Modesty is totally overrated.
The pyramids weren’t built to be the second-biggest sand castle on the planet, and there’s a reason we sent TV cameras to land on the moon. Excellence deserves attention.
If you’re going to make a car that goes, grips and growls like a jungle cat, put a spoiler a foot and a half off the deck and then high-five yourself. That’s what life is like in the 2015 Subaru WRX STI. Repeated high-fives to yourself after you’ve conquered the physical world.
You’re awesome, dude.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the type of place that’ll make you feel that way. The 11-turn asphalted climbing and diving ribbon of perfection in Monterey, Calif., isn’t the type of track that puts you to sleep. The longest straight, a run from Andretti corner through the start/finish line, is a blind hill before you hit the first two turns. It wakes you up like hot coffee in your face at 97 mph.
Laguna Seca is also the best place to take the Subaru, the automaker’s newest in a slew of cars that quite frankly, everyone seems to love right now. The 2015 WRX STI is the last of the compact cars to come from Subaru for a while and the brand’s halo car; the summit of all-wheel drive mountain.
Normally, the words “halo car” means expensive, loud, impractical or a combination of any or all three. Halo cars are engineering exercises first, bedroom posters second, and realistic comes in at a distant third. But for Subaru and the STI, its heritage is firmly planted on solid ground — or, rather, loose gravel.
In the 1990s, Subaru dominated world rally with their all-wheel drive systems and drivers. The enthusiasm for those cars trickled down to the Impreza STI, a stiffened, more powerful version of their road car, complete with a tail wing borrowed from a mid-sized Cessna and iconic blue with gold wheel paint scheme. The small production and numerous special editions of the STI have kept the sports car in rarified air for more than two decades, even if the car wasn’t spectacular.
This car doesn’t have that pedigree. Beginning in 2008, Subaru shifted from rally to road racing, in part, because of a rules change.
The 2015 WRX STI is a road car, through and through, and it’s better for it.
Up front, the STI sports the older, bigger 2.5-liter engine from the last generation. The inclusion is a surprise considering the WRX has a smaller engine this time and STI often shared many similar components with the less potent version, engine included. The turbocharged, flat four cranks just over 300 horsepower and 290 lb.-ft. of torque in the STI, virtually unchanged from the generation before it. The decision to carry over an engine is risky, but not as risky as slipping a shift on Laguna Seca’s famous corkscrew (that’s because it drops 59 feet vertically in 450 feet of track, like falling out of a five-story building in a race car).
In the 2015 STI the engine feels maxed with a chassis that won’t lose grip. Pulling gears and pushing the engine is infinitely easier when you know your fillings will break loose before the tires ever will. That’s due to stiffened cross members and bigger stabilizer bars up front, a stiffened rear subframe and all sorts of higher strength steel in the chassis everywhere that stiffens the STI 24 percent over last generation. Engineers claim the STI can pull nearly 1g in a corner, which is a great way to wake up in the morning.
It’s possible to dork out on the STI’s suspension. Beginning with the Impreza two years ago and moving to the WRX last year, it’s been clear that a stiffer, stronger and better chassis was due for the STI when it finally arrives in showrooms this spring. It was a calculated move for Subaru, considering high performance cars follow the formula of either supreme engine or supreme chassis. There really wasn’t any question of whether the STI would be stiff, rather if it’d live up to the expectations set before it. Does it?
High five, dude.
To say that the STI is the best STI so far does a disservice to the heritage of the car. It’s really a different STI, and one that’s better than I could imagine. As Subaru’s halo car, it lives up to the expectation that a sports sedan can be handling first, power second. The STI’s quicker steering ratio this year dives the car into the corners at a flick, and active torque vectoring keeps you there.
Driving an STI at its limit is holding a bear by the ears; you’re shocked that you made it that far and you’re deathly scared of letting it go. I highly recommend it.
As for the interior, it has one. The 2015 STI is better than last generation, but you’re not driving the car for its interior. Starting at $34,495 for a base STI and $37,395 for the STI Launch Edition (blue paint scheme and gold-colored BBS wheels) the launch edition will be the go-to model for the first 1,000 customers to buy one.
Subaru expects only 4,000 will be sold in the states this year, which makes it a relatively low-volume car. But for the customers brave enough to challenge the 2015 Subaru STI, there’s only this:
You’re awesome dude.