Since I know that there has seemed to be much discussion about the STi on this board, as well as ITR owners talking about moving over to it I thought I would give my opinion. So here it goes.....

I was driving my friends stock 05 STi home tonight and man that thing is fast! The throttle response is neck cracking. You just plant your foot and hold on. It is definately intimidating in the begining, but after a couple of blasts you get to know and more immortantly get to feel when the boost kicks in and you are able to control the car much easier. There was no boost guage in the car so I can't relay any of that pertanent information, it would have been nice though. Now, my caR is by no means slow or shy of power, but this is a whole different kind of power, and yeah I know it is a turbo. For the most part the power is always there, there really is no turbo lag. My mom has an Audi 2.7TT and that car is fast too, but man is there turbo lag. Anyway, so I begin.

I get in, the interior is decient, I find myself stairing a a very nice three spoke steering wheel, that had excellent hand grip positions, it felt comfortable at all angles. I liked the seats, they look sporty and their two tone blue and black was done well. Although not as supportive as they look, but I am used to RECARO's. The controls are layed out nicely, with a pretty well thought out placement, the guage cluster seems to be kind of cramped though. I put the gears through their motions, the shifter's throw is pretty short, I like it. It feels kind of rubbery though, not as crisp as an ITR. I put the key in and start the car, the needles on the guages come to life in a sharp red and do a full test sweep, it's freaking sweet. The exhaust has a nice rumble and when you give it some gas the tone is very mellow. The rear seats are basically good for people under 5'5." The trunk is suprisingly big, you cluod easily fit two or three bottle's of NOS in there, j/k.

So the drive, I dumped the clutch at 7k rpm's in first and took off. The tires just hooked, the car seemed to rear up, like in the cartoons, and off I went, brought it to redline (which also has a small red LED warning light in the guage cluster that blinks when you approach it, very nice!) and shifted to second. I put my foot down and continued to excellerate. Basically second through fourth are your real power gears, you can find power anywhere. Fifth and six are really good cruising gears, but even in sixth gear if you plant your foot you still excellerate pretty dam hard. The one thing that I did not like was that the geas are real short and a tad notchy, I found myself having to do alot of shifting.

On the highway the car darts through traffic amazingly. The wheel and tire set-up is great, the Potenza RE070 225/45/17's are supper grippy. The suspension is a bit sloppy for my taste, but for a stock car it gets the job done. In the twisties the body roll is a little more than I am used to and can be unnerveing at speed. Here is where the seats lose big points, I found myself having to fight to stay put. There is almost no real support. I had to brace myself against the wheel.

I don't know about you guys but on the highway at 65mph in fifth the tach on my ITR is at like 4200 rpm's. The STi's is at 3400 rpm and you still have one more gear to go. From day one I always said that the R needs a sixth gear.

I did not really play with the Driver Controlled Center Diff (DCCD) all that much, but there is a noticable difference when you put most (70%) of the power to the rear. Subaru suggests that you leave it a 50-50 split for normal everyday driving.
The brakes, what can I say? They are big, they are bad, they are gold and they are BREMBO.

Over all I loved the car, it is very purpose built and it definately makes a visual statement. I love the wing, others hate it. I view it like this, if I owned a regular integra it would not have a wing, but because I have an ITR I would never take it off, same thing here.

If it were my car the first thing that I would chane would be the suspension, it is way to sloppy for the amount of power the car has. Next I would add some guages so I knew what the hell was going on. Then I would get some better seats and a harness bar.

PROS
Super Fast
Good Looks
Great Brakes
Great Tires

CONS
Sloppy Suspension
Bad Seats
Rubbery Gearox
Crappy Stereo (not really worth mentioning earlier)


Modified by ITR-00-1457 at 3:03 AM 11/10/2004

 

So much reading...could have used some spaces in-between paragraphs.

Overall i agree with you on the pros and cons.

I found my friends STI seats very uncomfortable.

 

the seats are disappointing. stock WRX seats are nicer.

 

I'm amazed.

You can:

dump the clutch @ 7k
dart it through traffic
corner hard enough to have to brace yourself

All in a car that isn't yours or even familiar with.
I wonder how many stories start out like yours but end with a bang.

