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June 13, 2006

2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi versus 2006 Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo IX MR Comparison

Rally Heroes

A stute readers will have noticed that more than a few members of the Winding Road staff hold the sportscars of Porsche AG in high esteem. This has far less to do with past history, both on and off the track, than from Porsche’s continuous and ardent updating and tweaking of its cars to bring them ever closer to a particular ideal. Developing a car in the new millennium involves a massively complex and interrelated set of tasks, and consequently most new cars have real room for improvement. The tradeoff of compliance and roll control may not be quite right, the brakes are perhaps little mushy, or the steering is too vague on center. Only the maniacally driver-oriented firms like Porsche attend to these details in the middle of a product cycle.

Because the customer base for rally-inspired road cars is both picky and knowledgeable, the two main players in this game, Subaru and Mitsubishi, have been locked for years in a continuous improvement battle. Last year, we ranked both of these cars in the top 10 of our Top 50 rankings, with the Lancer Evolution VIII emerging as the clear winner. Recently we drove the latest U.S. versions of the WRX STI and Evo to see how the battle was going in this round.

To understand the upgrades to the WRX STI, you have to first understand the flaws of the old car. In simple terms, this refresher course only takes one word: understeer. The old STI had the urge to plow a bit, even at relatively moderate speeds. A more sophisticated version of this story would include the car’s somewhat unsorted feeling, one which led you to sense that the front and rear suspensions were not sprung and damped for harmony on less than glassy surfaces. Subaru, no doubt, is dealing with the same problem that Audi and Porsche have, which is that the engine is placed so far from the center that it takes some heroic measures to control the car.

Porsche has been working on getting this right for 40 years, so it is no surprise that Subaru wasn’t quite there circa 2005.

The new car features two center differentials, one electronic and the other mechanical, to apportion torque to the front and rear of the car. The added mechanical differential is said to be faster acting, so that more torque goes immediately to the rear wheels when needed. In addition, Subaru has added a steering angle sensor to help the running gear support turn-in.

Blasting around a variety of back roads reveals that the added hardware and software make a big improvement in the STI’s feel. The car feels lighter and more balanced, with more work apparently done by the rear tires. Turn-in now feels right, lacking the sense that the STI resolutely wants to go straight.

At the same time, this STI is clearly related to the old one. It still feels slightly tippy, and you get the sense that the nose wants to tuck in during spirited cornering. This sensation is accompanied by a sense of looseness in the suspension that falls a little bit short from the ideal level of directness in the car’s chassis. However, I would say that the STI no longer feels unhappy on some less-than-ideal roads. It’s just tuned slightly on the soft side. To be sure, that softness must be understood in the context of rally sedans, which are generally rather extreme cars.

The new Lancer Evo MR, in contrast, feels much more like the last generation car. Saints be praised for that, because the previous car was a model of driver involvement, and the ways to make it worse vastly outnumbered the possible improvements. Even so, Mitsubishi was not about to pass an opportunity to refine the car.

Perhaps the biggest criticism of the old car is that its ride quality was one step too far toward the firm end of the spectrum. I can easily imagine the Mitsubishi engineering team scratching their heads wondering whether American journalists actually have any principles: “After every Galant and Eclipse gets hammered for being too squishy, we give you the real deal suspension and then you complain that the ride upsets your sensitive tush?” Instead, in typical Japanese fashion, rather than whine, they have come back with more sophisticated Bilsteins, and the Evo’s impact harshness is indeed dialed back a notch.

Even better, the handling retains the balanced, low-roll excellence that we loved so much on the Evo VIII. When we talk about balanced handling, we frequently mean that the chassis is tuned so that it doesn’t obviously tend to understeer or oversteer. In that sense, the Boxster and the Corvette are both balanced. But, you always know that they are rear-drive cars and that under power they will tend to oversteer and off power they will understeer as you press harder. The Evo is even closer to truly balanced than these and many other excellent cars in that it seems to use all four contact patches equally.

I find this amply demonstrated when I come upon a new short loop in the middle of nowhere on my Evo drive. With absolutely no traffic around, I do a long series of laps at varying speeds, and I marvel at how connected the front and rear of the Evo feel, right up to the point where both ends of the car are struggling for grip. Aided by very quick steering, the Evo is a scalpel that easily carves precise lines where my mind imagines them only moments before. The Evo, like the Boxster, allows you to drive with a flowing rhythm much more easily than most other cars.

The STI under these same conditions lacks a bit of grace, but almost makes up for it by challenging you to drive better. On top of that, the STI sounds much more alive than the Evo. The big, flat four has a guttural sound akin to that of a pushrod V-8, and it is fun to run it up through the gears. The Evo’s soundtrack is quieter, smoother and higher pitched. Thankfully, much of the Evo VIII’s weird turbo clattering is gone in the new MR.

Perhaps because of its sound, or because of the added displacement, the STI feels stronger at lower revs. You have to realize, of course, that both cars are small-displacement turbos, so they lack punch below 3000 rpm, but in any event the STI seems stronger in that region. Once on boost, however, the Evo doesn’t give up anything to the STI, and for most folks the Evo feels a trifle stronger because of the aggressive way the boost comes on. These differences are small, however, either car bringing an insane smile to your face as you march through their mechanical feeling, easy to use gearboxes.

I realize that a lot of people don’t get the rally car thing, and I have to assume that this has more to do with the over-the-top yet ever-so-cheap styling approach than with the driving experience. I would certainly like to drop the boy-racer bodywork. Even better, leave these cars as is, but apply the same TLC to a more mature platform. Mazda has tried this with the Mazdaspeed 6, and it works pretty well. But that car is clearly shown to be a “generation one” when you drive the latest umpteenth generation STI or the Evo MR.

If you get the feeling that I love driving both the STI and the Evo MR, you’re right. So, it is important to say that if you haven’t experienced either of these cars, you’re missing something. Though the price tags may seem elevated for what are basically $20K econosedans, once behind the wheel you’ll realize that they’re huge bargains. Whether you’re interested in pace or fun, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better offering below the supercar level.

As for which car is better, the Evo MR remains the champ. The WRX STI has closed the gap substantially, to the point that I could easily see choosing it in a head-to-head comparison. If you like the rally vibe, but want a dash of American grunt, the STI is a fabulous ride. If you want a serious challenger to the best driver’s cars around, the Evo is still it.

Source: Winding Road Magazine
BY BROOKS HOLDEN

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