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Subaru WRX STI: Respect Your Elders
SUBARU WRX STI
Words by Alessandro Marrone
Photos by Jay Tomei
Blue Mica? Checked. Inevitable spoiler at the back? Yep. 4-cylinder boxer? Oh yes.
The new WRX STI is no longer called Impreza, but retains the salient features that have made Subaru legendary in the world of rallying and on road. We loved it and hated it, but we have always respected it. Personally it accompanied me for a slice of my life, with the EJ20 first and the EJ25 after, and on rare occasions I ended wanting other cars.
At the dawn of 2015 we welcomed a new model, one that no longer faces the competition of the now defunct Lancer Evo, bitter and historic rivalry settled after the Final Edition model. This is why my test at the wheel of the WRX STI is delicate like a cardiac surgery face-off. There is no room for mistakes when you have the heavy burden of responding to the expectations of ancestors who wrote history, and the WRX STI can’t and should not go wrong. The test that I reserved has been very hard and leaves no room for doubt: Col de Turini Tour, Mont Cenis and some mountain roads I could drive blindfolded, were the perfect proving ground to put under pressure the new Subaru and there is so much to say.
Do you know that feeling you’ve kept inside for so many months and finally, the moment of reckoning comes knocking at your stomach, pretentious, insistently and firmly convinced that everything will reach a verdict, one way or another? You still do not know if the agonizing wait will end well or in a way that would make you almost want to go back in time, just when you did not know yet how would this car be. Yeah, this car, the new STI, a new generation that must know how to deal with everyday life, but that should not miss that inner side of its character that wants to dirt the fenders and dust the wheels, making you feel like a rally champion able to put into trouble far more noble cars on a twisty b-road. The previous models were perfectly capable of doing so, and if (as for 90% of the cases) you put your hands in the engine bay, things would have been even more serious. WRX STI is the code that must be printed well in our head from now on, since there is no longer Impreza at the back, but we hope that this will not remain just a memory, rather a confirmation. From the aesthetic point of view the new Subaru is definitely matured, panels are more beautiful and overall the look is modern, with a higher beltline, an extremely aggressive back, dominated by that big spoiler and a diffuser which houses two couples of tailpipes. Up front, instead, there is something that puzzles me, because the grille is not bad, but the nose seems tightening too much and the final impression is that it is too high off the ground. This kind of car does not want to be driven gently, but with the knife between the teeth and with the desire to tease the very limit of the permanent all-wheel drive system, one of Subaru’s best strengths point ever. If the exterior has been improved a lot, we can see that even inside, despite we are not facing a modern art masterpiece, things keep heading in the right direction, with a great care all around, more rigid plastics alternate with some softer and a good pair of leather seats that offer a good stability in corners but suitable for any kind of user and use. So, long story short, sitting in the cockpit you will not feel at the start of a special stage and perhaps this is also due to the fact that the air intake above the intercooler is no more muscular as before, but it’s made in the hood itself! The steering wheel is fitted with controls and the central display provides the navigation system, but … let’s stop with this useless talks and let’s start the engine!
Keyless entry system and all you need to do for giving life to the boxer engine is to push “Start” by pressing the brake pedal. The classic hum of the boxer engine is here again, although very filtered – I immediately move the SI drive selector on “Sport Sharp” remembering that I’ve been a Subaru guy twice and for a good slice of my life, so I’m very focused to find how this car behaves. There is also the possibility to set as you wish the traction between the rear and the front axle, not making autonomous the response of the differentials, depending on how the vehicle’s electronic consider the need to play its role. This means that by loading more traction on the rear we can find a more oversteering car, while sending more at the front we will have a bit more understeer, definitely easier to manage for a less experienced driver. The clutch is soft, too soft and the job for my feet is so different from the one I was used on the older Imprezas. Someone could prefer this, but honestly I would have loved a more sporty feedback, whereas, despite having selected everything towards a harder and communicative style of driving the pedals remain identical to the “Sport” setting of before and the steering does that too. However, the latter has the advantage of finally being more direct and precise, a flaw that previous models were struggling to shake off. Just half a turn of the steering are enough to straighten the nose and even if its steering angle is not crazy, in fast driving is more comfortable and gives you better feedbacks. It’s time to turn up the examination rod and head to more serious questions: we did it bringing it on the Col de Turini, during our “Col de Turini Tour”, I’ve driven the picturesque bends of Mont Cenis, in a cold mid-summer day and I’ve done as many kilometers as I could along the roads that climb towards the mountains, just behind our office. I thought that testing this car on a road that I could drive blindfolded could be the ideal proving ground to understand where its real limits are. The STI proves to be accurate, it almost asks to downshift for using at best the almost 400Nm of torque, but the engine response is not always in tune with what I have in mind. There is no boring turbo lag, the 2.0cc pushes well and delivers 305hp at 6000 rpm, but never mind the lack of the ideal soundtrack (for that you just need a simple job on the tailpipes or by dealing with the central resonator), what surprises me is that rather that evolving the earlier models, we are facing a completely different idea of sports car. A sort of body builder that showcases its biceps, but can it even lift? What’s wrong with that?
