2010 Subaru Impreza STi

For years now I have been saying that I was going to buy a STi. In this very blog you can look and see where I very first saw the 2008 (GRB chassis style) STi and decided to buy one.













Actually. I should rewind. Subaru runs a lot deeper in my blood than 2008. It would be more accurate to backtrack to 1998, which was the year I got my drivers license.

I had started the year car pooling with a family that lived up the street. The plan was for the kid to start driving himself as soon as he turned 16 (that fell in January of 1998, about a month before my 16th birthday). The fine looking light blue subaru you see in this photo was destined to be his, it belonged to his mother. Well, January rolled along and believe it or not, he was afraid to drive and had no need for the car. One day on the way to school, half joking, she asked me if I wanted to buy it. I asked how much, and she asked me what I thought would be fair. I told her $2000, which was about $4000 less than the car was worth, and she agreed to it as long as I drove her son the rest of the year. Done and Done.

Subie love began.









Well, sort of.



Also in 1998 Sony computer entertainment released the first version of their Gran Turismo Series. Unlike the later games in the series, the earliest title had very basic driving aids. Basically, once you tuned a car it became difficult to drive. The best balanced cars in the game were the all wheel drive turbo cars, and of them my favorites were the Subaru Impreza Wrxs. Prior to Gran Turismo I had Never heard of a Subaru Impreza WRX. This yellow Version V was my go to when I had to win a race. Without Gran Turismo there would be no performance Subarus in the USA.
Prior to the Gran Turismo phenomenon, all United States domestic Market (USDM) Subaru's were naturally aspirated (meaning that they did not have turbo or super charged engines, basically they were designed mostly for fuel economy and longevity in the US) but in other countries, Subaru was famous for their world rally reputation, power, and speed. I should say that in 1998 all the Subarus were naturally aspirated in the U.S. Before that they had turbocharged GLs, and even a turbocharged Legacy (with a fake hoodscoop because in the U.S. it wasn't intercooled.)





As an experiment to see if there was interest in the United states for a Subaru performance model, Subaru of America introduced the 2.5rs Impreza.




It had almost all of the equipment of the Japanese domestic model (JDM) Wrx, Minus the turbo engine (the turbo engine is what makes a wrx a wrx if you were wondering)
So basically it looked really awesome, but it moved like an all wheel drive Honda Civic. None the less, I really wanted one. It looked the part. Unfortunately, Subaru priced the thing at like $25,000, and thems was 2000 Y2K dollaz yo. So I bleached my hair and bought a used exploder instead.


The exploder was a very nice truck, but it certainly didn't light any fires for me as a car guy. Everything I know how to do now started with my light blue legacy wagon. As things broke, sometimes I just didn't have the money to fix them. Sometimes I wanted to add aftermarket stereo parts or other stuff to it, and because it was so early in the parts game, I had to make due with what was available for it. Eventually I sold it and moved on, but it was always my first car. It always made me grin.

In 2003 when I got home from my mission, my Dad had been driving my explorer. He very generously gave it back to me (he had been making the payments, he gave it back to me and I resumed the payments) But his old 1990 Legacy was sitting in the driveway. I later found out that something had gone wrong with it when they were driving it, and they didn't know what the issue was. I asked them if I could have it if I fixed it and they agreed. (I don't think they thought I could do it as quickly as I did) I opened the hood and found that it had thrown a belt, and that the power steering pump had consumed itself. 35 dollars and a trip to pick-n-pull later she was back on the road, and I was a Subaru owner again.





The beautiful thing about Subaru's from about 1990 to now is that they all have EJ series engines. The Legacy was a EJ22T, the second one was a EJ22, The Wrx was a EJ205, and now the STi is a EJ257, the displacement is a little different and the cylinder heads change, but working on them is always very similar. The new one is by far the most complex, but belts and accessories are basically the same. Well, the parts aren't the same, the placement and working on the parts is basically the same. The design isn't the same at all. The old turbo engine wasn't intercooled, and the pistons were forged, and the emissions controls were nearly non existent.
The Wrx, about a month before I traded it in.

So Chassis wise, this new car has a wider wheelbase, but shorter overhangs, it has framed windows, engine output is about the same compared to the 2007 GDB style chassis, however max engine speed is reduced to 6500 Rpms. Why is this? My best guess is that through use of dual AVCS they can make the same peak power and torque through lower engine speeds, so why bother spinning it to 7 if 6.5 will do the same? (yes, I agree it isn't as fun, but its ignition cut, not fuel cut, and I doubt that valve float would happen at that engine speed. I'm sure that I could retune the soft limiter back to 7200 without hurting anything, but why? I'm making peak torque at something like 4000 rpms. Spinning past about 5570 on the 6 speed is a waste anyway.
Stock wheels are 8.5 inches wide, and you can cook them in second gear in s# mode with too much throttle.


So, knowing what I know, and having waited for so long, is the experience any less for me now that I have it?

I doubt there is any other car on the planet that can combine all the things that this car excels at so well. It is remarkably safe, it gets ok fuel economy (I'm not going to lie, its about like a tahoe or yukon, but what do you want, it does 0 - 60 in less that 5 seconds it isn't a damned prius) It has a fairly nice interior, It has reasonable space, and it handles telepathically. There are very few cars that can hang with a STi at any price point. And no, I don't want to hear about your Lancer Evo, because it doesn't count.

My stroller and groceries do not fit in your Evo's trunk.
This is the face you make when you sit in an Evo seat.