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Fanboys in Flight: Subaru Roars In on a Wing

You may have peculiar tastes and offbeat hobbies. Commemorative spoon collecting, Civil War reenactments, insisting that people refer to you as "Gandalf." But I assure you you're not remotely as close to the edge of strange as the people who would buy this car, the 2011 Subaru WRX STI Limited Sedan. These people aren't just unusual. They're practically unicorns.

Spoiler Alert: The Subaru WRX STI

But first, a word about nomenclature. Subaru makes a car called the Impreza, a tidy and interesting 170-horsepower compact in four-door sedan ($17,495) and five-door hatchback configuration. All-wheel drive, naturally. For about $7,000 more ($25,495-$28,995) the company sells a high-performance version of the Impreza called the WRX (also sedan or hatch), powered by a raunchy 2.5-liter, 265-hp turbocharged four-cylinder and fitted with rudely punched-out fender flares, 17-inch wheels, sports seats and more. This bandy-legged, sawed-off little rat racer is awfully interesting in its own right. Zero-to-60 mph blows by in about 5 seconds, making it roughly as quick as a Chevy Camaro SS or Ford Mustang GT.

Five thousand dollars north of the WRX and well into the land of alphabet soup is this car, the WRX STI—a crushing, outrageous factory-tuner warthog powered by an even more insane version of the 2.5-liter turbo four, with fancy-dancy valves, crank, pistons, intercooler, the works. Grand total: 305 hp. The fervid, overreaching exhaust note is what a very fine sports car would sound like if it got a hernia.

In addition to lots of other go-fast gristle, the WRX STI is equipped with a complex AWD system that includes front and rear limited-slip differentials and an adjustable center differential that basically allows you to dial in increasing levels of power-on oversteer, depending on road and track conditions.

Don't worry if you've never heard of this technology. It evolved out of Subaru's efforts in World Rally Championship racing, which you also have never heard of.

Since the last major overhaul, for model year 2008, the WRX STI has come only in hatchback form. That seemed reasonable. The hatch is shorter overall (lower polar moment, for you physics majors out there) and it offers 7.7 cubic feet more storage space.

But the hatchback-only situation sacrificed something important—indeed, something apparently vital: the huge and obnoxious, laughable and mockable rear wing that was once fitted on the sedan.

For 2011, the sedan, and the wing, is back.

Who would miss the silly wing? Well, aerodynamicists, for one. According to Subaru, the sedan with the giga-sized rear wing has lower aero drag and so a 3-mph-higher top speed (158 mph) than the hatch. Seems like an awful lot of ugly for just 3 mph, but that's just me.

Also, fanboys. And here it's necessary to philosophize a bit on the nature of the sport-compact/factory-tuner culture. This is an automotive tribe that celebrates the transformation of ordinary cars into something extraordinary, a process of building, constructing, modifying, improving. The visual narrative here is one of empowerment, of Charles Atlas's 97-pound weakling returning from the gym to flatten the bully on the beach. If you were feeling very postgraduate, you could also invoke the Puritan work ethic and Augustinian notions of perfectibility.

In this subculture, the Subie's wing is more than just an ugly hunk of composite plastic (which it is). It's a proud, defiant signifier, a freak flag of the fast and furious, a totem, a talisman, a misanthropic chakra.

2011 Subaru WRX STI Limited Sedan


Base price: $37, 345

Price as tested: $39,000 (est.)

Powertrain: Turbocharged and intercooled direct-injection 2.5-liter DOHC flat four-cylinder engine with variable valve timing; six-speed manual transmission ; permanent all-wheel drive with front and rear limited-slip differentials and adjustable-bias limited-slip center differential

Horsepower/torque: 305 hp at 6,000 rpm/290 pount-feet at 4,000 rpm

Length/weight: 173.8 inches/3,400 pounds

Wheelbase: 103.3 inches

0-60 mph: 4.6 seconds (est.)

Top speed: 158 mph

EPA fuel economy: 17/23 mpg

Cargo capacity: 11.3 cubic feet

Or it could just look cool. In any event, the audience seemed to miss it, judging by the declining sales numbers. Subaru now expects the be-winged sedan to make up two-thirds of its WRX STI sales (roughly 4,000 annually).

Not bad for a car that looks like it was rear-ended by a Sopwith Camel.

Subaru has for the most part left the greasy bits alone—still the same air-shredding turbo flat-four with high-volume intercooler (305 hp at 6,000 rpm and 290 pound-feet at 4,000 rpm); the same high-tech AWD system; the same close-ratio six-speed manual transmission. The thing has big, joyous moments of turbo bluster from 4,000 to 6,000 rpm. Zero-to-60 mph acceleration is around 4.6 seconds and third-gear passing power is ferocious.

The engine looks good, too. With all the aerospace fittings and braided hoses under the hood, this thing looks like it burns liquid hydrogen.

The last WRX STI I drove, a 2008 model, was more than a little unsorted. There was plenty of lateral grip but the car exhibited a joy-killing understeer (generally, that means the front suspension is too stiff relative to the rear suspension). I had trouble getting the car to rotate in corners, even when I had set the center differential to rear-bias, set-to-kill mode. Also, the previous car had a distracting body roll that gobbled up suspension travel, making the car skittery on uneven pavement.

Our 2011 test car, by contrast, vectored like a heat-seeking missile. The chassis-tuning details are pretty arcane, but they include firmer springs in front and much firmer springs in back; as well as stiffer control arm and subframe bushings; thicker antiroll bars front and rear; lighter wheels and tires (less unsprung mass) and a general, sympathetic harmonizing between suspension, wheel-and-tire package and powertrain.

In an empty parking lot of a vacant office park—have you noticed how many of those there are these days?—I could pitch our test car hard into a second-gear corner, goose the throttle and bring the rear end around in a lovely, controlled power slide. Such antics would have been impossible in the old STI.

Meanwhile, the metabolism of the new car feels appropriately quickened, more acute, more present, focused like a preschooler on Adderol. The steering was heavy and accurate, with tons of road-reading feedback. The ride was stiff but well-planted. The brakes are heroic. The sport seats are some of the best in Christendom.

The Limited Edition (an eye-watering $37,345) is comprehensively equipped, with Brembo brakes, 18-inch alloys inside 40-series summer radials, tuned exhaust, leather upholstery and lots more. The only slight is the cost-extra navigation system, which is a drag.

Is this a car for you? The odds are, most definitely not—the factory-tuner segment is dying on the vine anyway. But Subaru should be commended for giving the fanboys what they want, the way they want it. Better, faster, more furious. It's all about the wing.

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