well yeasterday my mate had just graded his motox track and it was all nice and smooth so we came up with the bright idea of taking my sti around it after all it is a rally car at hart!! after a good 10mins of playing i was getin a bit to cocky and after hearly ended up in the canal that runs along the side of the track i stoped and parked up at which point i noticed one mud flap missing and inner arch cover gone scrached all down the passenger side then 2mins later two flat tyers so off i went to a tyer fitters had to have the tracking put right all wheels ballanced two punchers repaired and a new tyer as id taken a chunk out of the old one never mind was a great laugh tho!!

 

Nutter!!!

 

Nice one! . . I am proud of you!

 

yep rallying is hard on a car, just be thankful you weren't in a hot hatch, you wouldn't have a car left

 

well thank you i thought you were all going to slat me for having fun in a scooby

 

No, it isn't ! Not really

This is all that's left of a brand new Spec C prior to making it into a rally car...



...and this is before even more bits are cut away to make way for the lightweight bits, the bespoke suspension mountings and all the incredibly sexy and very expensive components that mean it won't fall to bits after 5 minutes on a gravel track. The "road going rally car" myth is just pub talk, believe me.

But it is jolly good fun nevertheless. Did it myself a while back and only managed to rip off a mudflap Lesson - use someone else's car

 

Corradoboy! Above statement misguided!

The SUBARU is derived from the rally car, and unlike its rivals, still aproximates the rally going car to some extent .We are flat four , awd turbocharged . . .Unlike its competitors . .

So its quite funny how we all ended up with a SUBARU IMPREZA, and not a Citroen or a Peugeot or a Ford . . . . . . . .

But Corradoboy, . .You of all people expect to walk in to a SUBARU delership and buy a WRC 350 . .(And don't forget to ask the dealer, if he would consider throwing in a free Team) . . .Tell us how it goes . . .

In any event . .The mans SUBARU no doubt performed better than any competition! Or don't you love SUBARU's????

 

Why is it misguided The only parts provided by Subaru to a WRC car are about 70% of the stripped shell above and the block and head castings. All the engine internals and every single other part are bespoke to the rally car, meaning the road car is about as close to the rally car as John Prescott is to an Olympic athlete. Sure, the other competitors road cars are even further removed, but our road cars are not road going rally cars, or even derived from them. They are road going road cars that happen to have some ability on loose surfaces due to AWD, and good performance. The fact that Subaru rally cars have been off the top spot so long, being beaten by the likes of Sh!troen proves that all WRC cars are nothing like their road car equivalents. You don't need to start with an awesome car, you can make a rally car out of any POS. The engine, 'box, drivetrain, suspension and chassis are all modified beyond belief from the original donor vehicle, so it matters not how bad a road car it is, a good race engineering company will make it competitive regardless. It's only marketing that dictates which cars are more suitable.

 

The assertion that an Impreza is in any way 'derived from a rally car' is complete and absolute rubbish. A WRC car shares little with a production WRX, beyond the badges; the lamps and a loose profile: to argue that anything else is the case shows a complete ignorance of car preparation and WRC specifications in general.

 

OK LAds . . .Its hitting me with hand bag time I see!

Absolutely . . .If we are going to be pedantic, then ofcourse, the Roadgoing Subaru is nothing like the WRC version . . .WRC is the WRC and the public road, is the public road . . .And yes . . No one doubted that there would be an element of segregation between the technologies employed - based on cost/reliability . . . .But lets keep in mind, the two specs are for two different purposes . .

But please explain to me (as I am ignorant), why SUBARU manage to mass produce an exceptionally excellent (IMHO) and rapid road car . . .How does it do that ????. .The problem I see here is that you focus on the microcosm of an actual WRC car . . .But for me SUBARU stands for quality , reliability and performance . . . .And to my mind its quite funny, how before SUBARU got involved in rallying, and got fully involved with PRODRIVE - the car would still be jap crap , and considered as such . . .

So do the principles of invention , innovation and diffusion not apply to the SUBARU WRC, and the company manufacturing process as a whole . . . Why can't say VOlvo come up with anything to seriously rival the SUBARU . . .Simply put, they don't have the technology , expertise or budget to carry out R + D , to the level of SUBARU . .

