Something that isn't political

And since it is written by me, it is probably going to be car related.

Today, all of the facebook universe conspired to piss me off by writing rambling crap about how much they hate our government or how great sarah pallin will be as a president, or how broken hearted they were at glenn beck's latest bout of tear jerking antics on the faux news. Either way, this evening need a big giant automotive enema.









I have owned 4 Subarus personally, and if you count my immediate family we have owned 6. 2 Legacy, 1 Gl, 1 Outback Legacy, and 2 Impreza (1 wrx, 1 wrx sti). You could say that we are fond of them. There isn't anything particularly special about them, but they do a lot of different things pretty well.

1. They are all pretty safe.

2. They are all fairly economical*

3. They are all reasonably reliable.

4. When they do break, they are cheap to fix*

5. They are cheap to buy*

(*They all fit that but the STi. It gets not so good fuel economy, it is very expensive to fix, and is not so cheap to buy)

So, why would you take the typically good attributes that a Subaru has and throw them out the window with a STi? (Subaru Technica International)



Well, if you back track all the way back, and I mean way WAY back to the flat head ford days, there was always a simple formula for hot rodding: Take a large engine, and put it in a smaller car than it was originally intended for. Now, simplifying that even further, that boils down to POWER TO WEIGHT RATIO. Meaning, if you add power AND subtract weight, you will go faster. Sometimes Domestic hot rod fans think that import (or as we prefer "sport compact car") fans are simply into the look of our cars, but that couldn't be further from the truth for most of us.

This is an extremely long winded way for me to say that the STi version of this car does have more power (305 horsepower, 290 lb feet of torque. look at this years mustang v8 and compare it. remember, the STi is a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder, the mustang is a 4.6 liter v8)

Mustang V8

4.6-Liter, 90-Degree V8, 24-Valve, SOHC, SEFI Engine; Front/Longitudinal Mounted With Horsepower Of 315@6000, Torque Of 325@4250, Alloy Block and Alloy Cylinder Heads (Standard)

Subaru STi Impreza

Turbocharged 2.5-Liter High Output, H4, D AVCS 16-Valve, DOHC, SEFI Engine; Front/Longitudinal Mounted With Horsepower Of 305@6000, Torque Of 290@4000, Alloy Block and Alloy Cylinder Heads (Standard)

Anyway, the point of that comparison is that this is still a car you can haul the family in, still do your shopping in, still be safe in the bad weather in, but when you want to indulge your car guy side, it is much much faster than 9/10ths of anything out there. Lancer Evo people, you still don't count. your car isn't faster when it is parked in the dealership stall.



This version of the STi has a few obvious differences between it and the other concurrent impreza line. (WRX and 2.5i) The largest difference visually is the flared fenders. The wheelbase is a few inches wider on the GRB (2008-2010) STi than the other (GHB) Imprezas. On the GDA (2002-2003), GDB, (2004-2005), and GDC (2006-2007) Imprezas, all of the sedan body cars had flared fenders.
This STi shares the 6 speed porsche developed transmission and 4 piston brembo brakes from the previous generation STi. No problem there, they were over engineered then, they are still over engineered now.

The USDM (united states domestic market) STi cars have always had a 2.5 liter engine. We have had STi branded cars since 2004. The WRX was introduced here in 2002. The WRX and STi have existed for much longer than that overseas though. The JDM (japanese domestic market) version of the STi comes with a 2.0 liter version of the flat four engine, with a twin scroll turbo, and a higher redline.



So, in Japan, every few months, they tend to release a special edition of the newest model STi. As far as I can remember, we have never gotten a special edition STi in the usa. Subaru of America is going to release one later this year, but it is basically a stripped out base model STi with a stiff suspension. Nothing to write home about.









The closest we have ever gotten to a USDM special edition STi is the ESX STi cars.

The first is the GDB chassis early car.






The second car is a GRB late Chassis car.




Unfortunately, these cars were very expensive, and the modifications were easy to duplicate for much less money. Nice idea, poor execution. Joel Mchale Drives a late model GRB ESX STi that was featured in a now defunct Subaru hobbyist magazine.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/the_soup/b1658_backstage_late_late_show_with_joel.html Read the final note from the backstage notes. He is only ashamed of it when he isn't with Subaru nerds.

Ok, so here is the entire point of my post tonight, a list of the special edition STi's that I could think of off the top of my head:



STi Type R
It was a light weight shell, high output engine, and a group N gearbox. Still my favorite chassis (GC8)








STi S201
Honestly, I don't know what this car was about. I thought it was a concept, but I guess they built a couple.







STi S202
This was the beginning of the new gen special edition cars. First one with the 6 speed and the Brembos. Very very desirable car.




STi S203
Another new generation special edition car. Incremental improvements.





STi S204
Same thing as S203. More generational improvements.







Impreza Wrx STi Spec C Ra-R
A very very special car. Extremely light weight, special seats, special race prep on the engine internals, special 6 piston front calipers, 4 piston rears, straight through exhaust, twin scroll turbo, carbon fiber recaro seats.








Subaru Impreza WRX STi R205
The newest special edition Impreza, the R is for Road sport, this special edition is geared more towards on road performance. Carries over many of the Ra-R special edition parts.









The 22B
Hexadecimal for 555. The sponsor for the Subaru world rally effort at the time of it's production.
This car is by far the most special of all Impreza's ever built. Every piece of this car is hand built. The body, engine, transmission. Only 400 were ever built, far less still exist.




The fun thing about the STi line of cars is that there are so many parts available you can turn it into anything you want. Any part that you feel is lacking you can address, or enjoy it the way it is. One thing that the STi is not lacking is heritage.