Drove an '06 WRX today...

An '06 wagon. A few felow IS department nerds are into cars. Dave has the WRX wagon and Dirk has a '05 GTO I also got to test drive. More on the goat later. The wagon was very nice. No mods, 2200 miles on it. He had on '04 WRB WRX up untill about a month ago. Anyways...

First thing I noticed was how different the steering was. I think the 17" rims may have made a difference but the whole felt of the steering felt "light". I say this in a good way. I have the steering rack bushings but stock rims. So, mine isn't quite as "light", but it still turns very easy. I don't know if it was such a good thing at highway speeds. But at low speeds it is nice.

The new 2.5l engine is also very nice. It was pretty hard to tell when the turbo kicked in. The low end torque was pretty nice on it. I am at stage 1 with the AP and I can still tell when the power band of the turbo begins and ends. His stock WRX was faster than my stage 1 02 with a catless UP. But to be honest its not compairing apples to apples. Stage 1 is more like a smoothing out of the torque curve and is not quite as much of a power mod as they claim. I also have 125k miles on my car and Dave's WRX has 122k less than I do. So, I wasn't suprised, but still hoping mine would be a bit faster! No biggie.

One thing I didn't like. At all. The sound and feel of the engine. It has no rumble and it sounds like a Toyota The Boxy McBoxerson shake the car does at idle was gone. The boxer sound(from the engine) was also gone. I don't know why this is. Could be various reasons, IE. sound dampening, tuning, etc, etc. But, it didn't have that distinct sound that I know mine has. Didn't rock the car every now and again like mine does at idle. I guess for soccer moms this would be a good thing. But for myself. I was not impressed.

But for 122k miles more than his has. Mine is just a hair weaker, although .5l smaller and less torqier standard than his. Him, Dirk and I both agreed that mine has held up well for its mileage and were all impreesed with what Subaru can produce. He said he would be more than happy to have his car perform like mine after 125k.

Now, the GTO. This is short as I have nothing to compare it to. But this thing is pretty nice. Especially the interior. Seats were nice and comfy and the controls looked really nice. Hard to believe it was a Pontiac.

The power is pretty fun. RWD with the LS1 engine is great!:biggrin: Dirk had said had it tuned on the dyno to 317whp. no engine mods AFAIK, just a tune. I broke the rear loose a few times after geting a friendly nod from Dirk. The gear box felt really stiff though. The gears were really close together and although he had a short shifter(if you could call it that). It felt like I was driving a truck. It was just ginourmus!! Dirk even made fun of the tranny.

Anyways yeah. I just thought I would share. For no reason other than i'm bored. Big difference(obviously) between my 02 and the 06 obviously in power, but really suprised in the feel and sound differncs. I really want an '06 STI now. Hopefuly that still has the Boxy McBoxerson rumble yet!:yumyum:

 

Fun. I'd like to try out a GTO. Not own though. As for the no rumble-ness. I guess (from reading stuff on the internets) that the '06s come with equal length headers, taking away the sound.

 

The steering difference is probably due to the steering rack used.
05+ WRXs use the same higher speed rack as the STI.
it's the only thing I'm grumpy i didn't get with my 04.

 

wait so the headers is what makes the rumble of a boxer? i thought it was the boxer it self being that its layed in a differant way.....?:roll:

 

Enter the Saabaru... :biggrin:

 

technically it is the combination of the two.. but equal length headers cause the exhaust pulses to hit at the same time instead of in synch (not N-SYNC) or another word I cant think of.. in order or one after the other or soemthing.. tired its early... so by making all exhaust pulses equal timing it takes out the rumble... yada yada

 

Yeah the GTO was nice. Especially the interior. But like I said. I thought I was driving a truck:ugh:

 

In '05, Subaru went to the "cannon" mount for the steering rack. They bolt it solid to the cross member, and have a relief valve so it isn't too harsh.

 

Thanks for the nice review. I haven't driven an 06 WRX wagon, but I think it's the low-mid range torque that's making you want an STi. It's power right where you need it most around town. An STI is just better throughout the rev band and kicks you in the nutz at ~5000 RPM.

 

The only thing pontiac about that car is the front bumper cover and the logos

origninal Holden monaro (Australian):


Vauxhall monaro version (european):


yay pontiac... such a bad auto mfg that they have to raid their foreign corporate partners to come up with a decent sports car.

 

and to think they come in sedan (4-door), wagon, and utility (ute - think el-camino) in Australia.. if they did that here they would sell up a storm of them...