From the July 2015 issue

As the 1990s segued into the new millennium, the world was busy not ending and the world’s computers were busy not crashing—at least not more than usual. And California was getting blasted by the next big car-culture ­tsunami: import tuning. People with the money to tweak new cars were cranking up the boost on the factory-turbocharged engines in Mazda RX-7s and Toyota MR2s and Supras. Those without the money were hacking their Honda Civics and CR-Xs into respectable facsimiles of sports cars a couple hundred bucks at a time. Competition in L.A.’s burgeoning street-racing scene was fierce. In Southern California and a few other pockets throughout the U.S., the trend was already peaking by 2001. But when the first installment of The Fast and the Furious flicks hit the big screen that year, the giant wave crested and flooded the rest of the country with slammed, winged, and boosted Acuras, Hondas, and Mi­tsubishis.

Even Car and Driver tried to cash in on the craze, introducing Boost magazine in 2004, our Spruce Goose for the tuner industry. That first editor’s column promised “Absolutely no Buicks—ever!” Turned out that “ever” was a lot shorter than expected. After printing just one issue, we abandoned the category to established niche bibles such as Sport Compact Car and Import Tuner (the former is dead, the latter is online-only).

View Photos Top right: Nicer and quieter it might be, but the new STI, left, still carries a rear wing ridiculous enough to mortify your wife. DANIEL BYRNE

Subaru also belatedly responded to the tuner movement, but with a rude Scandinavian Flick rather than an opportunistic ­periodical, spraying proverbial gravel and a dose of special-stage authenticity at its slammed, television-equipped, neon-festooned island-mates. To answer the call for Japanese performance cars, Subaru imported its World Rally Championship–derived WRX for 2002. But the fanboys wouldn’t be sated by anything less than the 300-hp STi, which Subaru brought to U.S. streets two years later to battle the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. The STi was so legit that it didn’t even have a stereo. A massive hood scoop, required to grab air for the 2.5-liter flat-four’s top-mounted intercooler, was so poorly integrated that we said it looked like a bus-stop shelter.

Vermont is as distant as it gets from the epicenter of the tuner movement. Just 2.5 miles separate the capitol building in Mont­pel­ier from the nearest John Deere dealership. But the low, rolling Green Mountains blanketing the state are coiled by dirt and paved roads, as if nature designed the whole state to be a round of the World Rally Championship. John Buffum, the most successful U.S. rally driver of all time, runs a shop prepping rally cars just outside of Burlington. That alone makes Vermont as World Rally Blue as any state in the union. And the place is flush with Subarus of all vintages. Mere miles from Buffum’s shop, our matched set of 2004 and 2015 STIs (the company began using an uppercase i in the name in 2006) was passed by a 2008 model in the same blue-and-gold livery. In the United States, this is Subaru’s spiritual home.

View Photos DANIEL BYRNE

With barely a decade separating them, the ’04 and ’15 STIs transmit a deeply similar feel. A person driving them blindfolded would, right before hitting a tree, immediately be able to sense the familial tie. It certainly helps that the engine, a 2.5-liter flat-four, has been only moderately upgraded between the two. In either car it’s a ­bottle rocket, with explosive power accompanied by a hard-edged chortle as it whooshes toward the redline. Both brake pedals are unnerving in their squishiness, requiring a deep stomp for hard stops. The newer car’s steering is a little lighter, though still Kobe-beefy, and slightly less nervous on-center. But the racks in both are so darty that it’s hard to maintain a set course on long highway hauls. Each car is so taut and load-sensitive that the driver can tweak his line through a corner with only slight throttle adjustments.

Seeking a controlled environment for a sideways workout of the cars, we headed to the region’s premier rallying school, Team O’Neil, which isn’t actually in Vermont but a few miles over the border in New Hampshire. Both cars have a limited-slip center differential that allows the driver to fine-tune its engagement, thereby incrementally varying the torque bias between the front and rear axles. We dialed in maximum rearward favoritism. The 2015 car’s extra 4.3 inches of wheelbase make it easier to control when sideways. The ’04 needs a bit more premeditation to throw askew, whereas the new car comes around more eagerly. And once you start navigating through the side glass, fine-tuning the yaw using the throttle and some left-foot braking is much simpler given the newer car’s more neutral balance. In these conditions, though, both cars are as exhilarating as wearing a wingsuit and filing your fingernails on an Andean cliff face—but without the same impact on your life expectancy.

