Pooder

I am going for a test drive in an STI in about an hour. Is there anything anybody wants to know while it is fresh in my mind. I will be making a direct comparison with my MY98 Turbo

Neil Smalley

Umm, Do you like it or not?

chiark

"What'll she do mister?"

Pooder

I think its fantstic. Imediate thoughts are compared with my car
1 Much lighter clutch

2 Better build quality

3 Much quicker but not a lot there below 4000rpm.Some turbo lag but nothing to worry about. Mine is coming end of April and I will fit Prodrive PP as I think the engine feels strangled above 6000rpm
The dealer said this should give 310bhp. Car I drove had 1300miles and still felt pretty tight.

4 6 speed box is fantastic- short throw and you get used to it in about 10 minutes

5 Handling is awesome I managed to provoke oversteer which is odd on a 4wd car

6 Ride quality is about the same as my 98 car

7 Nice interior has a real quality feel about it

These are some imediate impressions anyone want to know anything else

Elvis Presley

Let me know how your insurance quote compares to the MY98.

chiark

Nothing under 4000rpm? The one I test drove had less lag than my MY00. Don't understand this "lag" stuff.

Storming car though. How long before you order?

Pooder

Elvis I will but I have not had one yet-Not sure which group it is.
Anyone out there had a good quote for an STI????

More thoughts on the test drive

The brakes are incredible--progressive and incredibly powerful

I never heard any wastegate chater as refered to by Tiff.

There is a slight understeer but if you keep pushing the throttle it becomes neutral.

Understeer is less than on my MY98 so I dont really know what the press is on about.

Dealer reckons the PPP will be available in about 6 weeks

Lots of seat adjustment which is a big improvment on my current car

There is no sign of any transmission ****** or judder despite my best efforts to provoke it

Engine bay looks great with all those colours

Has a BMW feel when you close the doors

Pooder

Chiark
I have ordered it coming end of April---Blue and non prodrive I dont like that big wing

wilf

PPP in six weeks :*

Well lets see when it really turns up. Sounds like usual sales dribble.

Pooder

Wilf
Are you waiting for the PPP and been given false dates before???

wilf

No just thinking back to P1 PPP that never happened and WRX PPP that took about 9 months longer than initially announced for many owners to actually get them fitted.

Pooder

Wilf
One of the advantages now is that my dealer can fit the PPP whereas before the cars had to go to Prodrive. Should speed things up

wilf

I thought MY01 WRX was dealer fit also. Do you know what the PPP will comprise yet?

Must go now and get on with work.

Pooder

Wilf
Dealer tells me engine management and exhast

Dracoro

Regarding turbo lag. I thought turbo lag was the time between applying more gas and the power coming in at revs when the turbo is designed to be running, NOT the time until you get to 4k revs (or whevever the turbo is designed to start). This lack of power up to 4k revs is just the fact that the engine just doesn't have much low down power.
With the older cars that do have lag, you'd be at 4 k revs, plant your foot and nothing happens for x amount of time, then all of the sudden woosh.
Correct me if I'm wrong tho.

Pooder

If you take your foot off the gass the Turbo spools down.Plant your size 10 back on the gas and the Turbo spools up to its operating rpm. It is this time period that is the lag it is longer on big Turbos. Jet engines which in some ways are big Turbos suffer this problem and the lag is considered the time during a slam acceleration to go from idle to max power

Deep Singh

"PPP should give 310 bhp" I'm not sure if that is going to be true.At most they will bring it back to 280bhp ie the way it was meant to be.Please correct me if you disagree.

Pooder

Deep Singh
This is not the same engine it has been totally reworked and as such is not simply a derated version of the import STI. Power output will be whatever prodrive can produce without compromising reliability.Currently I am informed that 315bhp is being produced by prodrive but they are unhappy with some aspects of the power delivery. Anyone at prodrive care to comment

Pooder

Another thought about only getting 280bhp is how many people will pay the best part of 2 grand for 15bhp

chiark

I'm heartened to see you've gone for the non-prodrive version. I think I'd do that too as it doesn't scream "LOOK AT ME I'M REALLY MUCH MORE NICKABLE THAN A STANDARD WRX". Much more "q". Well. Ish.

Nick.
(saving for next year)

Steve Perriam

my dealer finally has a demo STi

so i'll be along for a test very shortly.

Pooder

Chiark
Subaru have produced 75% of the production run as prodrive versions. My dealer tells me that the majority of enquiries he is getting are for standard cars. Could well be for this reason!

pwebb

quote - 'This is not the same engine it has been totally reworked and as such is not simply a derated version of the import STI'

sorry but that is exactly what it is - the jap domestic engine with different ecu mapping and a more effective set of catalysts.

all the blurb about being 're-worked' is in reference to the standard wrx engine - in fact even then, the changes made are only the same as every sti has had over the years

I am sure there will be a PPP soon as there aren't many alternative upgrade options for this engine other than crude boost management techniques since the denso ecu has to control the valve timing etc. - I would agree with speculation that this will bring the engine back up to 280 bhp 'ish - the spec c in japan has been recently (sti) tuned to 320bhp but only after bigger (ball bearing) turbo, inlet manifold and other tweaks have been done as well as a complete ecu swap - it also needed extra oil cooling and an uprated water spray system to get that figure.

still, the uk car is a big step up for IM's usual offerings and is starting to get near to where the jap imports have been for a long while - I am testing one this week too - just out of interest - looking forward to seeing how ell they have caught up.

cheers,

Paul W

chiark

Yeah, when I took a test drive I was told that I could have a prodrive one within weeks, but a standard one would take some time.

They were *really* selling the Prodrive. "The value of the bits is worth much more than the price difference, so Subaru are subsidising the prodrive version" was said soooo many times. Does look good, but...

Enjoy!

Pooder

Pwebb
Thanks for the info seems my dealer may be a bit confused about the engine spec. He claims to have driven the prodrive test bed car for the PPP and stated it was 315bhp--we shall see.
What about the Water Injection is this a gimmik. It does work on aircraft but as a power restorer rather than increase.

Steve
Considering how tight the car I drove was at1300 miles,it really didnt want to rev passed 5700 I would wait a while before you test it

Pooder

Chiark
Another thing about that rear wing is I was doing***mph on the test drive looked in the mirror and the bloody thing was moving about did you notice this