- [Narrator] A portion of this video
was sponsored by Pronamel.
- So, a few weeks ago,
Subaru unveiled the next generation WRX.
It looks like this.
Take it all in.
I'll give you a second.
Within minutes of it being posted online,
thousands of commenters made their opinions known,
declaring it the ugliest WRX of all time.
But is that true?
And why does that argument sounds so familiar?
Today, on Wheelhouse,
we'll look at the WRX's past to see if the case we made,
that this is actually the best looking WRX ever,
and if the car was ever really good-looking to begin with.
I don't think so.
I mean, that's the reason we made this episode.
- Thanks to Pronamel for sponsoring
this portion of today's video.
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that portion of this video.
- From the very first Impreza WRX
to the strangely name "bugeye,"
to the even more strangely name "blobeye,"
to the kinda cool "hawkeye,"
all the way to the newer models-
which for sure look better,
but feel less like rally cars-
the WRX has had a convoluted history.
Our story begins way back in 1992,
when Fuji Heavy Industries, AKA Subaru,
took their legacy platform and chop the wheelbase
to create a compact car that would go on
to take the rally world by storm.
The new Impreza was a pretty standard compact car
for the time,
but the performance WRX trim,
standing for World Rally Experimental,
is what caught people's attention.
It's rally-focused styling came with a hood scoop,
aggressive fog lights, and a rear wing
that transformed the look of the sedate Impreza
into a mean purposeful industrial looking beast,
that seemed designed from its very inception-to win.
And with all-wheel-drive,
a limited-slip differential,
and a turbocharged two liter engine
putting out 237 horsepower,
it made more power than the Mustang of the time
with half the cylinders,
earning the nickname, "Rex."
Unfortunately, that was a race
that rarely happened in real life.
As we'd have to wait 10 more years
before we'd see a WRX for sale in North America.
Instead, we had to lust from afar as Colin McRae
racked up World Rally Championship manufacturers titles
year after year in 1995, '96 and '97.
Meanwhile, Subaru did make concessions to American buyers,
offering us the non-turbocharged Impreza 2.5 RS
as a little bit of tease before we got the real WRX.
Coming out in 1998,
this RS looked like a WRX,
even offering the same iconic blue and gold paint scheme.
But the naturally aspirated engines 165 horsepower,
just didn't get the job done in the same way.
Thankfully though,
us Yankees didn't have to settle for the RS for very long,
as the second generation "bugeye" WRX
finally made it to the new world in 2002.
And the response was,
let's say, mixed.
Does that sound familiar?
Subaru deemed the design new age.
Some people loved it
and some people thought it would literally bring
the end of the world.
It had a bold surprised look that was a distinct departure
from the Impreza era placed.
Some people described it as alien looking,
which felt right in line with the Oakley's of the time,
while others said the headlights
were too reminiscent of a Dodge Neon.
Personally, I really liked the "bugeye",
but that might be out of nostalgia,
not because it's pretty.
While some people at the time
hated those huge headlights out front,
they absolutely loved what was hidden behind them-
a turbocharged four cylinder engine,
pumping out 227 horsepower,
and 217 foot pounds of torque.
Numbers that were enough to send the little Rex
to 60 in just 5.6 seconds
and complete the quarter mile in 14.3.
Nevermind that it got 250 horsepower everywhere else,
those numbers were enough to outperform
the BMW three series of the time.
A fact that Subaru was eager
to remind us of again and again.
The "bugeye" only stuck around
on American shores for three years
before the aptly named "blobeye" WRX showed up as a facelift
for the second generation WRX.
The reaction to the "bugeye" was so strong
that Subaru employed Peter Stevens to handle the new look.
The same guy responsible for cars
like the McLaren F1 and the Jaguar XJR-15,
both great looking cars.
The busier, more aggressive design
aim to update the looks of a model
only a few years old at the time
with a more squared off headlight design,
canards, and vents in the front fascia
that forced air all over those brakes.
Regardless, the "blobeye" again had a mixed reaction,
with some claiming that function had finally won over form,
while others deeming it the best looking WRX of all time.
I don't really agree with that, but go off.
Love it or hate it,
the "blobeye" has the distinction of being the era
when the STi finally made it to America.
With 300 horsepower arriving at a screaming 6,000 RPM
and a matching 300 foot pounds of torque,
the STi was finally on US soil.
With its 4.87 seconds 0-60,
it was a huge improvement over the regular WRX.
Though, it would have been more impressive
had the previous years "Evo"
not already bested number for less money.
