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When friends asked me what kind of Subaru I was driving I said it was the alphabet model. That was easier than reeling off the list of letters that followed Impreza — WRX STi. It was also easier than remembering if the “i” is lower case or upper case. I think it’s been officially changed to upper case for 2007.
The spoilers, hood scoop and oversized rear wing may seem a little ostentatious, but the WRX has the beans to back up its boy racer looks. The WRX STI earned its reputation from World Rally Championship (WRC) competition. STI stands for Subaru Tecnica International and is the high performance motorsports subsidiary of Subaru’s parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd.
The Subaru WRX STI will easily blow the doors off most musclecars and it takes a pretty serious sports car to keep up with it on twisty roads. Thanks to an awesome 300 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque the WRX STI can rip off zero-to-sixty times in the mid-four second range and cover the quarter mile in thirteen seconds flat. Those are numbers few classic musclecars ever saw and many contemporary supercars struggle to match. On a bang for the buck basis, the Subaru WRX STI is a big bargain.
An amazing thing about the Subaru’s performance figures is that they come from a diminutive 2.5-liter (150 cubic inches) H-4 engine. The Boxer design engine produces an incredible two horsepower per cubic inch. Those are racecar numbers for a car that’s totally tractable in everyday driving conditions.
All that horsepower would be pointless if there wasn’t an efficient way of getting it to the pavement. The sole WRX STI transmission is an excellent six-speed manual that delivers power to all four 17x8-inch BBS alloy wheels.
Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is standard on all Subaru models. The go-anywhere nature of Subarus is one of the traits that have made them so popular in the Pacific Northwest. Since the very beginning this part of the country has warmly embraced Subarus.
In keeping with the alphabet soup nature of the car, the WRX STI has DCCD SAWD (Driver Control Center Differential Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive). What that means is the driver can control the center differential via a dial in the console. There are automatic and manual modes for six levels of center differential locking.
Big brakes are an important part of the WRX STI performance package. Brembo ventilated discs with 12.7-inch front and 12.3-inch rear rotors combine with Electronic Brake-force Distribution and Super Sport ABS to help the car stop as well as it goes.
The chassis and suspension are competition-bred. The ride is firm, but not jarring. People who buy the WRX STI neither expect nor want a soft riding car. A few extra jolts over highway expansion strips are a small price to pay for the “stuck-on-rails” handling of the WRX STI.
The Subaru WRX STI is great for two people and OK for four. The trunk is large, although interior storage bins are small. It’s not at all unpleasant in city traffic and daily commuting, but its forte is the open road.
Whines: The back seat was slightly criminal, very minimalist — tight, no center armrest, no storage bins, and a single seat back storage pouch. I bumped my head repeatedly on the C pillar.
Bottom Line: The Subaru WRX STI is more about the fun of going anywhere than getting somewhere. It’s a street legal go-kart in search of empty back roads that’s also an excellent highway hauler. | 