The bag of corners continues, the road is generous with me today. Zero traffic, a dry road surface and the eyes are pointing to the best lines that the best years of my driving license has ever offered me. I push towards my limits more and more almost like waiting for that flash of glory that hopefully could arrive at any moment. Brakes are outstanding, powerful, accurate and do not seem to get tired, even at the highest speeds – what seems to suffer instead is the gearbox which after some heavy use shows to be less confident in communicating the way to the next gear. Torque does not come with nervous reactions, as soon as the needle of the rev counter reaches approximately 4,000 revs – you have to push yourself beyond to maintain an acceptable pace. What the hell? What will its ancestors would think right now? If almost on top of Mont Cenis, also suffering a bit due to the altitude, the STI has managed to gift me with some sideway driving, easily controllable thanks to the always impeccable traction and the excellent chassis, the wet tarmac also stressed an annoying understeer the moment you arrive with a bit of speed more than expected. I’m not a racing driver though, and it knows that. It would like to correct me, but prefers to remain intuitive leaving to me the work, as if to show that I made a mistake, but luckily I’ve been forgiven. Does this mean that I have to forgive it for not being the Subaru I was waiting for?
The relationship with the new STI is conflicted as much as your marriage when your wife finds out that you have an affair with her sister. Do not expect everything to go smoothly, especially if you have demands and needs with roots that go to compete with models from 2002 to 2007. It is more civilized, more mature, a snake which sheds its skin and becomes unrecognizable. The desire to understand is a fire that does not make you breathe and so the right thing to do is to fill some petrol and grind hundreds of kilometers in the name of science, in the name of the discovery – because you have to understand if everything will end, and especially if it will end with love or hate. I would almost say that as a car for every day is a very good choice, but I would love to be in front of a nervous and difficult sedan to deal with while being stuck in traffic. Yes, because praising the softness and improving civilization, they went disappointing those ancestors who built their status through victories in rallies and with exhausts crackling and flaming as the horizon during the last day of the year.
I expected many things and I have received so many, I enjoyed it from start to finish and I spurred it as you would at the first cross-country race of your son, but unfortunately it did not come in first place. It is improved in several points, but something was lost along the way, the involvement that makes you want to get to dinner smelling of petrol and burnt rubber is gone and has given way to a half-convincing dress, which in the moment that it needs to raise its voice almost prefers to hide its real instinct. It’s not about horses – there are 305 of those – it’s a matter of nerve. It’s like hearing your favorite singer to sing at dawn after a night of excesses, certainly not what you wanted. Time to leave it and I miss it already, I wanted to do something else, I wanted to do more, but probably I would not have found out anyway if it was love or hate. I was blown away, I admit that, because I know for sure that if you have one at home, after a couple of months it could be a completely different animal (maybe a good one huh) keeping the frame and those fantastic brakes and giving it the fizz that it needs. At that point it would be true love, then it would be back as that rally car that makes every car guy’s heart beat. Here’s how I would have wanted it – a car wanted for many but not for everyone.
SUBARU WRX STI (2015-)
Layout – front-engined, all-wheel-drive
Engine – 4 cylinder boxer 2.457cc turbo
Transmission – 6-speed manual gearbox
Power – 305 hp @ 6000 rpm
393 Nm @ 4000rpm
Weight – 1582 kg
Acceleration – 5,2 sec.
Top Speed – 254 kph
Price – from 44.500 €
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