But the STi brought with it a new aesthetic,
thanks to its badging.
Subaru Technica International or STi
is Subaru's Skunkworks division,
using the now familiar STi badging
to designate the cars it work on.
Officially, the color for STi is cherry blossom red,
a color with deep meaning and importance
in Japanese culture.
Every year, the citizens of Japan
wait through the dreary months of winter
for the arrival of the cherry blossoms in spring.
It's such an important part of their heritage
that they often offer cherry trees
to other nations as a sign of friendship.
It's the reason why Washington DC
is covered in cherry trees today,
thanks to a gift from Japan over a hundred years ago.
Unfortunately though, cherry blossom red
is a bit too close to pink for American taste
or at least Americans of 1994.
And the pink badging cause its own controversy,
quite stupidly, enough that Subaru
had pushed the shade closer and closer to red ever since.
Personally, I think the STi badges should be pink as hell.
You know, cause pink is a color
you don't really see very often in the car industry,
and I don't really care if you think it's girly
because like we're beyond that.
All that aside,
even the STi wasn't enough to save the "blobeye".
And by 2006, it was time for the WRX
to get another facelift.
This time around, Subaru turned to Andreas Zapatinas,
chief designer at Centro Stile Alfa Romeo
to handle the job.
And the result of this little partnership
was the "hawkeye" WRX,
what Pumphrey affectionately refers to
as the "pig nose" WRX.
And do you think people finally agreed
on whether or not it looked good?
They did not.
This aggressively angled front-end was America's first look
at the new corporate face of Subaru.
Featuring the unsurprisingly controversial at this point,
jet intake and wings grill design
that was intended to pay homage
to the company's aircraft manufacturing routes,
back when Fuji Heavy Industries
was called Nakajima Aircraft Company
and were constructing airplanes to fight World War II
alongside with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
By now, the Impreza was seven years
into its second generation,
and another facelift wasn't gonna get the job done.
It's at this point where we leave
the "bugeye", "blobeye", "hawkeye" years.
And despite the controversy,
this has to be considered the most iconic era
of one of the most celebrated cars of all time.
They might not be the prettiest cars,
but they are some of the coolest.
Unfortunately, the third generation Impreza
didn't offer much in way of relief from criticism.
With a more bulbous conventional design,
the third generation Impreza arrived longer,
wider, and heavier than the outgoing model,
and gone with a frameless windows
that had been iconically Subaru up to that point.
Road & Track described the design as have in quote:
"Looks of a running shoe
and the personality of a tasseled loafer."
That's rough.
It was immediately lambasted for being too soft,
having too much compromise,
and to no one's surprise,
people didn't even get past the break-in period
before they started predicting the demise of the WRX.
Sounds familiar, right?
To Subaru's credit,
they address those concerns the following year.
Re-engineering the suspension to be more in line
with the car's rally routes,
with new springs and struts, and a swaybar,
better tires, blah, blah, blah.
But the damage had already been done.
You only get one chance to make a first impression,
and this one wasn't good.
Things only got worse with the 2011 model,
with the WRX getting the wide-body shell
that had previously only been enjoyed by the STi,
leading to a fresh round of kinda-deserved hate
from the STi crowd.
I mean, if I'm gonna spend thousands of extra dollars
for a special trim,
I'd prefer if the lower trim
didn't look exactly the same as my car, right?
And while the regular Impreza had, by now,
moved on to its fourth generation,
the WRX would continue on with the previous Impreza platform
for a few more years,
while Subaru developed an entirely separate platform
for the WRX, or so they said.
The new WRX actually arrived in 2014 on a modified version
of the Impreza platforms called the VA,
and this caused its own troubles.
Back in 2012, Subaru had introduced the Crosstrek,
known as a Subaru XV outside of North America.
It was also built on a modified version
of the Impreza platform.
This new crossover wasn't a very flattering comparison.
People latched on to it as yet more evidence
of the compromises that were sure
to lead to the death of the WRX.
But for the first time,
the Impreza name was fully dropped from the marketing.
The WRX was finally a nearly standalone model.
Now, it's fresh first-generation.
But even as the WRX was finally cementing it's own identity,
people were criticizing it
for being a watered-down version of itself.
No longer a race-ready rally car available
at your local dealership,
the WRX had become a sorry shadow of itself,
killed by compromise excess,
and bloated by bowing to the whims and wallets of people
who would never take the car off-road,
let alone race it.
The time had come for a change,
for a reclamation,
a return to the Rex's roots.
And just when we thought there was no hope to hold on to,
we were presented with this,
the Subaru VIZIV concept.
