WRX STi. What of it?

[The_Canuck]

are you guys lhd or rhd? if your rhd then id would thing your ever popular grey import scense should have a few like our own.

We are LHD but Evo's are illeagal and Subarus sell fast, but theres few dealers.

[Falcon500]

We are LHD but Evo's are illeagal and Subarus sell fast, but theres few dealers.

Then that bring a really arge queastion why this monkeys mob is saying they can import skylines (mostly r32s) to canada? and they dont mention anything about a lhd conversion

But it isnt all bad alot of foregin cars to the japense come there lhd I saw an AWD turbo renault from the 80s that was going pretty cheap too at the auctions you never know you might be able to snag something cooland diffrent

[mattmacklind]

I'd take the STi, without the rear spoiler. Great looking and great performing car, and in the midwest for the money it can't be beat. A used 2004 or 2005 STi can be had for the low to mid twenties. Also, a lot of these cars were bought by trendos as opposed to autocrossers and rally wanna-be's, and have normal use miles on them. The EVO is cool, but looks a little too severe for me.

[LandQuail]

The rump of a non-winged Impreza just doesn't do it for me, though I readily admit that the STi's wing is ridiculous.

To me the EVO doesn't look as mature. The STi is pretty far out there, but the EVO looks like a kid's toy. Too much aggression and tautness in the lines for me, but I understand that my opinion is exactly that, so don't everybody go crazy at once.

[LandQuail]

By the way, Matt, how does that MGB GT handle compared to the open model? I'm a big fan of the GT, but haven't read much about them.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

The rump of a non-winged Impreza just doesn't do it for me, though I readily admit that the STi's wing is ridiculous.

To me the EVO doesn't look as mature. The STi is pretty far out there, but the EVO looks like a kid's toy. Too much aggression and tautness in the lines for me, but I understand that my opinion is exactly that, so don't everybody go crazy at once.

A lot of people should put disclaimers like that at the back of their posts

I thought that the Impreza Spec-C's spoiler was utterly perfect, I don't know why... but the huge wings you get on the standard cars turn me off. Yuck.

And we know my views on the Subaru's looks and the Evo's looks... *silence*.

[LandQuail]

The only picture I've seen of a Spec-C was in Profile. I'm sure that from an angle where the Wing's girth is evident that lost mass I was talking about might re-appear.

The first WRX I ever saw was on the TV. It was a WRC car, of course, and I've just married that big bulky rallycar wing to the car in my mind. Arkansas...

At any rate, I'm sure that the Spec-C's is more effective. The standard plastic wing isn't at much of an angle, and I'm not sure how well the airflow "sticks" to the rear window (apparently not enough, as evidenced by the roof-mounted wing currently used by STi's.) Also, the trailing edge of the wing is about as blunt as the leading edge, which is just stupid and probably only this way to protect pedestrians stumbling out of a pub.

In "Drive Performance" the alledged sporting publication Subaru inflicts on WRX buyers for two soul-crushing years, one picture was posted of a guy who sawed-off the top wing element of his STi, leaving only the rear "shelf" with two vertical horns, each topped off by a custom-fabricated tapered tip painted in almost the same hue of blue. The result was sickening. It was uglier by far, and the fact that it was no longer effective must have come as an unexpected benefit to the soft-headed lout who performed such dubiously ****ing stupid modifications.

[LandQuail]

Time to suit up. I've got a job interview that might actually send me on a career path that doesn't look like "the pirates of the carribean." Unimaginable up to this point, as my last three jobs have damn near killed me out in this insufferable Arkansas heat for about 7 bucks an hour, but there's a chance that Conway's local newspaper will pick me to fill their recently vacant reporter job. Wish me luck.

[Jack_Bauer]

You've been running an Impreza STi off $7 an hour??? Crikey, how could you even afford to eat?! Do you live in the back seat of the car by any chance?

Good luck with the interview, hope it works out.

[The_Canuck]

Then that bring a really arge queastion why this monkeys mob is saying they can import skylines (mostly r32s) to canada? and they dont mention anything about a lhd conversion

But it isnt all bad alot of foregin cars to the japense come there lhd I saw an AWD turbo renault from the 80s that was going pretty cheap too at the auctions you never know you might be able to snag something cooland diffrent

I dont understand most of your writing but the reason there illeagle is because of a weak engine part.

[spi-ti-tout]

Wish me luck.

Always, better than luck is advice.

It's free, but unlike luck, can be churned one if you don't want it.

Stick to the point, end with the sqwark only in your articles, and you'll be fine.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

Time to suit up. I've got a job interview that might actually send me on a career path that doesn't look like "the pirates of the carribean." Unimaginable up to this point, as my last three jobs have damn near killed me out in this insufferable Arkansas heat for about 7 bucks an hour, but there's a chance that Conway's local newspaper will pick me to fill their recently vacant reporter job. Wish me luck.

You'll be cool, good luck mate!

