Whoop-de-doo for this Subaru

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This article was published 04/07/2014 (4422 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALIFORNIA – This road, this glorious, shimmering ribbon of undulating, shattered, cliff-side tarmac, runs along a ridge set high above the San Andreas fault. Earlier in this month, the ground shivered into earthquake, dislodging rocks and sheets of sand to sweep down onto the pavement.

The disturbance was, of course, caused by the collective anger of the Subaru community upon being informed the WRX would no longer be available in hatchback trim.

Say what? That’s right: Everybody’s favourite family attack dog just got its tail docked.

What we get instead is this, a rally-bred sedan that’s been fully fettled by Suba-gurus to be the best it possibly can. Freed from the need to produce a hatch, the engineering staff focused their combined energies with laser-like intensity, transforming the lowly Impreza into something very special.

What they came up with is this. It’s an Impreza with — wait for it — a hood scoop.

What, no round of applause?

Once again, Subaru has built a boring-looking, slightly ugly car that’s pretty much the same as the compact it’s based on. This is very good news. Very good news indeed.

Oh sure, the svelte WRX concept that flounced around the auto-show circuit looked like a million bucks, but what if they’d actually built it? The car would have been terrible — one look at a Subaru should tell you all you need to know.

Every last R & D dollar went into the powertrain, and the design department was left to run on a budget of Subway stamps and an expired coupon for Panda Express.

I actually think this thing looks perfect. From the rear, at a distance of three car lengths, it could be anything from a Ford Fusion to a 2008 Nissan Maxima. The quad exhaust pipes do give the game away somewhat, but the average person won’t notice them.

Up front, the central feature is the aforementioned giant hood scoop, with the trapezoidal Subaru corporate grille looking pretty much the same as four other brands. The eagle-eyed LED headlamps squint and the lower rear fascia juts out its jaw in a menacing gape. The wheel arches are flared, front and rear, but this car projects a certain anonymity, in silver especially.

“What seems to be the problem, officer?” it appears to say, innocently. “Who, me? How fast did you say? There must be some mistake.”

Inside, the WRX benefits from all the little improvements made to the Impreza sedan upon which it’s based. It’s still not near the polish and poise of something like the upcoming seventh-generation GTI, but there are useful upgrades.

For instance, the rear seats are excellent in terms of legroom, and the door openings are larger. If a WRX is cropping up on your radar because of its four-door ability to haul around your little Tommi or Michelle, then note this is a better family car than ever. The trunk, at 340 litres, is usefully sized, even if there’s no hatchback.

Up front, driver and passenger will find a space that’s a little light on headroom, especially if the optional power sunroof is present. Taller WRX enthusiasts will want to request a test drive while wearing a helmet — this might alarm your salesperson, but no matter — as your head might bounce off the roof if you’re autocrossing in a proper, upright driver position.

However, it’s relatively spacious overall, and the seats are excellent. Covered in a grippy cloth, they’ll keep you seated during spirited driving and it looks like they should be relatively resistant to the resultant G-force-induced passenger vomit.

Like the Impreza, the overall dash layout is improved for a Subaru product, yet not particularly impressive. The standard rear backup camera is handy, and the ability to select a screen showing a virtual boost gauge is pretty neat. Mostly though, despite some carbon-fibre trim, the interior bits again feel like the money went into the powertrain department.

However, as a driver, the parts you’re in constant contact with weren’t skimped on. The steering wheel is excellent, slightly smaller than the previous model’s in diameter and as good as any of the MOMO-branded helms you might have found in the early cars. The shifter is also good, notchy, but positive in feel. It’s also finally attached to a proper six-speed.

Really, the best thing about the interior of the WRX, after the well-bolstered, comfortable seating, is the excellent outward vision. Some might find the seating position a little too high, but the lowered beltlines of the car have created a commanding view. It’s a performance feature that many (ahem, Camaro) sometimes forget: If you can see better, you can drive better.

