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Subaru Impreza WRX

12/12/2005

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In its almost constant fiddling with the Impreza over the years, Subaru has displayed an inconsistency bordering on the perverse. Back in 1997, the best car in the range was the naturally-aspirated 2.0 Sport, which had a handling balance which I still take to be the benchmark for judging anything with more than two seats. The first WRX, so named after Subaru dropped Turbo as a name, was superb - vastly better than the GL of the same time - but the 2005 version (see road test ) was inferior both to the less powerful GL and the much more powerful STI.

In the 2006 model-year range, the WRX regains previously lost ground. David Morgan, in his launch report of the new cars, rated it as the highest of them all on the basis of a brief drive. I've just had one for a week, and I see what he means. The WRX is once more a fine beast, greatly to be recommended to enthusiastic drivers.

Yet at the same time it is showing its age. Great cars can't stay great forever - even Mazda had to design a new MX-5 eventually - and as an Impreza fan of long standing I have to admit that I wouldn't be sorry to see a replacement being introduced in the near future.

The core values are as important as they ever were. The huge advantages of the Impreza (and indeed the things that have made it so unreasonable that Subaru should have dropped the catch so badly in the past) are its low centre-of-gravity engine, with four pistons pumping out sideways from the crankshaft rather than operating above it, and its remarkably soft but nearly always beautifully damped suspension.

Combined with a transmission which divides the power among all four wheels, these aspects mean that, for a given cornering speed, the Impreza never gives its tyres much to do. The limit of the rubber's adhesion is therefore much higher than it might otherwise be, and the result is that the WRX achieve quite remarkable cornering speeds with almost no fuss at all.

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