 

Well acutally it was not the first time I drove the car, I have driven it on a daily basis for the past week or so.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RTW DC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">stock WRX seats are nicer.</TD></TR></TABLE>

&lt;Didn't even bother reading the review&gt;

WRX seats are super-pimp. Anyone got a passenger side available?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xmilanoredsix &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So much reading...could have used some spaces in-between paragraphs.</TD></TR></TABLE>

SORRY, I fixed it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scott k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm amazed.

You can:

dump the clutch @ 7k
dart it through traffic
corner hard enough to have to brace yourself

All in a car that isn't yours or even familiar with.
I wonder how many stories start out like yours but end with a bang. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You have to test the limits of your vehicle in order to become ONE with it.

 

exactly

 

headache...

Dude, a stock 2.7TT comes with twin K03 KKK turbos. They are fully spooled by 2200 on a bad day, your mom got a hopped up S4 or something?

 

stis actually really arent THAT fast...they have a lot of torque so it feels much faster. you can ride in a na honda that is just as fast as an sti. but you'd think the sti is much faster just riding in both

 

Strange you are saying the boost comes instantly in the STi. It's posible there's a difference in the US and Euro spec STi's, but boost doesn't hit until 3500rpm in the Euro STi.

A stock STi isn't much faster at all than a Euro R with I/H/E from a rolling start.

At the track I've absolutely no problem outpacing one. They have, as you write, quite soft suspension. More setup towards gravel/snow covered roads than tarmac. It's a rally car, not a track killer.

 

just because the boost comes in doesn't mean its going to start moving quickly. the sti has great low end because it has a 2.5 boxer, small turbo and avcs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SEFIxCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just because the boost comes in doesn't mean its going to start moving quickly. the sti has great low end because it has a 2.5 boxer, small turbo and avcs.</TD></TR></TABLE>

In Europe the STi has a 2.0L boxer with a quite large turbo. So you should get more lag then.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR-00-1457 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
PROS

Good Looks
</TD></TR></TABLE>



In the actual driving, I have a slight preference to the EVO over the STi. The EVO seems a little "lighter" or more "refined" somehow.

I am not sure I'd have either one of them for a track car, though.

 

Don't know about you guys, but here in NZ, we have had the WRX since it's first generation. And the Mitsubishi Evo as far back as the Evo 0. (Galant body)

And all I can say is that the Subbies are called SLOBARUs.. Modifying them costs a lot more than the Evos, and don't even start with the WRX gearbox, they don't seem to last very long with high rpm launches. But that's for the older shape WRX though. (sorry don't know the actual terms for them) Before the 'bug eyed' model.

And we never got the 2.5L turbo WRXs, basically what we get are all imported from Japan.. So I can't really comment about them. The only thing bad I hear about Evos are that they sound like tractors and that they are too common. With a bit more boost they run high 12s easy on our strip. (Which is built on top of a swap, and we actually get let grip there than normal roads there. )

The 05 Sti sure looks pretty, but I'll take the Evo anyday.

 

Wow, your friend must really like you. If I had an 05 STi, I wouldn't let most people even sit in it.

 

I think your judgment is clouded by torque. It makes you "feel" like the car is fast, when in fact the car only runs low 13s in the 1/4. That car is what I call a "0-60 special".

Don't get me wrong, if the car's characteristics allow your brain to release adrenaline, then I say it's a good car. Too pricey for me though. I'd buy the Subaru Forester XT instead, it's almost 10K less and beats the STi with just a few mods.

 

I just took my first ride in an STi yesterday.
It is a fun car, no doubt about it. Launching from a stop is insane.

I dont think I would replace my ITR with one though.

 

yeah, STi's blow! a stock car only running low 13's, send it to the scrap pile!



Brian

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Brian*STi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah, STi's blow! a stock car only running low 13's, send it to the scrap pile!



Brian</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol...

I'm suprised at the complaints about the STI's seats - I thought they looked pretty good (but I guess looks can be deceiving )

 

They really aren't that comfortable, don't really hold you in all that well either.

Brian

 

Oh ****, I must have mistakenly typed in "Subaru-Tech.com" instead of "Honda-tech.com"

There have been plenty of reviews of the STi; lets get off it already.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scott k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I wonder how many stories start out like yours but end with a bang. </TD></TR></TABLE>

werd

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR-00-1457 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I dumped the clutch at 7k rpm's in first and took off. </TD></TR></TABLE>
oh, so you are that kind of friend...