You just invented a new meaning for the term "heatsoak" :D

dave,as far as a road going car goes my car is fine. it can break the national speed limit in under 6 seconds if i wanted to do that..it also beats all highway code stopping distances.

you drive your car at events such as ten of the best..therfore your car is competing in races/handling circuit tests. since when did the handling of a subaru become **** for everyday public highway driving? i mean i am thinking here that one does adhere to the speed limits or do you just hoon around and make the rules as you go and try to power drift on every right hander?

the impreza for me needs to be nothing more than a fast-ish,reliable 4 door car. it just so happens it has good grip,traction and road holding.my aspirations are to get from a to b..not hit mach 3 on the way.

when put to the limit its bound to be pushed in standard form..is it because the car is ****..erm no its because you are driving it in extreme conditions..therefore you need to enhance certain shortcomings that doesnt make the car ****..it makes it more road friendly. hopefully you do well at ten of the best..and show then anti scooby persons the error of their ways..or you can jump up on a soapbox and bleat on about how **** they are and get that even ****ter bmw smg!!!!!(your one hard man to impress it would seem) this is my final post on this matter..lets agree to disagree and good luck at totb..ps please beat an mr2 turbo just for me :)

pflowers says " one of the reasons I bought my MY04WRX was because of the rally pedigree ".......then when queried on this says that he doesn't know where I am coming from? Re- read the posts concerned, it's pretty clear.

I said 'where are you coming from' because nowhere had I seen anyone say that the road going scooby bore any technical similarity to the rally car which is what you were saying.

You implied that we were stupid enough to think that the car we drove out of the showroom was based on a full blown rally car.

As I said one of the reasons I bought my MY04WRX was because of the rally pedigree..............of Subaru, meaning if they were smart enough to build a championship winning car they ought to be able to build a half decent road car.

Call me daft, but doesn't Prodrive play a teensie role in "building the rallly car" ? ;)

What's your point?

Nominated for 'Quote Of The Week'

lmao

Gets my vote !!

Cars are what you need them to be.

I have an 02 JDM Wagon - it's 2 cars.

1. The one I rag to work and back and have all sorts of fun in it, blowing away pretty much everything and sliding it around corners.

2. The one I take the missus and kids and dog out in, quite often the missus drives, impeccably behaved car that is practical and tootles happily (but I don't get stuck behind caravans!)

What do you want from a car? For me I can't think of anything more suitable for my personal situation. If you want a better handling/faster car there are many options - but the thing about the Scoob is it's a practical family car - even in saloon form.

And then there's the 'Something for the weekend sir?' - Yes, a few gallons of optimax please :)

Micared, it was a reply to:

It's a bit of a stretch, and without the sarcasm, I don't think there are many parts/design decisions that make it back from the WRC car to the road car, as they are built for such different purposes.

My point was that the car that arrives at the Prodrive premises from Japan, and the car that comes out to perform on WRC stages are 2 quite different things.

In this respect it will be truly interesting to see what Scoobysport will come up with BTW !

The quote would be more relevant if you'd look at it from a GrpN car pov.

Most sensible thing I have heard anyone say on here !

Jeez, I give up, in case you had not noticed I agree with what you say.

As far as I am concerned car manufacturers go racing for several reasons. ( and motorcycles for that matter ) The main one is of course to promote an image for their product, it gets their name thrown around and free exposure in the press etc. If they win / do well they sell more cars. Another reason is to develop new ideas that may some day be used in some form on the cars / bikes you and I drive, this is fact like it or not. I certainly don't believe they directly go racing to improve the road car, they go racing to win. IMO its the opposite, when looking for new ideas to improve / redesign whatever the road car they may look back and make choices based on previous experiences in racing i.e things that have worked, things that havn't.

Anyway I am happy with my car as it is, as they say 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'

With regards to all this 'standard car is sh!te' business it of course depends on what you want from it. I used to race motocross ( at british championship level ) and there was an expression used for people constantly complaning about performance weaknesses in their bike. People would say ' theres only one thing wrong with that bike - its the nut thats holding the handlebars' Seems quite appropriate I think....LOL

Jeez! I leave this lively debate thinking it's all calmed down and all hell (aka nooscoob) breaks loose! :Whatever_

Anyway, I don't think I answered the initial question, so for what it's worth... I read great things about the Impreza Turbo when it first came out and before their rally campain got under way. Even though they said it was a performance bargain and a real Q-car (nobody though of Subaru as a performance car company at the time), I couldn't afford one then. But I thought that one day I would. When they won the JD Power survey several times I was convinced that I should get one.

I must say that there is so much hype and legend about the turbo Impreza now that it makes some people expect too much from it.

Yeah what's that all about? 135bhp for a two litre car isn't that great these days (no offence meant to you). I believe that the Sport has a SOHC unlike the turbo's DOHC. Now I'm not too sure what advantage that has but my Alfa had DOHC (and a mild version of VVT) and managed to muster 150bhp from two litres. Surely it would make more economic sense for Subaru to fit the same engine as the WRX in the Sport minus the turbo rather than build a slightly different one?

Yes, it sounds like your car is now better sorted than a standard turbo car. But I would think that the standard turbo car has uprated suspension compared to the standard Sport so you wouldn't be starting as far back as you did with your current car. Come on! You know you want to! :)

To answer the original question......
 

.....I bought my first Impreza on the back of McRae's rallying success. I am sure that this was a major factor in my purchasing decision, and led me to take a test drive. Never looked back since.

That'd be me then :D .

If you think a 94 UK Impreza handles (and the key word is handles, not grip, or finds traction) as well as a 182 with cup suspension, then we have different definitions of handling. I can live with that.

You really ought to come along to TOTB and see why some people think that the standard Impreza needs something doing to it: Nexuas' opinion is a fairly enlightening read, too. I think you'd be surprised (in a positive way :) ) if you met David, too...

Cheers,
Nick.

:D:D:D


As was said above 135BHP from a 2 litre is fairly poor(121ft/lb tourque), mine is a phase one engine so in standard form should only be putting out a fairly naff 116bhp. The embarassing figure is the at wheel BHP, mine is an AUTOMATIC and the drive train losses are HUGE, at the wheels I am getting 42bhp. If that is enough to upset the impecable handling of the impreza then it really is not that great a package?????

Out of intrest what is the at wheel BHP for a turbo???

Dunno. I don't even know if transmission losses are fixed or are a percentage of the power at flywheel. I'd guess there's a fixed element and a variable element, so I'm lost :D

I was just going to say I like the sound of Nexuas's car until I saw that word 'Automatic' :D

I think he got it in one though :)

Nick some people percieve traction / grip in different ways.. some cars cant corner for **** but stay flat, and people think the can handle due to lack of apparent body roll.. where as some corner faster but roll more.. IYSWIM...

The better handling car out of a 94 impreza and clio??? Whichever one Im driving as Im biased :D

True. We'll have to agree to differ then. As I said, I can live with that.

Shouldn't you be working so you can get your calls finished off and get home to sort the car out :D ?

nick.. pah.. erm no.. why not just do nothing and leave early?

Good call. At the moment, I am alone in a sea of 16 desks, and am finding it rather difficult to summon up motivation.

so do fook all :)

Problem is that I have a shedload to do.

But back to the original question of this thread, "yes"

;)