Hitting an STi high
Great to drive yet much easier to live with than previous STis. Throw in keen pricing and Subaru has a real winner on its hands.
Wide-bodied exterior scares other cars off the road, fantastic handling balance and surprisingly comfortable ride 
Disappointingly low redline, bland dashboard design, shallow boot Subaru’s new Impreza WRX STi isn’t exactly what you’d call good looking, but who cares when it goes the way it does?
By Colin Yong
Hands up, everyone who thinks the new Subaru Impreza looks pretty. Right, that’s about three of you then. Few cars have incited as much controversy over their styling, but the latest WRX STi version ought to get a more positive reaction.
Not because the Impreza’s rather dumpy basic shape has been magically transformed, but with its massively blistered wheel-arches, chunky alloy wheels, a rear spoiler standing proud of the roofline and four exhaust pipes, the pumped-up STi comes across as a car with a point to prove.
Catch sight of one in your rear-view mirror and your instinctive reaction is to pull over to let it past. It’s that menacing.
The quad pipes are for show only since they all link to a single large exhaust muffler. But the other add-ons serve real purposes – the STi’s wheel tracks are around 40mm wider than the standard WRX’s (hence the flared arches), while its top speed is a whopping 41km/h higher so you’d obviously want as much grip (sticky fat tyres) and downforce (big spoilers) as you can get.
While the hatchback body style is a radical departure from past STis, there are some things which never change, like the flat-four ‘boxer’ powerplant and symmetrical all-wheel drive system.
Improvements to the 2.5-litre engine’s variable valve timing system and a larger intercooler improve efficiency, in the process lifting power output by 20bhp to 300bhp.
That gives the car an immediate on-paper advantage over its chief rival the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, which still has a quoted 280bhp. But does more power translate to a more exciting drive in the STi’s case?
