Peter Nunn, the freelancer who contributes to Evo, claims in this months issue that the facelifted Impreza (06) has had mods which make the chassis more rigid? Does anyone know anything about this?

 

Check ScoobyMag - details in there

Most of the new stiffening is on the spec C - front towers etc.

Cheers

 

AJ
Thanks, However for all those (including myself) who do not receive scoobymag, do you think you might give us a clue as to what Subaru have done? Have they thickened the steel at the front of the monocoque itself as well as the front-towers? Or just the steel that makes up the front strut towers?

To listen to Peter Nunn, it reads almost like adcopy,"more agile", "better balanced", "handles on/off throttle movements much better". Does anyone here really think the car has been transformed so?

Thanks, JL

 

Every new model is x% stiffer and y% better... its called "evolution"... they get an existing car and make it better... make that next years model then repeat the next year.

If you look at formula 1 etc... the cars get quicker each year as they EVOLVE....



Jza

 

A lot of the changes described (eg. torque split, DCCD improvements) actually happened on the '05 car, so I wonder whether some reporters are getting confused. Aside from the extra 8 lb.ft of torque over the '05, I've not seen any confirmed, accurate reports of mechanical changes.

 

From reading the article to me it seems they have indeed made some changes, torque is split more evenly, rather than the 05's 65/35 the 06 is 59/41 or something and it sounds like the DCCD has been updated.

 

Its only £3.50 & a very informative read....worth getting

www.scoobymag.co.uk

 

I've got an independent test drive report of the MY06 STi versions. They are better. I'd love to tell you more, but it's my bread and butter we're talking about

 

IMHO I think the car has improved, but it has had roll added. Some will prefer the old spec C, but I believe most will like the new one more day to day as it has been improved in so many ways.

I guess one thing to keep in mind is that there is less oversteer on the limit of the new model - read into that what you may Stability at high speeds is up, fast kinks that could have the older car schwinging its **** about (unintentionally) are held in check by the new DCCD much better too (and it is NEW, a combo of torque sensing LSD and DCCD-A in a new, and upgraded package). Programming, an extra sensor for the diff controller and the new torque split are all pretty nice adds.

Other revisions (steering mostly) and tweaks have upped the desirability IMHO.

Seriously, we could go on about the benefits of old vs new for ever, but IMHO the new car on the whole is a decent step up.

Cheers

PS I don't get Scoobymag regularly as I am in Tokyo and get to drive them fairly early The ones I have seen are quite good though IMHO.

 

You're talking about the models equipped with DCCD. I'm interested to find out ,for myself and not in writing, what the non-DCCD models behave like compared to the old.

What part of Tokyo are you in, I may be able to get a mag dropped into you

 

Thanks for the offer m8 - ehem, erm, PH shows me them occaisionally

 

AJ,
Thanks for the heads up. From your observations it seems that Subaru are really refining the handling, almost like trying to combine the best of both worlds; subaru agility with Audi/BMW like stabilty. Thanks, JL