And yet the evolutionary difference is apparent. The new car is 7.1 inches longer, and the additional wheelbase shows in the vastly more spacious interior. In fit and finish and in overall polish, the old STi is tidier, simpler, and cheaper, an economy car with a monster under the hood. It’s a true hot rod, whereas the new one feels more of a piece, a premium model.

View Photos Right: gold wheels were available only on the 2015 Launch-Edition STI because Subaru is insane. DANIEL BYRNE

Much of that is due to the newer car’s better isolation of the occupants from the mechanical bits. Interior-noise standards are much higher today than they were a decade ago, and the 2004 car’s comparatively raw feel is the greatest differentiation between the two Subies. Less noise from the road, wind, and engine make it into the 2015, while the occupants of the 2004 are treated to more turbo whoosh and blow-off gulp. The old flat-four growl has a harsher, pleasing edge that is deadened in the newer car.

That sterility isn’t unexpected. Today’s STI is 130 pounds heavier than the old one. Crash standards are the easy scapegoat, and, in fact, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced a new crash test, small-overlap front impact, in 2012. And the 2015 WRX does indeed ace IIHS testing, earning a Top Safety Pick ­rating. But there’s another source for weight gain across the industry: features and amenities. The 2015’s standard-equipment list includes not only the stereo that was missing in the ’04 car—with satellite radio and Bluetooth as well as USB, and 3.5-millimeter-auxiliary inputs—but also stuff such as dual-zone automatic climate control, heated seats, and keyless entry. Most of these are now stand­ard on a $20,000 Hyundai. (A decade ago, having those last two on a Hyundai meant you had rust holes beneath your seat and busted locks.) The government has also mandated rearview cameras on all passenger vehicles sold in the country by May 2018, so add one more ­bauble to your expectations list.

View Photos Bottom right: The old car’s chintzy interior never lets you forget that your hot rod was based on an economy car. DANIEL BYRNE

It’s not just standard features that are creeping ever higher, but materials and fitments, too. Soft-touch dashboards and door panels are something consumers expect in any new car today. Rubbermaid-spec plastics like those that formed the ’04 STi’s dash have been banished to the cheapest, saddest corners of the market—and even there, they are jarring. Today, there’s no room for greasy plastics or cheap switchgear in even an entry-level Impreza, let alone a $35,290 STI. A modern STI interior shames that of even a BMW from a decade ago. Getting these two cars together demonstrates that interior quality has been perhaps the greatest area of change in the car industry over the last 10 years.

Or maybe that’d be power. In 2004, a 300-hp, 300-lb-ft car was something ­special. Back then, a V-8–powered Ford Mustang GT made just 260 horses. Today, the four-cylinder Mustang has 310. Even Chrysler minivans are crowding 300. The most powerful production car we tested in 2004 was a Porsche Carrera GT, at 605 horsepower. Today, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat has 707—and at a savings of more than $380,000. Meanwhile, the Carrera GT’s nearly-million-dollar successor, the 887-horse 918 Spyder, competes with a pair of 900-plus-hp extraterrestrial hybrid eels. The Chevy Corvette Z06 made 385 horsepower in 2001; now it’s at 650. Ford’s Shelby GT500 went from 500 to 662 in just six years. It’s a fast-moving age, and only getting more so. Automakers stagnate at their peril.

