2008 Initial Impreza/WRX driving impressions

I had a chance to drive the new WRX yesterday at a Subaru Ride and Drive in Joliet, IL on my way to Maine to codrive in the New England Forest Rally.


Initial impressions:
Exterior:
The car looks much better in person than in the pictures that are floating around- the 2.5i sedan in particular looks very good and will work well for Subaru of America’s intention to go more mainstream. There was not a WRX sedan present at this event. The WRXs that we had a chance to drive were 5 doors – the styling definitely is different but it works once you get a chance to look at it for a while. I liked it.

Driving impressions of the WRX:
Overall the WRX was impressive. The WRX portion of ride and drive was a small autocross course that intentionally did not allow a lot of speed. What we were driving were pre-production cars and they didn’t want to have anything happen to them. The suspension feels surprisingly soft- yet once you start tossing it about a bit there is not much body roll and it absorbs bumps and imperfections well. I understand that at a West Coast event earlier Ramana and Tanner were given the opportunity to drive the cars at greater speeds and liked the platform. At speed the car is very neutral, tossable and forgiving.
The hill-holder clutch makes a reappearance though under a different name.

Interior:
Much has been said about the wheelbase being longer and the car being wider- on the inside it is most obvious in the back seat, and you don’t feel wedged in when sitting back there. The refinement level has taken a leap- the interior is well done with conservative fabrics and the vehicle is much quieter inside. On the higher trim levels the navigation unit is nicer, cleaner looking and an improvement over what was on the first generation Tribeca.

I know this isn’t a ton of info but I have to get ready for the recce tomorrow. I am codriving for Tim Penasack in the Duncan (as in donuts) Rally Team Subaru with Codemasters as a secondary sponsor.


Cheers,
Scott

 

may i ask what your car is

 

No sneek cell phone pics??

 

Thank you Scott. Agreed, pictures would have been a plus.

BTW - still lovin my 07. Thanks again.

 

Nice. I have a feeling the styling of the '08 will grow on me the more I see it.

And of course, I also am still happy with the '06 WRX you sold me.

FYI: For those who don't know. Scott Putnam is a salesperson at Bloomington Acura/Subaru, and co-drives Rally's in his "spare time." He's also got a pretty good Subaru website. Looks like Sheebs and I both had good experiences with him. :biggrin:

 

Hey Scott thanks for the insight...*rally guy* if you guys are wondering...Good guy...Suprise u didn't attend the MN event on Friday? Anywho me and Pete should be there and take some pics of the car

 

I believe he will be at a Rally on Friday. I got my 05 STi from Scoot. Good guy. Anyone that has seen any of the new K&N adds... that is the car Scott Co-drives in.

 

I love that paint job...







Stuart.

 

looks like the car is on fire...lol

 

That's not a paint job. It's all vinyl. Really. The car underneath is bright yellow. In some of the photos from X-Games last year you can see where the bumper had been repaired with duct tape and then the vinyl reapplied over the tape.

 

the vinyl got pretty rough looking after the x games. definitely a 20 foot paint job by that point.

 

I suspected as much. Still, it looks way cool.

Stuart.

 

Here is what it looked like before the K&N sponsorship. Headwaters last year:

 

The last year or so I have codriven for Lauchlin OSullivan-
Here is a vid from last year:
http://media.putfile.com/Osullivan-X-games-06

This event I am in a PGT class WRX codriving for Tim Penasack.
We spent the day doing a one pass recce, which allows us to go over and get a look at the stages with the notes. This allows us to check the accuracy of the notes and make changes if necessary. The stages are pretty rough in places, and as usual for this event it will be a race of attrition. You come around corners and there are rocks the size of watermelons sticking up out of the road.
The last 2 times I have run this in 04 and 05 we dnf'd due to damage to the suspension on the front passenger side. In 04 we hit a rock that took the wheel and suspension clean off the car, and in 05 another that sheared off the bolts on top of the struts driving the strut up against the hood, pushing it up about 4-5 inches.

I have a few pics from the ride and drive that I can post a little later.

Cheers,
Scott

 

Wow, nice vid. Never seen that one before.

Please Scott, by all means post pictures of the carnage.

 

Cool! I have a few pics of CPD1 fro, when you guys had it up at the BP meet. If my compy wasnt on a different continet Iwould put up some pics for ya.

Your words about he 08 are setteling. maybe it wont be so bad...