We have purchased a brand new one of the first in the country 2015 WRX STI Type UK, which will be used for research and development (and the odd track day 😉 giving us the edge in the very latest Subaru developments. We have already been busy modifying! #WR14SCR
Background
Riding on the back of our 22B since 1999 as a development platform for tuning packages and products, we decided it was time for a change…
We have already tuned hundreds of 01 to 07 cars, products developed on the 22B all cross pollinated, 57 plate on WRX and STI included but it
was time for a change and with the 22B restored and sold a decision was made to get the new WRX STI 2015 saloon as a bang up to date test bed
for developing new products and tuning packages.
When Subaru announced they were no longer going to produce the Impreza it was a sad day indeed, the much loved car would be missed and of
course from a servicing, modifying and tuning point of view it meant our customer base would dwindle away slowly as it has already done with the
early classic as they fail MOT’s, get written off and fall into the hands of people who don’t realise they have bough a thorough bred racehorse, and need proper looking after, add to this the low volume sales of the hatch and 2012 saloon it looked like we at scoobyclinic may have to diversify.
New model
Music to our ears was the announcement that Subaru were to release a new saloon, not an impreza but now known as the 2015 WRX STI saloon, a chance to purchase one of the first cars to land in Britain came our way courtesy of Crossroads Subaru in Warwickshire, deal done and a new chapter of development begins …
One thing Subaru have never shied away from is distinctive looks, there are too many cars on the roads sharing the same body shell, is it a Peugeot, is it a Citroen, Nissan, Kia or Ford ??? When you see a Subaru you know its a Subaru and the styling of this car certainly maintains that.
Improvements
Subtle changes from the 2012 saloon like moving the door mirrors onto the door and giving the driver a small window to look though instead of
a blind spot where the mirrors used to be, lower roof line, screen raked back more and doors that open so wide cabin access is fantastic.
The new saloon is 40% stiffer to using high tensile steel throughout its floor-pan and chassis, and it shows, what a chassis this is, first drive
and wow its as stiff as a car with a cage, stunning, Power delivery is right on the money with almost no lag due to the immense torque produced by the flat four 2.5 ltr engine, plenty of toys but not to many like some modern cars are full of, nice displays throughout the instruments and a built in boost gauge colour display, nice touch.
One thing we didn’t like was the traction control, several members of staff, and our pro race driver commented on the fact that default was
traction control on and in this mode you would think the car was torque steering when accelerating and as the Subaru layout CANNOT torque steer
due to equal length drive shafts it had to be the traction control, and once turned off the car is nothing short of amazing straight out of the box.
Rolling Road time
A dyno power run when the car had only covered 97 miles showed 266 BHP a fair bit off its claimed factory figure, a few more miles later the
engine had bed in and loosened up and the car produced 299 BHP, bang on the money, several more runs to test this showed our car settled at a
comfy 290 BHP, at least we had a figure to work from to develop our performance packages.
A decision was made to test the new car on track with our pro race driver at the wheel, Andy Mckenna.
Track time
Meeting Andy at Blyton park in Gainsborough, he donned his race suit and went out for a couple of laps to get used to the car in standard form, he came back in stating” that’s a proper car with bags of potential”, helmet on and out to get a time, lets see what this car can do…. a warm up lap, a flash of the headlamps and the fast laps began, a few laps in and a very good time of 1.16,34 was achieved, all be it not on official timing gear as we were not allowed to use it but it was cross referenced by several of the team to check it was correct.
Andy came back in stating the brakes needed upgrading even as a standard car, true as the discs were cherry red and the pads were on fire, see attachment.
Interviewed by a film crew producing Suabru Uk’s new motor-sport based web site, (yes they have finally listened to their customers), Andy stated “Out of the box that is stunning, it ought to come with a government health warning, this car will make a bad driver good, and a good driver better, any one jumping straight out of a run of the mill car into this needs to take time to learn just how potent this car is, engine and chassis both amazing, once the traction control is turned off”.
Next up will be a report on the SCr PP#1 and back to back testing of the PP#1 against the standard car, same day, same conditions …