bollox again im afraid. the impreza was designed with the sole purpose of winning WRC and to raise the profile of Subaru, a virtually unknown company manufacturing largely agricultural and off road vehicles. they designed the WRC car, then worked backwards from there with derivatives such as the 22b, RA versions etc, then mass producing the 4 door versions (WRX etc) and ultimately the non turbo cars which were to replace an outgoing model called the Leone. They didnt start with a family car and then homologate it for rallying. The notable difference with the impreza range is that the entire range are rally derived, turbo cars, and then a single non turbo budget model, the GL (or GX i think depending on your country). ive owned an EVO VI, M3 (E46) an STi and a WR1..ive also owned a porsche 964 supersport (SSE) and driven the series 1 elise, and recently the Atom (although this was on track). the elise and atom are go carts. the elise handles great, but is not a very fast car, and is not as fast as the rally derived 4x4's on the road. Take it from me, and i hate to say this, but the WR1 destroys all of them with the exception of the Evo VI in every department, particularly B road blasting. These are properly engineered cars making 320hp in stock trim, 0-60 in 4.2secs and with only minor mods can pump out 500hp.. the gear box is safe to these levels with no mods, but most scooby owners upgrade to an exedy type multiplate clutch for 350-400hp cars.
the 1st impreza turbo for sale made 220hp at flywheel. they used to rally the legacy long before the impreza. the impreza lent itself to rallying but it was also made in 2wd only non turbo and in estate form at the exact same 1992 release date. subaru had a history of rallying before tbe imprezza but for obvious reasons it was a natural choice for rallying. they were big in Australia in the 80s lol. I remember driving a subaru then. cant remember what it was. anyway mid 90s I had a rover tomcat turbo at the time and that made 200hp and was front driven and much faster than the impreza of the day.the rover 0 to 60 was faster but once moving the rover pissed all over the scooby it was embarrasing. I know this for sure because at the time a work mate had the first series scooby. but the rover was no rally car lol even though there was the 220 turbo cup series. but true they came out with all sorts after and the mitsubishi fxxxx series. my own opinion is that imprezzas are as common as shit with drab interiors. styling is drab. every druggy has one.
Not heard of one of those? Do you mean a Carrera 4 Celebration? http://www.total911.com/news/rare-wide-bodied-964-carrera-4/
My boring Saab makes 210bhp and thats plenty. I prefer a wafty car. Discreet and low key. However had I moolah to burn an air cooled porky carrera would be my choice. Imprezzas and EVO's are too garish for me. The kid at works Type R Mugen isnt too bad, well it wasnt till he shoved a dustbin exhaust on it and painted the wheels purple. Old Porsche's are lovely.
how about this for an alternative? Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo 3dr Auto Liftback I loved my old Supra Twin Turbo, it was effortlessly fast, supremely comfortable and the noise it made was spectacular
I ran a type R as a company car for a couple of years, commuting 150 miles a day (which meant filling up every other day - as mentioned previously the tank capacity isn't large). The only other downside I recall has also been mentioned, the poor turning circle. The car itself was bullet proof, never saw the dealer apart from routine services, and as I didn't pay for the fuel/servicing it got driven hard - e.g. even doing a lot of motorway miles, you can still go through front tyres in 5000 miles. Gearbox is sweet, and the dash mounted gear lever which I thought was a bit of a gimick at first is ideally located - I found the whole driving position really good Haven't looked recently but they seemed to hold their price well, so all you need to do is find one that hasn't been bent or over modified.
It's not total bollocks. Regardless or not if they were engineered to win rallys at the outset, both cars are based on the underpinnings of a 3 box saloon car, so the rally success would help sell regular vanilla flavoured models. The 911 in contrast is a sports GT car which also spawned competition models, the fact a Subaru or Mitsubishi can run rings around a 911 I think is largely irrelevant, they are a completely different car and a different demographic. I owned 911's for 12 years and neither the Subaru or Mitsubishi were ever on my radar. A pal of mine develops these rice rockets and even he says that a 500 bhp 2.0 4 pot turbo for road use is just a pissing competition, they are virtually un-driveable, needing 5,000 rpm to pull away and delivering tearful fuel consumption. He drives a 911
Have to agree regarding Porsche. I have owned a Cayman S for the last 5 years and loved it. Arguably the best model Porsche have brought out to date.
Im a porsche fan, my fave being a 993. This will probably be my next big mid life crisis purchase. My mates got the C4, lovely thing..as has been said, its not the fastest motor in the world but very charismatic, although the driving position isnt the best (steering off to the left as are the pedals.). Re: the rice burners..one reason why the WR1 was such a great motor was that you could bimble around it all day long, and it felt more or less like any car...none of this pulling away from 5000rpm nonsense..just a regular drive...until you opened the taps..pedals perfectly spaced for toe/heel (which was always a bit tricky in the 964) and a very short throw on the gearbox. I test drove a 997 (and a 993) last saturday which was a very 'nice' drive. id be tempted apart from the bore scoring issues which seems to affect so many porsches from 2004 to about 2008. that would be a constant worry for me. plus they can be had for very reasonable money (for a porsche)...the 993 wins for me though as they were truly hand built cars, nearly killing off porsche in the process.
I agree Funky, 993 is a cracking purchase and now virtually depreciation proof, 10 years ago I nearly bought a 993 Targa after my 964 RS, but was seduced by a brand new BMW 330 Ci Convertible instead, not one of my better decisions!
someone mentioned buying a lotus elise.. well if I was in the market for a 2 seater performance car (which im not ) I would opt for the vx220r turbo instead. basically an elise with a proper engine !
Although technically advanced I always thought aesthetically it was a bit of a pigs ear, it did however pave the way for the gorgeous 993 Turbo 4 six years later.
