you're better off saving a bit extra to find an STI. When the current generation of the WRX arrived as a model, reactions were mixed. On one hand, this wasn't the ball-drop the model had been.
Where the concept was sleek and low, with a bulging front-end that looked a bit like something from Jaguar's Special Vehicles skunkworks, the production car was a lot more practical. Yes, it had a hood-scoop and fender flares, but it was overall just an ordinary three-box sedan. Which is great. What the grumblers missed is that the WRX isn't supposed to be some sleek coupe take, aping the 22B.
That was a special edition; the backbone of the range has to offer everyday practicality to go along with the performance. And the performance was pretty good. The WRX especially benefited from an extensive powertrain overhaul that relocated the turbocharger beneath the flat-four engine for quicker spooling. A slightly notchy six-speed manual was standard to handle the now hp, and thanks to brake-based torque vectoring and a quicker steering ratio, the car seemed more eager to dive into a corner.
So we were comforted by how our final sideways fling in the rally-inspired four-door proves that, even as it grows more civilized on the road, the WRX remains true to the character that makes it distinctive. The STI soldiered on with a retuned and refreshed version of the EJ25 that still made a little over hp. It was far laggier than the WRX, but the shifter action was more precise, the brakes soaked up abuse better, and if you had that center differential set correctly, the STI was no longer an understeering mess requiring a bootful of left-foot braking.
This is a Subaru that, unlike any all-wheel-drive Subaru in recent history, can be driven on a racetrack without frustration.
And not only does it turn into corners willingly, it'll accept loads of power without pushing wide. Oversteer isn't part of the car's repertoire, but drive the STI the way it wants, and it at least goes neutral. And fun. And very, very quickly. Good news all around. Things got even better when, perhaps acknowledging the importance of the US market to the company's global bottom line, Subaru decided to bring some of its knife-edged special editions across the Pacific.
The latter was built specially by STI, at a tiny factory that only produces two cars per day. At the time of launch, many complained that the STI didn't really justify its premium over the WRX, especially with the same hp it had been pumping out for decades. The chassis tuning and driveline upgrades tipped the scales; besides, where the EJ25 wasn't cutting edge, tuners had long known how to make power out of it, and where the weak points were.
We get it: the manual is the only purists' choice for a WRX. However, by putting their CVT into the WRX, Subaru was able to double the practical appeal of this quick little sedan and make sure the sales results paid for the car's development.
Yes, a proper dual-clutch gearbox would have been better. But take Hyundai as an example: it uses the dual-clutch box in the Veloster N in all sorts of other applications. Subaru is a much smaller company, so just swapping in a CVT makes sense. However, mods don't mean abuse, and a lack of mods doesn't mean a car has been babied. If you're looking at a used WRX, is the seller a mechanic with near robotic attention to detail?
Or are they a vape cloud with a No Ragrats tattoo? You're probably better off buying from the first guy. Both the RA and S are fetching big dollars these days, and that's unlikely to change.
The idea that a Subaru can be a collectible has been cemented by 22B values, and the STI followed soon after, if not to the same extent. The S especially will be a sought-after machine well into the future. The RA offers less convincing performance for your dollar, but will also hold its value.
Over a quarter of a million dollars for a Subaru? Enthusiasts, on the other hand, felt like their favorite brand had finally been given proper credit.
0コメント