OK, here is the idea: all manufacturers quote the power as a figure at the crank shaft. In STI ppp's case it's around 300hp, but the actual power ar the wheels after transmition losses is much less. Is it above 200hp at least? Somebody with RR results should now, but for the sake of argument let's say it's 230hp. Now let's take a front wheel drive car, a Volvo S80 T6 is perfect example. It's pulling 272hp out of its twin turbo 6 cylinder 2.9 liter engine. Not as impressive as Impreza's figures, but transmission losses are tiny and at the wheels Volvo probably has more power than Impreza, even though the power delivered through front wheels only. So, comparing both cars accelerating from the speed of say 20mph, Impreza will not have it's launch advantage of non-spining wheels and if the road is clean and dry and doesn't qualify as a "twisty" the Volvo will outaccelerate Impreza? And the same should apply for a rear wheel drive car with similar power figures...
Basically, I'm trying to understand the difference in 0-60 times. The whole 2 seconds that Impreza is quicker than Volvo should be coming from all-wheel-drive launch advantage with ability to put LOT of power down quickly without wheels spin.. Otherwise I'm confused.. What are your thoughts about this?

 

One word....Torque

 

Weight !
Volvo - 3 tons of pig iron.
Impreza - 1/2 ton of bake bean tin.

 

Well, in our example Volvo S80 T6 has 380 N*m in the range of 2000-5000 revs and it weights 1480 kilos which is a match to STI7 ppp...

 

theres an old git with a flat cap driving the volvo

 

There's more to acceleration than BHP, torque and weight. Gearing plays an important part too. If I recall the T6 has really long gearing which does'nt help acceleration.

 

Volvo was a bad example because of its image among some Subaru drivers and because T6 actually gets automatic transmition only. But if it were some other front wheel drive car with same as subaru's power/torque figures and the same manual gear ratios would it outperform STI from the moving start with initial speed 20mph? You see I'm more interested in transmition losses aspects. Does anybody know RR results for STI's at-the-wheels versus at-the-crank and the same for some front only and rear only wheel drive cars, so we can compare transmission losses? Cheers