[LandQuail]

Ok, that seemed to go well. The STi was a graduation present when I finished College with a degree in Writing. Sort of a "good luck out there in the world, Son, and enjoy paying for the tires" sort of thing. So, yes, I meant it when I said I was a lucky bastard knowing full well the meaning of every word (though still I leave final arbitration to the Owl) and that worthier people than I continue to beat along in Corollas.

Well, until Very, Very recently, that writing degree wasn't worth the nifty little leather binding it came in, and I worked some monumentally shitty jobs to keep myself and my car in reasonable condition. Anyone like Ramen Noodles? I don't, and a steady diet of them will leave you flirting with scurvy if you don't steal a lime or two now and again.

So at 20,000 miles, the clutch is wearing thin and cord's showing on a couple tires and I've got about 1,000u.s.d. in the bank. Rut-row. I learned to milk every micrometer of clutch lining and drove in a manner that anyone familiar with the Popemobile can understand for a few thousand. 40,000, repeat story. But, the car was paid for with a wire transfer straight off the showroom floor, and my father is an insurance agent, so I think that it's insured as a N/A 2.5 sedan... I fully expect to be carted off to jail with pops on account of that one someday.

One reason I went through clutches and tires so fast is my inability to stay away from the hillbilly drag races 40 miles away from my home in Centerville, Arkansas. It's a real hoot to line the STi up against something that wouldn't look out of place with the Joad family sitting on the roof. And somtimes those rusted-out hulks of Ford and Chevy trucks blew me away, spitting fire from exhausts cut-off right under the cab and smoking cheap tires the full 1,000 feet. Win or lose, it was quite a thing to see.

My Pops took me to the Subaru dealership seemingly on a whim after I got my diploma, looking to get me one of those nice, safe, sensible little cars that he understood them to make. Let's see, this would have been in May 2004, and I didn't even know that the decision to import STi's was anything but a rumor. When the salesman came out, I asked on a lark if they had any STi's. He said yes. I asked if there was one in black, he said yes. It still had the white plastic clinging to the fenders as it sat in an unused stall around behind the dealership. Pops looked at the window sticker and asked: "Son, you really think you need 300 horsepower?" I looked the old man squarely in the eye and said yes, which was a lie, as nobody needs 300 horsepower, but the line between wanting and needing blurs when in the presence of a dreamcar (though that term's use too I use hesitantly, awaiting the Owl's final say.)

Serendipity? Fate? Utter Bullshit? I don't know. But I do love that damn car even if I don't usually have money for anything else. But maybe that'll change in the next few days.

I had to take a picture of myself and the car for an article I wrote for The Little Rock Free Press. That's me, trying my best to look cool in my favorite eurotrash sweater and failing miserably. Should have got a ****ing haircut, but I guess that there's no point in looking back...

Note the worn tires and brake be-dusted wheels. I sometimes hope that the damn things will just turn flat black, but something always drives me to brush them off after a few months.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

Your degree should be useful for a magazine, surely? Try out for some jobs... you definitely have the right wit for it...

You really don't like h00t_h00t, do you?!

That's a pretty damn cool story, all I can hope is my 'rents buy me an RS6 after completing university... yeah right!

The truck-racing thing sounds awesome, you should get some pictures of that sometime!

(Question: Are the wheels burnished, or just dirty...?)

[LandQuail]

Just dirty. There's always a deposit of Rock-Hard black stuff in the corners that Jesus could't wash off, but with the right de-greaser they come clean well enough.

I guess that writing for a substantial car magazine would be my dream job, but the motoring press is cluttered with all this Max Power and Top Gear bullshit...

Now, I enjoy seeing things driven through caravans as much as the next guy, but with top gear I really feel that Jeremy Clarkson and the dwarfs that surround him need to focus on either cars or caravans. I'd watch either. I base that statement on the Five Episodes that somehow weaseled their way onto American TV. Top Gear came on the Discovery Channel at 11:00 at night every Tuesday as part of a "need for speed Tuesday," or the like, for about a month before being canned in favor of two Chopper shows back to back. I'd put the old Stars-N-Stripes at half mast over that one if I was in charge...

The Owl pissed me off in a way that few people can. His remark was a rare breed of insensitivity, ignorance, and pompous-assedness that can only come together under very specific conditions of idiocy like some sort of half-assed alchemy that really, really, puts my bile in it's ascendant, as the Greeks would say. We Arkansans politely question whether beating the "coon-dog shit" out of a person might be doing them a favor before getting back to stoically spitting tobacco on our shoes.

Anyway, if I get this job as the local beat reporter for Conway's newspaper, I'll have a shot at a career path that, for once, isn't bell-shaped. You've got to have solid credentials before a magazine will consider risking you. Ideally, I'd work for EVO or Octane, both British, which are the only two dignified sportscar magazines I've come across.

I've no Idea what the market is like for used RS6's, but I wouldn't imagine that the new Audi regime produces anything but utterly reliable cars, whatever the specific output. By the way, is that the V-10 engined one, or is is a turbo V8?