This is what everyone was waiting for.
It was bold and futuristic and definitely uncompromised.
It was a complete departure from the path that WRX
had been trudging along for the past decade,
and it was finally heading in the right direction.
And better than that,
we had good reason to believe the next WRX
would be heavily influenced by the VIZIV concept
and become more of a driver's car again,
thanks to articles like this and this and this
and perhaps this and this.
Instead, what we got was,
well, by now, you already know what we got.
How did we get from something as sexy as the VIZIV concept
to something as safe as this?
With the 2022 models debuting on a new chassis,
the Subaru Global Platform,
it would seem there was plenty of opportunity
to make the car exactly what we all wanted
rather than needing to fit into a predetermined box.
And yet, here we are,
facing the same compromises that we seem to deal with
in every WRX iteration-
too small of wheels, bulky lights,
and a rear diffuser that looks like the car
is hiking up its pants for an afternoon of clam digging.
All the sexy lines and angles
seem to have been smoothed over to produce what looks like
a hybrid, no pun intended,
between a WRX and a Crosstrek.
And while I like both those cars,
I don't think they go well together.
Just as before, people are postulating
that Subaru is setting their sights on an older audience,
more interested in comfort than rally competence.
And considering that the average age
of a new car buyer is 55 years old,
they might be right.
But is it really due to the aesthetics alone
or are we just dealing with
an exceptionally passionate fan-base
that keeps getting disappointed?
Internet designers have already taken
a swing at improving things.
And improve them, they have,
but the changes made are largely evolutionary
rather than revolutionary.
This is a game of inches where wheels are just a bit bigger,
lights are just a bit more narrow,
and lines are a bit sharper.
That can't be all that separates
something like the much-loved VIZIV
from the ugliest WRX ever, can it?
I think there's something else going on
behind the madness here,
and it has to do with expectations.
It was widely speculated
that we'd see 300 horsepower for the new WRX.
And in reality, we got three.
We were promised a return to the spirit of a car
that punched way above its weight and price point.
Instead, we got more of the same.
The WRX used to be an economy car
that Subaru turned into a rally car
that was somewhat affordable.
Now, it's demanding sports car prices
without really delivering on that promise.
People wanted to own one
because they saw Subaru out there killing it in the WRC.
and they wanted to take home their very own rally car,
but Subaru hasn't won a manufacturer's championship
since the '90s.
And the last time they took home a drivers' championship
was 2003, just one year after the WRX
finally made it to America.
The economic downturn of 2008 saw them withdraw
from WRC officially,
never to return.
And while they're still bringing home wins
on the US National Rally Circuit,
the WRX was born and bred at the WRC.
And we just haven't felt that heritage
for far too many years.
Now, on top of that,
we can look again at the Mustang comparison.
In the last 20 years,
the Mustang has gone from 260 to 460 horsepower,
dropped a second off of its 0-60 time,
and almost two seconds off of its quarter mile time,
while the WRX is putting up pretty much the same numbers
as it did when it arrived on North American shores.
Sure, the Mustang cost a bit more than WRX now,
but when it comes to their performance,
you're sure getting what you paid for.
The true test of this new car will be the STi.
I am holding out hope that this is where the new WRX
will really shine.
Giving us back some of the angle and attitude
that seems to have been lost in translation,
along with some big, big horsepower numbers,
even though it's really hard
to make huge horsepower on bar syringes.
But after all,
if the racks can't bring us a little attitude to the party,
then why are we even here?
(playful music)
(horse neighing)
It's been years, but the comments still haunts me.
More HRSPRS?
Was it even possible?
How much horse is too much horse?
I had to know.
Test after test,
failure after failure,
I began to doubt that I'd ever find out,
then it happened.
I think I have it.
I think I have it!
I've done it.
HRSPRS are infinite.
So, saddle up, boys and girls,
and hit the trails with this 100% scientifically accurate
new HRSPRS shirt.
Available right now at donutmedia.com.
And it features everything that you need to know
about pure equine muscle.
A real horse, they cost a thousands of dollars,
but this pony is $29.98,
which is way less than $30.
Go ask your mathematician uncle.
Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think
of this video and your thoughts on the new WRX.
The STi, just make or break for that car, really.
It looks like a hiking shoe.
It looks like a Merrell.
You don't want your cars to look like shoes.
I still want a WRX, despite all of that.
Jeremiah just started up his car,
so I gotta go 'cause it's loud.
Be kind.
See you next time.
I love you.
Wait, what?
That's not my line.