Does it do the increment faster in 4th or 3rd though?

Admittedly it will be faster in 3rd or 4th, but I love the torquey feeling in 5th!

97 wrx was timed at 4.5 secs here at a 0-60 timed event

cat back exhaust and a pannel filter

Taken from You & Your Subaru

Classic PPP WR Version was timed unnofficially by Autocar at 4.96 0-60

Compare that with your WRXs STIs and surely there would be nothing in it??
Obviously 80+ would be a different story....sadly my TD04 starts running out of puff

I regularly overtake stuff in fifth in my sti 555. Never seen any figures for it but it's in the sub six second band I'd guess from the way it goes (just gently pushing you back rather than hard back against the seat in third) which is perfect for relaxed overtaking -akin to flat out third gear warm hatch level pickup.

Only hassle with it is it's just starting to seriously pickup once you've finished overtaking, so it's rather easy to end up going a lot quicker than you wanted.

Guess you've never had an impreza with a shorter ratio gearbox on it?

With regards the difference between a classic import and uk car, check the power curves through the rev range- there's a lot more to making a uk as fast than just turning up the boost.

I would have said that it gives you a better picture of the power/torque through the rev band. Anyone can have a really peaky power delivery, but if youve got torque on tap whenever you need it its better surely?