Speaking of driving better, this car does. Does it ever. The new 2.0L direct-injection turbocharged four-cylinder boxer has only an extra three horsepower over the old 2.5L engine (for a total of 268 hp), but it’s a totally different animal. Low-end response is amazing (258 pound-feet of torque at 2,000 r.p.m.), helped somewhat by the twin-scroll turbo’s positioning underneath the engine rather than farther downstream in the exhaust, as in WRXs of yore.

Based on the Forester XT’s engine, with a Honeywell turbocharger and a hardened valve train for higher revs, the new motor doesn’t really sound like a boxer engine. The old unequal-length exhaust manifolds imparted a cheery wub-wub-wub to past WRXs, and this is now gone, sacrificed to the efficiency and spool of the new twin-scroll turbo.

Plant your foot on the accelerator and stop caring. This machine is an absolute torque-monster, pipping even the mighty STI down-low and shifting your spleen about as the turbo spins.

The six-speed cable shifter is great, and the engine zings happily with each rev-matched downshift, its rotating mass slightly less than that of the older, larger engine. Straight-line speed is only marginally improved, but the way it blasts out of corners is amazing, partly due to the more responsive 2.0L engine and partly due to the new chassis.

This last is much stiffer, and considerable emphasis has been placed by the design team on getting that power down in the rear. Yes, there’s a new brake-based torque-vectoring front end in the style of the Focus ST, but it’s unobtrusive,and can be shut off if needed.

On the twisting canyon road, the confidence and grip of the WRX is simply excellent. The new, quicker steering is electric-assist and therefore not particularly full of feel, but it’s much sharper than before — this car loves to dance. A tuned WRX from an early generation would have a heck of a time trying to catch it, as would pretty much anything outside of a Nissan GT-R.

The WRX is light and agile and seems happier the faster you go. It corners very flat, and should you find yourself in a sudden decreasing-radius turn, the 235-series Dunlops somehow manage to find even more grip to keep the nose turning in.

Slow your roll for a bit and a few of those old Subaru foibles come back. The ride is very firm, borderline uncomfortable on rough pavement. On the grooved concrete of California’s highways, the interior noise is astoundingly loud. Wind noise and engine noise are slightly present, but the overall impression is a relentless wall of sound coming from the tires. It sounds as if you had an unsuccessful autocross session and are now driving home dragging four orange cones beneath you.

The standard stereo, a six-speaker system, has a tough time drowning out this wearing drone. The 440-watt Harman/Kardon option, available as part of the Sport Tech package, might be better here.

Mostly though, the WRX is so good on the twisty portions of road that faithful fans will happily overlook any raucous behaviour. However, Subaru is also after conquest customers, and that has meant the introduction of a heretical transmission option, causing such a great deal of outrage the San Andreas might sunder entirely.

It’s a CVT, and it’s annoying for two reasons. First, Subaru insists on referring to it as the Sport Lineartronic Transmission, as if CVT was some sort of debilitating disease. Which, come to think of it, it generally is.

Second, it might actually be better than the six-speed manual on an open, twisting road. How irritating. With an available Sport or Sport-sharp mode, Subie’s CVT approximates either a six- or eight-speed auto-box, and it enables paddle-shifted gear changes with incredible speed. As the 2.0L engine is so flexible in its power delivery, the CVT is perfectly capable of keeping the engine on the boil as you slingshot through corner after corner after corner.

It’s not that thrilling off the line, but if a stick shift isn’t in the cards for you, know that Subaru’s option isn’t as blasphemous as it seems. Long John Silver, your WRX has finally arrived.

For everybody else, the WRX has once again established itself as the performance benchmark to beat. It’s still rough around the edges, it’s still a bit noisy, and it’s still not exactly stylish.

But it’s still a rocket ship you can strap a kid’s seat into, an all-weather family sedan with serious performance chops. I still want my hatchback, but until then, it’s time to start pricing out roof racks and cargo boxes.

— Postmedia Network Inc. 2014