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Despite Subaru's enthusiastic press kit claim that the new
Impreza WRX boasts a higher power-to-weight ratio than Audi's
S4, the current king of all-wheel-drive sport sedans, a week
with the new hot shot from Japan made one thing obvious: The
WRX ain't no Audi.
And thank God for that.
Had Subaru grown a big head and actually tried to position
the WRX directly against German sedans like the S4 and BMW
330Xi (similar to the way it's trying to position the Legacy
Outback VDC upscale), it might have ended up with nothing
more than the world's most overpriced and overweight Impreza,
destined to get lost among the multitude of sport sedan wannabes
that frequently attempt to tread on the hallowed ground of
the Germans.
The result is a street-scorching four-door sedan that can
embarrass every sport coupe and pony car in its price range.
Sure, a Mustang Cobra or Camaro Z28 will smoke the little
Subie from a light, but lead those same knuckle-draggers down
a twisty mountain road, and the WRX will be waving bye-bye
from its tastefully wingless trunk lid.
Japan doesn't have much to counter with either. Toyota's
Celica has an equally athletic chassis, but with 57 fewer
horsepower and 87 fewer foot-pounds of torque, can you guess
which one will come blasting out of a corner faster? The Acura
Integra Type R is a sport coupe that shares the WRX's no-holds-barred
performance philosophy, but its platform is dated, and its
engine still lags behind the Subaru in both horsepower and
torque by a wide margin.
 So
how does Subaru's new overachiever accomplish all these amazing
feats of asphalt athleticism? A good chunk of the credit goes
to the 2.0-liter turbocharged flat four under the hood. Producing
227 horsepower and 217 ft.-lbs. of torque, this engine cranks
out an amazing 113.5 horsepower-per-liter, a level of performance
typically reserved for mega-dollar exotics and high-strung
racecars. To churn out such impressive numbers, Subaru engineers
specified an aluminum-alloy block and heads for strength and
light weight, dual overhead camshafts and four valves-per-cylinder
for precise fuel and air control, and an air-to-air intercooler
to keep the incoming oxygen cool and dense.
Under full boost, the turbo's torque curve remains flat much
like the 2.5-liter engine in the RS model (still available,
although in sedan form only). It's nowhere near as smooth
as the more refined sixes in the S4 and 330Xi, but then again,
no four-cylinder on the planet is. Compared to the loud and
buzzy four-pot screamer in the Celica, the 2.0-liter in the
WRX is whisper-quiet, with no annoying cabin noises even while
running near its 7,000-rpm redline.
So you still might be saying to yourself, 227 horses, 14.9
in the quarter, that's nothing to write home about. Your average
Mustang GT has 260 horsepower, 300 ft.-lbs. of torque, and
will run low 14s all day, so what's the big deal?
The big deal is that the Impreza's standard all-wheel drive
can take all 227 of said ponies and transfer them directly
to the ground without so much as a hint of wheel spin. (We've
heard that WRXs with the stock 16-inch tires generate additional
wheel spin off the line for slightly faster acceleration times,
but we can't confirm this.) We enjoy laying stripes as much
as the next guy, but there's something to be said for being
able to mash the throttle on a wet road and still feel every
ounce of horsepower pushing you back in your seat. |
