WRX STi. What of it?

[Dino Scuderia]

I'm a lucky bastard. I drive a 2004 STi. Unlike most of the people I know here in Arkansas, I actually use mine for the purpose for which it was bred. I'm hoping to spark interestng debate over the merits of the STi vs. other sports cars in its class, Boxter, M3 (if I'm lucky), Supra, Muskrat GT/Cobra, Corvette, and of course that damn Lancer EVO. If i've missed any (I have) let me know about them, and why I should be interested. Go To Work.

If you're using it 'for the purpose for which it was bred', does this mean you are rally racing with it?

[h00t_h00t]

Owning a two year old sports car isn't very lucky either. Owning a 2010 Sti would be something to brag about.

[NSXType-R]

I'd take a Honda S2000 also. Suits your sporty needs, faster than an MX-5 Miata, and more realistic than a Boxster. It probably has better emissions and fuel economy too.

[jimeegee]

I have an S2000 to play with, its a great car, but no one with an STi or EVO would like it...you have to work very hard for its performance.

E46 M3 for me (ha I wish)...but Subie v Mitsu, I'd take a Subie Spec C, just.
Like its looks better, sound...I'd just miss the tail happiness of the EVO

[mmm_aapls]

Yep JDM Subaru WRX STi Spec C for me. Still the 2 lt (Instead of the 2.5 donk we get in Aus) but with a twin scroll turbo charger. Say goodbye to lag , and not to mention the 420+ NM of tourque.

[LandQuail]

Well, I don't rally race it Per Se, but there are some pretty smooth gravel roads here in Arkansas, and I do what I can without risking driving sideways into somebody's mailbox. Basically I'm saying that most people who wind up with fast cars just tool around in them. Porsche drivers seem to be the worst; going 65 on the interstate and blocking lanes, never using indicators, buying 911 cabriolets and all the other things that get under my skin, and almost nobody I've talked to who owns an STi in Arkansas knows what the hell I'm talking about when I say "the pedals are great for heel-and-toe." I guess they don't downshift until they get back to their driveways, or something...

I don't know. It's all too easy to wind up sounding like an asshole on these sites, so I guess that no, I don't "drive it for the purpose for which it was bred." But nor do I get more than 25,000 miles out of my tires. You got me Mr. Fox-Eating-An-E. Congratulations.

[LandQuail]

I'd love an S-2000. Great engines... I actually prefer rear wheel drive, naturally aspirated cars. The Subaru is faster, but surely not as much fun. I was sold at faster, however... Kind of regret that sometimes.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

OK... well... here's the thing.

The Evo I'd rate as a consistently better car than a Subaru STi.

Firstly, let's consider the way the intercooler has been placed. In the Evo, it's right bang smack in the front, so the effect is immediate and very effective at cooling. On the Scooby, it's on top of the engine, which also increases drag (from the scoop) and isn't quite as effective. The heat of the engine rises straight into the intercooler, and the airflow is constricted- an Evo allows at least 70% airflow right into it, whilst the Scooby allows 30% or so. This may have been pointed out to me by a Mitsubishi dealer, but it makes sense...

Then you have the comfort fun factor. The Subaru, granted, is a tonne of fun, but the Evo is a nutmobile. There's a certain envelope that the Evo pushes, and the Scooby can't quite match- evident in Top Gear's multitest between the Evo, Scooby and Audi S4.

The special editions released by Mitsubishi were astounding. Sure, the Scooby Spec-C and 22B were cool, but the sheer brutality of the FQ-400 and Mäkkinen editions are just wow. I had a ride in the FQ-400 just about a year ago (?) and the memory is still etched firmly in my cranium. The Subaru ride I got has faded long since.

Purely opinionated, the Evo wins on looks every time, but that could be just me... however, the Scooby went from bland, to fugly, to slightly less ugly, and now it's still damn ugly. The Evo went from bland, to vicious, to toned and muscular, and hasn't really changed since gen. 7... but it looks good.

[LandQuail]

I'm sorry Owl. I'll get to work on that 2010 impreza for you, though I'm not optimistic. In the meantime, I'll have to be satisfied with my little pissant peasant's car and go off to whore myself out to the truckers and dope fiends on skid row until that blessed day that I can save up the pennies and nickels to impress you with my 2010 Subaru, though by the time I can afford one it will probably also be two years old, and I'll have to hit the streets again and again periodically like a character out of something Voltaire or ****ing Beckett wrote as I struggle to keep up with an Owl's expectations of what a decent car is and avoid being sliced to ribon by his razor wit yet again... oh poor me, it's going to be a really shitty life for this poor quail if I'm to impress an Owl wearing glasses and a stupid hat.


That's a great owl you've got there, though. Seriously.

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to edit this post. It's a monacle... a stupid monacle and a stupid hat.

Brilliant Owl there, Old Sport.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

I'm sorry Owl. I'll get to work on that 2010 impreza for you, though I'm not optimistic. In the meantime, I'll have to be satisfied with my little pissant peasant's car and go off to whore myself out to the truckers and dope fiends on skid row until that blessed day that I can save up the pennies and nickels to impress you with my 2010 Subaru, though by the time I can afford one it will probably also be two years old, and I'll have to hit the streets again and again periodically like a character out of something Voltaire or ****ing Beckett wrote as I struggle to keep up with an Owl's expectations of what a decent car is and avoid being sliced to ribon by his razor wit yet again... oh poor me, it's going to be a really shitty life for this poor quail if I'm to impress an Owl wearing glasses and a stupid hat.