 

Volvo, a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company don't have the budget to research and develop a car like an Impreza They have been producing turbocharged AWD variants for many years in the guise of the T5, R's etc. Subaru are really quite a small player in the global market. Most Scoob dealers would love to sell even half the amount of cars that the average Volvo dealer sells, let alone what Citroen/Peugeot/Renault must clock up between them. Subaru didn't enter rallying for any other reason than marketing. The 1st Legacy proved competent following redevelopment by Prodrive and the small/mid sized saloon car they had planned which became the Impreza was a natural progression following the interest that the Leggy generated. They are in it to build and sell road cars, but they have built a reputation behind their slightly unusual approach by sticking with AWD and the flat four engine configuration. This gives them quirk appeal, along with the lure of the extreme performance they have managed to extract from the engine and the roadholding from the AWD. The vast majority of the car buying population however couldn't give two hoots about such things.
As for quality, average amongst other Jap saloons at best. Thin, easily chipped paint and poor shiny plastics. I'd say about as good as German quality 5 years ago. Reliability is however very good, as are most Jap marques.

 

Subaru make cheap-ish fast-ish cars.

Steve

 

Its a 4wd, turbo-charged, 4 door saloon.
And those are the only similarities between the road and 'rally' versions.

 

Do the WRC cars have rear doors or are they welded up?

Steve

 

You may wish to ammend that statement.

I spotted one of these yesterday, and my estimation of Subaru went down a notch

 

Volvo was an example off the top of my head . .

So there the verdict by Corradoboy, subaru entered the WRC for no other reason than marketing . .Excellent . .

I will now will proceed to crawl back to my hole . . Next - I will buy a VOLVO . .!

Good evening!

 

But it's still a Scooby. We Lurve Scoobys

Steve

 

Marketing

http://www.subaru-msm.com/global/his...tory/1989.html

 

You could argue that Gp.N rallying demonstrates the capabilities of the road cars as these are much closer to road cars than WRC. Still modified greatly from OE spec though, as a Prodrive Gp.N Impreza will set you back £90k, and God knows how much to keep running with engine and gearbox rebuilds etc.

 

WRC Subarus have opening rear doors.

 

The only thing a WRC car shares with its road going counterpart is the bloody badge on the front.

This aint no handbag bashing statement its about as close to fact as youre likely to get, corradoboy is spot on with his comments.

Before anyone bleats back blah blah blah,


we build WRC cars at work...

 

An alternate argument...

Road car...



Rally car...



The rally version in Super1600 spec is very close to the road car, so is the Suzuki Swift a road going rally car

 

Do you have anything positive to say????

 

He is only stating fact - why does it need to be positive?

 

Because there are alot more positive things to say than negative about scooby's, and because this a a Subaru forum.

 

I second that . . Guy seems like a right w*nker doesn't he? . . .

 

Mmmmm... obviously the WRC car bears little relation to the road car, but pop over to the Motorsport forum and read back a little - plenty of forum members doing real rallies with real Impreza road cars, albeit with a couple of grand spent on roll cages and dog boxes.

The rally link isn't entirely a myth you know. Back in the Colin McCrae days (Gp A) the race car wasn't far beyond the current STi road car IMHO.

Steve

 

Resorting to name calling

I have lots of positive things to say. I love my Scooby, hence why I am on a Subaru forum. I love rallying, hence my fascination with the cars and why I fully realise that my road car is a completely different beast to any competitive race car. My initial post, although dismissing the claim of a road going rally car, contained a (semi)humorous admission that I have attempted the same and came off almost as badly as the thread starter. If fact is negative then what we are debating must be contradictory to fact and thus bull****. I stand by all I've said and am glad I seem to have upset you

At least I'm an honest one

 

I think you'll find there was no such thing as WRC when the impreza came along. It is a rally car derivative. Go to any clubman event and look at the Gp.N entrys.

All you need is sump and diff guards, uprated suspension, tyres and the safety gubbins and you have a very respectable rally car.

You can buy a decently preped group N classic for about £15k that shares a lot of components with a std road car. There is more to rallying than WRC, and the impreza is the car to have if you want to set decent times in a 4wd car on a budget.