2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Road Test Review
Impreza WRX STI Photos
If any car deserves the title “Modern Day Legend” it’s Subaru’s iconic Impreza WRX STI. A road car that came into existence for the sole purpose of homologating Subaru’s entry into the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), it’s become a cult classic on the rally circuit, the street, and probably as importantly in the virtual world of video games. Even more critical is its flagship status within Subaru, a halo car that carries the pride of the entire brand on its bulging, muscular little shoulders.
Truly, it’s a bantam weight fighter if there ever was one. Even its arch rival, Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution X is a substantially larger and heavier car, and I wouldn’t go so far to call the STI a flyweight as there are much smaller cars in Europe and Asia that are sport-tuned almost as radically as this little monster, and believe me when I say that this car is one unorthodox piece of machinery.
Subaru didn’t leave much if anything on the table when introducing the 2008 STI, but rather let its design team, engineers and product planners loose to reinvent the car. One look is all it takes to appreciate how much fun they must have had coming up with the design. The car has gone from an aggressively penned sedan with obvious economy car roots, to the ultimate muscle-hatch, its five-door sheet metal near bursting with rippling guns, not to mention enough scoops and airfoils to make a Lamborghini owner jealous. It’s a sporty five-door shape with a subtly integrated but still sizeable rear wing spoiler extending the roofline, just above an upscale set of LED taillights that sit overtop two big fat tailpipes at each side. Up front, an ultra-aggressive hood scoop looks positively fierce, while that bulging fender flares that round out each side are about as aggressively shaped as any ever in autodom. Introverted, it’s not. But if you want to make a good impression with a particularly targeted demographic of Need for Speed gamers and autocross or drifting aficionados, this is a ride that’ll earn you street cred.
Before I get started, I’ve driven the competition, and rather than pit the STI against its obvious rivals, one being the Evo X, I’ll direct you to read a head-to-head comparison test our West Coast Office put together that should cover the good, bad and ugly of each car, and how they rate when driven on the same tarmac and gravel roads nose to tail and back to back. It’s good fun and quite revealing. This review will be solely about the STI, as tempting as it is to go back into that STI vs. Evo battle once again, as the little Subie deserves a moment in the spotlight all on its own.
When the STI arrived at our West Coast office I completely hogged it for the first couple of days, and after being a bit underwhelmed by the regular WRX’s soft suspension setup and tendency to understeer when pushed to the limit, I was once again singing praises to Subaru’s performance engineers who got this car’s setup very, very right. Yes, the WRX STI remains a sensational car to drive, maintaining adhesion to the road surface with an uncanny tenacity. In fact, it’s probably too good. If you’re the kind of driver that likes to drift a car into a corner you might be a bit frustrated with the STI, as it’s so grippy that you’ll be hard pressed to get it sideways. After days of pushing the envelope to the nth degree, and to that end I’m talking about forcing as much power to the rear wheels as its DCCD (Driver Controlled Center Differential) would allow, the only way I could break its tail was to wrench the steering wheel dramatically and then hang on and hope for the best. If you do get it to go wayward it’s not as predictable as some in this class, as it seems preoccupied with trying to get all four wheels pointed in the same direction more than it does in having any real fun. Oh, don’t get me wrong, as there are few cars I’ve been able to drive faster through a test track, and few that had me feeling safer while doing so, but it’s just not the wild and wooly STI it once was, and therefore some might be a bit put off.
What’s that DCCD (Driver Controlled Center Differential) technology I just mentioned? Subaru let’s you toggle a switch on the lower console to manually feed more power to the front or rear axle of its all-wheel drive system in order to adapt the drivetrain output to suit your driving style and the road terrain, which is the kind of technology I especially appreciate, although I’d love to see this switch moved to the steering wheel where I could modulate it on the fly without removing my hands from their safest and most functional 9 and 3 o’clock positions. Right next to the DCCD switch on the center console is a button for SI-Drive, an item you might remember from the Legacy spec.B. Basically it alters the engine’s mapping programs between two sport modes, or alternatively an “intelligent” setting for calming down the car’s reactions during less chaotic everyday use. Both combine well with Subaru’s legendary symmetrical all-wheel drive system, respected for its superb grip and stalwart reliability.
Probably the most adrenaline inducing feature in the car, however, lies under the hood. Even opening it up and looking at the STI’s mill is exciting, not to mention a bit scary if you had plans to work on this one yourself. It’s a complex melee of wires, tubes and mechanical bits, embellished with fiery red paint to drive its performance point home. And it makes some pretty heady numbers at 305 horsepower and 290 lb-ft of torque, all from a relatively diminutive 2.5-liter horizontally opposed four-cylinder. Sending power from the engine to the rest of the drivetrain is a short-throw six-speed manual transmission that works extremely well, once you get used to it.
It’s a bit balky, for sure, without the ease of operation offered by some rival manual shift mechanisms. This car is more of a racer, after all, so I was inclined to give its gearbox the benefit of the doubt and get to know its ins and outs before drawing my final verdict. You see, rather than pushing and pulling the lever straight up and down in a double-H pattern, it requires a bit of an outward push when feeding it forward and an inward tug when pulling back. Sure that’s a little strange at first, but tremendous fun once you get the hang of it. Where Subaru fell a bit short is in only offering this transmission. No, I wouldn’t want them to add an automatic to the options list, but a sequential manual, like VW’s GTI or Mitsubishi’s Evo X MR would have been a smart move. It would have opened up the market to those who don’t want to have to shift for themselves while commuting in heavy traffic, yet simultaneously don’t want to give up anything in performance when taking it out for a weekend romp.
And speed ramps up quickly with this car, which is why all four seemingly fade-free disc brakes are critically important. They’re top-line Brembos, of course, and ventilated at all four corners. Also included is the brake specialist’s Super Sport anti-lock system (ABS) enhanced by Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), while the rotors are slightly larger dinner plates than those on the outgoing STI and look fabulous framed by the optional set of 8- by 8.5-inch BBS forged aluminum-alloy rims wrapped in Dunlop SP600 245/40R18 rubber.
Speaking of looking fabulous, the STI’s cabin can hold its own against any rival in the compact performance segment. It’s a bit tight inside, especially in back, but the quality of interior surfaces, interfaces and switchgear put it in the upper half of the class. The layout is nice too, especially its center stack that appears more like high-end stereo equipment than the ancillary cluster of a compact Japanese car, and the seats, while not as robustly bolstered as I’d like in a car that was designed with performance as its core criterion, are immensely comfortable.
The STI’s hatchback design makes it a hospitable companion for daily duty too, unlike some in the sports car realm, which really sums up why the STI is such a brilliant offering in the sport compact segment. There are others, or at least one other that outperforms the Subaru’s latest flagship in most if not all categories, but nothing delivers such high-level performance together with premium-like refinement. The WRX STI is a comfortable daily driver and a supercar killer combined in one economical package, all for a price that’ll make most anything remotely similar with a premium badge slink away in embarrassment. And that balancing act between seriously sporty and respectably refined makes it one of the best sport compacts money can buy.
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