06 Nov 07
Brake for the hairpin, feel the tail edge out as I turn, wind off some steering and apply power. Now it feels like a proper STi, engagingly mobile at the tail but always catchable by accelerating to pull it straight again: the best attributes of front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive in one car. The steering is talking properly to me, both ends of the STi have come alive, I'm the one in control (I hope).
Drift through the esses, finally take the right-hander before the main straight in one sweep instead of two bites, feel a little slither of power oversteer at last. Yes, the STi is alive and well, despite its marketing masters' attempts to tame it and kill the golden goose.
I then go in search of bumps around the track's access roads, and find enough to reveal a ride quality rather more civilised than in STis past. The Brembo brakes are brilliant, of course, and the revised gearbox does shift more cleanly, even if there's still too much springiness in the action. But I'm still puzzled by Subaru's thinking.
The interior encapsulates the conundrum. The hard, abrasive plastics are bad enough in a base-model Impreza in this age of superminis with expensive, slush-moulded dashboards. But the fibrous flock of the headlining crowns the folly of the notion that the ambience is somehow compatible with a car costing £25,000 upwards. Those buyers Subaru hopes to entice away from German brands will not be impressed, which means Subaru is back to its original, loyal customer base, who will now have to accept that the cars don't have frameless door windows any more.
I can see what the company is trying to do - it needs to do it if it is to be anything more than a niche player - but the job is half-hearted. The really baffling part is that Subaru can make excellent interiors, as the Legacy shows with its surprising hints of Audi. Impreza loyalists will be wary of the new STi at first, but may grow to love it. And those who bought German cars before will do so again.
