Special Edition Subaru Impreza Wrx
What do you do when you take a standard WRX, add a more powerful engine, plenty of interior goodies, and an STi-alike body kit? You call it the WR and launch it as a Limited Model.
As a sort of celebration of the world rally Championship Subaru took a WRX and boost the engine power and torque, which rises from 168kW at 6000rpm to 184kW and 300Nm at 3600rpm to 333Nm respectively. The limited edition Impreza WR, as it is called, also gets an STi body kit. In addition to that there are also enough SWRT decals covering the car to keep a rally mechanic busy for hours applying them. But because it looks like an STi doesn’t mean it goes like one, which can put a dampener on things. Then again, it is substantially quicker than the standard WRX, and at NZ$49,990 it cuts a nice price point between the WRX and the STi – call it Impreza WRX 1.5.
We needed something Subaru-ish to take on our jaunt with the Subaru STi Owners club and the WR was the natural choice – apart of course from a new STi, which was unavailable. The WR certainly looked the part outside Winger Subaru on a stunningly bright Sunday morning. Its blue paint – all WRs are SWRT blue – blended in with plenty of other blue Subarus, and the car is certainly full of visual intent.
It’s when we got going that the going got tough. The WR is quicker than a standard WRX, but not nearly as quick as a full blown STi, especially because some of the cars on the drive had had more than a few modifications thrown at them. However it was possible to keep up by stirring the five speed box and wringing every last erg of performance out of the turbo flat four we were able to keep up with the convoy, which is a pretty good showing considering the car’s power deficit.
And the extra power over the standard is welcome. The turbo doesn’t really wake up until 3000rpm but above that the thrust is constant and incredibly linear. And you still get the barking rumble of the flat four engine up front. It feels exactly like what it is – a WRX with an extra helping of salsa. And the constant all wheel drive system endows the car with incredible traction, especially out of corners that would have front or rear drivers feathering the throttle to stop understeering or oversteering off the bend. Other less welcome WRX quirks are carried over, like the gearshift which feels stiff and slightly inaccurate. A couple of thousand kays on the gearbox though and it should feel much better. The interior gets a fair share of special bits, including an alloy gear lever knob, blue upholstery inserts in high back seats with the SWRT logo, blue carpet, blue door trims, an Alpine MP3 capable CD sound system, and STI electro-luminescent instrument dials.
Those electro-luminescent dials ‘wake up’, flipping to their maximum stops and then back again to resting position, and the back lighting is pretty effective, but the dashboard itself still looks like an uncomfortable mixture of the futuristic and the traditional. The space-age surround on top of the dash clashes with the rest of the design. Other than that the WR makes a good case for itself. It’s faster than normal and goes just as quick around corners. But don’t go thinking it’s a junior STi.
There’s a school of opinion, and it’s held by most STi owners, is that if you are going to make a car that looks like an STi it should be as fast as an STi. On this basis the WR falls flat on its face, but as an additional, albeit numerically limited – addition to the range it makes a great bridging point between the standard and higher tuned quick Subarus.
And keep an eye out in the next WRX. You don’t think Subaru would go to all the trouble of tuning the engine to 184kW just for a special edition of the WRX? Rumour has it that Subaru is getting serious about power outputs, so expect a power boost from both the WRX and the STi models, which should finally crack the ‘official’ 205kW barrier.
