almost two decades ago I owned a Subaru Impreza WRX that makes me quite old it's
been almost 15 years since I drove that car and I loved it
recently I drove the newest WRX unfortunately I can't say I was bowled
over it had a rough fidgety ride and the clutch and gearbox didn't like each
other and quite frankly didn't like me so when
the offer came up to drive this the WRX STI I was conflicted could this car ruin
my fond memories of the WRX forever this year Subaru told us that the WRX
still had a couple of beers left of the old shape it's been a busy few years for
the company as they've built a whole new platform for Impreza and XV so to soften
that blow the WRX and STI got a top and tail and a bit of an interior refresh to
tide us over this new nose is a little bit less awkward and you've got all
blacked out bits and badging and stuff the scoops a little bit smaller which is
always welcome back here we've got new rear lights your rear bumper and that
wing being the spec R this wing is standard so you're stuck with it and
it's huge but it's so big that it actually frames your view out the rear
window so you don't have to rely on that fairly ho-hum reversing camera the spec
r also has these bright high vis Brembo calipers gripping drill discs and up the
front they ask six pots so they are very strong the more modest scoop feeds this
intercooler which cools the turbo which is strapped to the big banger 2.5 liter
boxer four inside the r and spec r comes from these Recaro seats which are
electrically operated and heated the rest of the interior is basically WRX
premium which means a bigger touchscreen 8 Harman Kardon speakers for that extra
doof doof sound and despite this being an updated touchscreen it still doesn't
have apple carplay or Android auto StarLink is alright but seriously
carplay Android better so it looks all grumpy and agro
and you know it's got the wheels and the wind and everything and it's got the big
engine but after the WRX I'm still a big worried the base WRX I drove was look it wasn't
great it had a really hard ride it felt like the dampers were just well it felt
like that was solid actually in the low-speed sections but once he got it
moving it was okay and I found the gearbox and the clutch to be barely on
speaking terms I mean they just didn't want to work together and the clutch was
all over look I want to go on and on but it just it wasn't great there are some
significant changes in the STI the steering is hydraulic rather than
electric the center diff is Drive controllable and my advice is to leave
that in Auto and be done with it but that's just me the six-speed manual
gearbox has shorter ratios and a shorter final drive for extra punch out of the
corners the ratio change in the gearbox is really good because you get a bit of
extra punch out of the corners it's really I like the closer ratio you do
get six there's a little bit more revs on on the when you're driving along on
the freeway but that's the price you pay it's look it's a noisy car this is a
noisy car you can hear the engine you can hear the gearbox there's wind noise
from anywhere from 70 upwards you you know what's going on in this car you
hear a lot of mechanical noise and that again is is part of the nostalgia of a
WRX it's you can hear what's going on it's not silent so you'd think with all
those changes stiffer springs stiffer dampers lower profile tires on bigger
wheels you would think that this would be even worse I certainly thought so and
you know what I was wrong this is so much better look it's still firm its WRX and STIs
are not soft cars but it's livable this is
actually a day-to-day option the the WRX the standard one was verging on
unpleasant but this this is good like I can I'm happy in this something
different but it's good different it's it's not doing things for the sake of it
it's not super polished its raw it's noisy its jumpy it's it's fast and it's
fun it really is it's yeah I've grown to love it over the week
I liked it when I got it but I've grown to love it I really do it's um not
something I expected to say about it after the WRX
the WRX and the STI still have a couple of years to go before they're put on the
new Impreza global platform at the $60,000 mark there is a lot of
competition and you want something special the STI delivers that it's silly it's
jumpy it's fast and it's fun you're not exactly buying one of these
cars with your head in the first place so if you want wings and seats get the
spec R
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