posted by viet:
"The WRX is an enthusiast dream car. I would
say that Ford did a half baked job on the Csvt, and Subaru did a really good
job on the WRX. No short cut on the car, just honest engineering for what it is
designed for."
Well I agree & disagree.
The WRX is a rally drivers dream car but not mine. The short wheelbase is an edge in tight autocross courses but is less stable for high speed work on track and on road. I am interested more in "on road" performance. 4WD is a great advantage in mud & gravel but really not for the road beyond bad weather and hard launches. I don't drag race and the FWD is pretty good in bad weather in its own right. The downside of 4WD is weight (WRX is 100 lbs more than the larger SVT), complexity (more to break), and that 20-25% power loss to the ground (from 227 crank HP to 168-180 wheel HP per 2 recent dynos).
The car has the peakest dynos Ive seen on any stock car with a power band from 3000-5500RPM then it plummets. Must have some nice turbo lag. The lag and peakiness will only get worse as the boost is inevitably jacked up - not my choice for a sport sedan that sees daily passenger car duty, including a bit of traffic.
Both cars have a good chassis and the WRX is stiffer as all cars gain rigidity with passing years (the Mondeo hit the roads in 1993, and in its day was a rigid car). This is easily correctable with STBs and subframe connectors - all pretty cheap. Add a rear sway bar and for very little money you have a car that now has very little understeer/body roll and just enhances what has been called the best handling FWD sedan and named one of the best handling cars under $30K. Another $1000 will buy you 20 more HP (Y-pipe, catback, KKM and matching 75mm MAF). So for a new car price of 20K (mine was 18.4), you have invested $21.5K for a 220 HP sedan with as much speed, handling, stiffness, brakes, as a $24K WRX with better room and (subjectively much better) looks. So if the CSVT is "half baked" form the factory - the fully baked version kicks ass. As Quicksilver just demonstrated to a field of Subies in a Suibe sponsered event.