That's a great owl you've got there, though. Seriously.

To hoot_hoot...

[Egg Nog]

Owning a two year old sports car isn't very lucky either. Owning a 2010 Sti would be something to brag about.

That's the stupidest post I've ever seen.

[LandQuail]

And to the Gent who wants an Audi,

I'd agree with all that, except for the looks. There's something about the EVO that just screams "I'm Really Into Yu-Gi-O and Japanese Cartoon Porn." Now, that is Just my perception, but I stand by it. Also, when I got the car Mitsubishi might have had a superior road car, but their WRC entry was suffering from "reliability and handling problems" (when it was running, it kept hitting trees.) Of course the road car is a totally different story, but the Rally championship went to Subaru, and that influenced my decision. For some reason.

And I agree that the intercooler couldn't have been in a worse spot if it was stitched into the headrest, but it does justify that stupid-looking, ridiculously sized, comically shaped hood scoop... and I'm a sucker for hood scoops.

And what else... yes, it's the evil-looking blunt-nosed triangle headlight version, and not that stupid suckfish-looking aardvark-snouted slanty-eyed tiny scooped new thing they've grafted onto the front of the poor Impreza. That's a plus. Somehow, in spite of the scoop and wing and everything, the Subaru just seemed a more maturely designed car.

No, it doesn't handle as well, but it has a more characterfull engine, and that means a lot. An EVO sounds just like the rest of the "rycer" crowd. I-4 with free flowing exhaust and it sounds like a bumblebee. The Boxer enging has a much nicer raspy enging note, not unlike a badly misfiring Porsche.

If I had it all to do over again, I'd get an EVO, just to see the differences more clearly, especially in the handling dept., but I don't, and will hopefully move on to something RWD and naturally aspirated... an M3 perhaps, if I ever get a decent job. Maybe That would make the Owl Shut The **** Up when I consider myself lucky to have it, but who can ever be sure about such things... You've gotta admit though, whatever you feel about the whole EVO/Impreza thing, that is one spectacular Owl he's got. For Real.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

Phew. Glad I didn't get burned.

I suppose it would explain why Subaru constantly won WRCs, and Mitsubishi just plain sucked I hated the Evo rally car they brought out at the same time as the Evo VIII. Totally stupid. What was with the wing that they stuck on wrong?!

Well, you can have a hood scoop on an Evo... it just looks cleaner minus the hood scoop. Not sure I get the Yu-Gi-Oh! comparison, though

OK, your gen one ranks as my favourite Subaru, apart from the original one. The Spec-C gen 3 in white was gorgeous.

The FQ-400 I got a ride in sounded like a Transit van, because of the stainless-steel manifold. But it sounded good. I agree that the boxer engine will have a nice gravelly sound, but I love the Evo sound...

Get both the world is your oyster! Have a look at importing a real Evo, though. You lot have had the watered-down ones that really do suck. Over in Britain, we got the real models, and Japan got some SICK editions.

M3's are amazing. They've almost supplanted the RS6 as my favourite car. The sound... the chassis... although apparently the steering feel is slightly artificial. Still the best car that M has ever turned out, though.

Ask h00t_h00t what car he has. I think yours is pretty good. Not my personal cup of oxtail soup, but it's a cool car.

[clutch-monkey]

i love the boxer rumble on subaru's, they're instantly recognizable burbling down the street. i'd still have to go for an evo though my friend has an evo IV TME and it is awesome.
i also like the current ralliart evo

[LandQuail]

Some deep-thinker decided that the wing made more downforce if they put it on the front of the trunklid... Personally, I don't care if that wing made a literal ton of downforce at speed, it just doesn't belong there.

As for the Yu-Gi-O thing, maybe it's just that the people who tend to own EVO's around here are either punk-ass high school kids or those intolerable little asian kids who just think that they're so cool with their stoic expressionless faces and seats leaned back too far...

I thought that the Spec-C just didn't look right without the visual mass of that big chunky wing out back. Also, the "Keep Attacking the Nurburgring" sticker was just foolish.

Hope I haven't offended any asian people. Other, of course, than the ones who lean their seats too far back and stare emotionlessly dead-ahead in all driving conditions. I hope you are offended. You're not the damn Yakuza, for godsakes, sing along with the radio or smile or something, you're freaking everybody out.

I've toyed with the idea of trying to import a Skyline, but with all the trouble I have getting STi parts here in Arkansas, the Skyline would probably sit for days at a time as I struggled to find an oil filter or brake pads. In a perfect world though, a grey-market rally rocket would be much more desirable.

But I just don't think a STi or EVO is as solid a car as an M3. They're faster, but my grandma could drive my STi at 8/10ths, and the rest really only depends on how many risks you want to take on unpredictable roads.

For instance, you can't get the tail working in a STi unless you really, REALLY want it to step out, at which point the car's like "you asked for it," and there you are, halfway through the corner with a big armfull of opposite lock and no idea what to do with it. It's the kind of handling problem skinnier tires would solve, as the level of grip, both foreward and lateral is just so hard to overcome.

I hear that EVO's are more neutrally balanced, which would make for more fun, but not on the same level as a RWD car.

Let's hear it for that owl, by the way. Damn, just can't get over the owl.