Print article   email story

Steve Dlamini-Kabini

JAPANESE carmaker Subaru has chosen a difficult battle to win – competing in South Africa’s hot hatch market.

This is not a segment for beginners. It’s a market for those who understand what performance in a hatchback is about. This appears to be something that Subaru’s experts and makers of the symmetrical all-wheel-drive system knew long before assembling its latest generation Impreza range.

The reasoning of the manufacturer is that the world car market prefers hatchback to sedans.

It was against this backdrop that Subaru built a WRX (among other Imprezas) in a hatchback format – a move that was highly criticised by most motoring journalists who preferred the sedan version, the vehicle shape that was offered in the previous Impreza generation.

In the hot hatch market there are several heroes, including the Opel Astra OPC and SEAT Leon Cupra, cars that make rivals look like they are standing still when they sprint from robot to robot.

This is where the WRX comes in featuring a turbocharged 2.5-litre engine producing 169kW of power with 300Nm of torque. This is more than enough power to compete against hatches such as the VW Golf GTI, RenaultSport Megane and Ford ST.

The advantage of the WRX is that it pulls with four wheels as opposed to its rivals that are front-wheel-driven. This gives the WRX better road holding and handling, especially in wet conditions.

Though on paper the power figures seem pretty adequate in comparison to its rivals, it is on the ground where it matters most.

Transmitting power to the ground via a four-wheel-drive system is always better than a two-wheel-drive car because there is maximum traction on the road. This means that this vehicle is likely to run away from its rivals in a quarter-mile shootout. Rivals will battle to get traction at pull away as they will experience a bit of wheel spin, resulting in time lose.

However, tests conducted on a dyno at Steve’s Auto Clinic (SAC) in Vanderbijlpark on the Vaal proved otherwise. These tests proved that on the wheels the WRX produces 112kW of power and roughly 258Nm of torque. This equates to roughly 35% (50kW) of power loss.

But SAC’s Stephen Fischer said the 35% power loss was higher than expected but “acceptable” in a four-wheel-drive car.

“A four-wheel-drive car needs lots of energy to turn everything such as drive-shafts, diffs and tyres. These are the greatest energy suckers,” said Fischer.

The WRX has been fitted with three differentials in the front, middle and rear. There are many other factors that could have affected the power figures including the 5% taken by the reef altitude and extremely high engine temperatures due to lack of sufficient coolant mechanism.

Apart from the dyno tests, we also tested the WRX on a day-to-day running on the road and tested its limits at the Zwartkops raceway near Pretoria. On the road, the WRX fitted with a five-speed manual gearbox was more than impressive even though it wasn’t as strong as I expected a WRX to be.

It was, however, easy to drive, particularly in traffic with soft pedals allowing easy and smooth gear selection.

But I wasn’t too pleased when operating its reverse gear. Sometimes I would find myself battling to hook reverse. In such an instance the vehicle requires to roll slightly forward before another attempt to engage the reverse gear.

Though the new styling of the Impreza range – the hatchback – has still to grow on me, the Japanese should have done something to improve the quality of the WRX interior look. The dashboard bottom strip and the side-door panels still look like cheap plastic.

As for the driving experience, during our road test, the WRX showed weakness when its oil pipe cracked, creating a huge cloud of smoke coming through its air intake dome on the bonnet. It was quite scary to see smoke coming out of the engine in traffic.

However, Subaru Southern Africa took the vehicle in to replace the leaking steal pipe and returned the vehicle a day later so I could continue with my evaluation of the WRX.

The Japanese vehicle importer said the oil leak wasn’t “lifethreatening”. But as a precautionary measure, the pipe had to be replaced on all the new stock arriving in South Africa. The replacement of the pipe on the models already sold to customers will be done by a dealer during the service interval or when it begins to leak.

On the race track, the WRX was exceptional. I spent a few hours doing hot laps at the Zwartkops raceway testing the vehicle’s handling, dynamism and acceleration on the track.

Though this model isn’t designed for a track it still managed to satisfy my curiosity.

Unlike the previous generation, the WRX has gone soft. The suspension will certainly appeal more to female drivers looking for comfort.

This was evident on the track as the vehicle experienced a bit of body roll. But this doesn’t make the WRX less powerful. It still achieves a 0-100km/h in under seven seconds, reaching a top speed of close to 230km/h.

I’m not too sure if Subaru SA got its pricing right on the WRX. There are a lot of other options out there when one talks about R299 000.

If that is how much the WRX costs, I am concerned that the flagship STI model will be rather too pricey when it is launched locally within the next few weeks.

But one thing’s for sure – it will deliver in terms of performance.

Subscribe to the print edition of City Press