First Drive Review
Since 1995, Subaru's been playing a frustrating and annoying game with us we'll call "tantalize." The game went like this: Every couple of years or so, Subaru would drop off a hot-rodded, turbocharged version of the Impreza known as the WRX.
We'd drive it, sometimes test it, and for sure gush all over the car begging, " When can we have it?" Subaru's answer was short and simple: "You can't. Stop drooling." WRXs were sold in Europe and Japan for $30,000 to $40,000, depending on the year and model, but Subaru said the added cost of certifying the cars to meet U.S. standards would make the car too expensive for us. End of story.
Or so we thought until late last year when we drove a new WRX that's based on the new second-generation Impreza. This latest version-- praise the Lord!-- will be U.S.-bound about the time you read this.
Why the sudden change of heart? Subaru says that thanks to the positive press from scribes like us and the success of the Impreza 2.5RS (an Impreza with all the WRX styling cues but without the turbo motor) made the company realize there was enough interest in the car to warrant the cost of certifying it.
Although we are getting the WRX, this new car is not the double-throwdown monster the last WRX we tested was (C/D, March 1999). That car, a limited-edition $41,600 model called the 22B STi, rocketed so fiercely to 60 mph -- 4.7 seconds -- that we concluded Subaru's claimed 280 horsepower was about 20 hp shy of actual output.
According to Subaru, the new car should reach 60 mph about 1.4 seconds later, thanks to a smaller, lower-horsepower engine and taller gearing. The latter is a welcome change because on the highway, the 22B was about as relaxed as Sam Kinison.