View Photos DANIEL BYRNE

Looking solely at the specs, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Subaru has stagnated. It hasn’t. The subjective improvements to the STI are palpable, but Subaru is not the most upwardly mobile car company. Along with Mazda and Mitsubishi, Subaru forms a second tier of the Japanese auto industry—not necessarily in terms of quality or driving refinement (see the two Mazdas on 2015’s 10Best list), but in business leverage. As regulatory pressures drive up development costs and amplify the intense competition in this business, the advantages accrue to the giants. When an entirely new model costs a billion dollars to develop, vast economies of scale become a necessity. With U.S. sales last year of just 513,693 for Subaru, 305,801 for Mazda, and 77,643 units for Mitsubishi, these three marques are the only mainstream brands left on the market that aren’t tethered to other brands, although Subaru does enjoy protection as the carmaking arm of Japan’s immense Fuji Heavy Industries conglomerate and cars are merely the tip of the Mitsubishi industrial iceberg. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has set the bar for survival at 6 million annual global sales, a mark his own operation falls shy of by about 25 percent. In fact, only the true behemoths—To­yota, Volkswagen, GM, Renault-Nissan, Hyundai-Kia, and Ford—surpass it. Smaller carmakers, such as these three Japanese brands, are starting to look like small and, to varying degrees, tasty fish.

View Photos DANIEL BYRNE

But there’s hope. As globalization increasingly homogenizes our world, there’s a concurrent—possibly reflexive—boom in the boutique and the small-batch. Ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture counted about 4000 farmers’ markets nationwide; in 2014, the number had more than doubled. In the same window, the number of breweries in the country increased from fewer than 1500 to more than 3400. Vermont, the second-least populous state, boasts 29 craft breweries, or 6.2 breweries per 100,000 legal drinkers, which makes it the second-densest beer state in the country. According to BeerAdvocate.com, Heady Topper, a double IPA brewed by The Alchemist in Waterbury, Vermont, is the world’s best beer, period.

Subaru, for its part, is at more than 40 consecutive months of year-over-year growth and looking to make 2015 its seventh straight record year in the U.S. So maybe it’s more than Subaru’s four-wheel drive that draws Vermonters to them. Vermont itself is kind of a boutique state, a place where a man might whittle himself a new ax handle. Think of it as a mythical Kentucky where everyone listens to NPR. The preferred method of transporting the state’s signature maple sap is still a horse-drawn sleigh, after all. Homogeneity galvanizes those who most ardently reject assimilation. When it comes to expressing your individuality, driving a Subaru is easier than moving to Vermont. And if you live there, you probably already have one.

Vehicle 2015 Subaru WRX STI Launch Edition 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi Base Price $38,190 $31,520 Price as Tested $38,190 $31,520 Dimensions Length 180.9 inches 173.8 inches Width 70.7 inches 68.5 inches Height 58.1 inches 56.3 inches Wheelbase 104.3 inches 100.0 inches Powertrain Engine turbocharged DOHC 16-valve flat-4

150 cu in (2457 cc) turbocharged DOHC 16-valve flat-4

150 cu in (2457 cc) Power HP @ RPM 305 @ 6000 300 @ 6000 Torque LB-FT @ RPM 290 @ 4000 300 @ 4000 Fuel Delivery port injection port injection Redline 6700 rpm 6700 rpm LB Per HP 11.1 10.9 Driveline Transmission 6-speed manual 6-speed manual Driven Wheels all all C/D Test

Results Acceleration 0–30 MPH 1.3 sec 1.3 sec 0–60 MPH 4.6 sec 4.6 sec 0–100 MPH 12.0 sec 12.4 sec 0–130 MPH 25.7 sec 24.5 sec ¼-Mile @ MPH 13.2 sec @ 104 13.2 sec @ 103 Rolling Start, 5–60 MPH 6.3 sec 5.8 sec Top Gear, 30–50 MPH 10.6 sec 10.9 sec Top Gear, 50–70 MPH 8.0 sec 8.1 sec Top Speed 155 mph (drag ltd) 145 mph (gov ltd) Chassis Braking 70–0 MPH 156 feet 166 feet Roadholding,

300-ft-dia Skidpad 0.94 g 0.90 g Weight Curb 3390 pounds 3260 pounds %Front/%Rear 58.8/41.2 58.3/41.7 Fuel EPA City/Hwy 17/23 mpg 16/22 mpg 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi test results from C/D, June 2003.



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