So this old guy gives me the once-over as I’m getting into my Subaru WRX at the grocery store. “Whatchu lookin’ at?” I think to myself, as he stares and smirks on his way to park an empty shopping cart.
There are several possible explanations for the old gent’s wry grin. He might have been amused by the pug-nose purposefulness of the WRX, whose prominent headlights surmounting even more businesslike fog lamps flank two gaping grilles and a sinister hood scoop. Or he might have been chuckling privately that a fellow like me, half his age, was trying to look natural behind the wheel of an unorthodox hot-rod intended for fellows half my age. Or maybe he was a regular reader of the car mags and realized that Subaru’s quaint little ugly-duckling of a WRX had finally arrived and was a-fixin’ to spank a few egos out there in Streetracerville.
That there can be so many possible interpretations of the reactions elicited by the WRX says quite a lot about this Rorschach test of a sportscar that is all new for the U.S. in 2002. Unlike a recent spate of poseur cars reviewed here within the past few weeks, such as Mitsubishi’s Lancer and Mazda’s MP3, the Subaru WRX is but a thinly veiled racecar that’s been de-fanged—only barely—to meet street-legal standards.
Anyone who dismisses the WRX on the basis of it being a Subaru Impreza at heart is overlooking two important facts: First, the Impreza commuter-car line is all grown up for 2002. The cars are bigger, stronger, more powerful. The tiny coupe is now gone, and only muscular sedan and sportwagon versions remain. Base models for 2002 get Subaru’s larger 2.5-liter opposed (or “boxer”) four-cylinder motor making 165 horsepower. The WRX sedan and wagon, however, show up at the party with a sexy little 2.0-liter boxer boasting an intercooled turbocharger, 14.2 psi maximum boost, 227 thundering horsepower, and 217 ft.-lbs. of maximum torque.
The second vital fact to keep in mind concerning this Subaru is WRX’s direct descent from the company’s world rally championship winner. This car is not a “wrapper” like the Lancer or MP3, whose flashy spoilers and flares are meant to distract attention from the 98-lb. weaklings hiding within. Ironically, the 2002 WRX sports what can fairly be called hyper-homely styling without wings or fins or curlicues. (A rear trunk-lid spoiler, for example, is available only as a dealer-installed option.) The moment those 227 horses begin straining at the bit, however, it’s all a driver can do to gearshift before redline (7,000 rpm) on the way to zero-to-60 sprints in just over six seconds.
WRX manages this pace in spite of distributing all that power to all four wheels all of the time. In fact, drag racing isn’t WRX’s forte; rally racing is. And rallying—arguably the severest yet most authentic of all motorsports competitions—places a premium on all those things that bedevil even the most humdrum driver during the most innocuous commute. Okay, so Ms. Humdrum isn’t lofting her car into midair over railroad crossings at 125 miles-an-hour. She is, on the other hand, braking and accelerating, turning right and left, cruising highways, and tackling the occasional gravel road. Because Subaru’s WRX excels in all of the above at rallying’s insane limits of traction and stability, it can’t help but master these same challenges in a civilian context.
For one thing, the WRX chassis features a sophisticated Ring-Shaped Reinforcement Frame whose hydroformed components develop 250 percent more torsional rigidity and 182 percent more bending rigidity than the former Impreza. When four-wheel independent suspension, four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes, and an all-wheel-drive powertrain (with limited slip differentials at both center and rear) are all hung off of a structure this stout, it’s magnificent how well every system does its job without the deflected motions that upset stability.
Driving a WRX is like flying, perhaps—by the seat-of-the-pants at that. Diving hard into a corner while barnstorming the backroads, the WRX actually invites you to brake late and deep. An ever-so-gentle trailing-throttle oversteer helps to transfer the weight of the car to the outside, and the resulting four-wheel-drift is a pleasure to induce. Exiting a corner, however, means knowing the powerband, because this turbo’s inherent acceleration delay will waylay snoozers who don’t keep their RPMs in the sweet spot. Just the same, the combination of tuned spring rates, independent suspension, and the constant clawing of all-wheel-drive simply devours all qualities of road surface, from pothole-rough to glassy-smooth.
Inside the WRX, firm bolsters on the front sport buckets do an excellent job of locking driver and front passenger into place during a torrent of twisties. If anything, the turbo 2-liter revs almost too fast for the first three gears, yet the five-speed shifter is precise in its moderately short throws. The rubber-studded aluminum pedals are well-placed for a heel-and-toe ballet, and while the MOMO-brand steering wheel is a nice sporty touch, its badge stands out as perhaps the most overt accoutrement in an otherwise starkly understated styling exercise both inside and out.
From a practical standpoint, it’s unfortunate that a small porthole through the rear seat’s center armrest is the only way to expand a rather smallish 11 cu.-ft. trunk. For almost $25-grand, there are some who will insist upon practicality beyond mere performance for the WRX. (Presumably, that’s why there’s also a WRX wagon, costing $500 less, in fact.) The majority of genuine enthusiasts, however, will understand immediately what the WRX’s real mission is: ambushing flamboyant rivals and bruising cocky egos with an awkward-looking compact that wears a “Who, me?” grin on its face.
