IN THIS FEATURE Look under the skin Yaw control - yee-haw Quality upgrade

The latest STi also gains, as standard, Subaru's driver's control centre differential (DCCD). This hugely amusing device allows the driver to alter the four-wheel drive system's torque split front to rear. Subaru describes the benefit as 'allowing the driver to have a sharper cornering turn in', which in polite-speak means you can shove a load more torque to the back wheels and have yourself a little hooligan fun with leery oversteer. The system also incorporates programs to control unwanted yaw, which is the initial stage of what is more commonly known as a crash.

Turbocharged boxer engine still sounds the business

We drove the STi during torrential downpours, a good way to come to grips with the genius that lurks under the skin of the Scooby. Saying that the STi doesn't care whether it's wet or not might be going a tad far, but I can tell you that the car's ability to cover ground at a huge rate of knots isn't significantly dampened by buckets of rain. The other thing about the vast amount of software calculation and minute adjustment of a brake here and a throttle there is that it is virtually undetectable by the driver. Turn in a bit late and that understeer miraculously reverts to sharper turn-in, and then you get a glorious slingshot effect as you exit the corner under power. There might even be a whiff of oversteer, which somehow never gets the car too far out of shape. The steering is ultra-reliable in feeding back crucial information about the road surface, and is lightning quick when you need to change direction in a hurry. And true to the promise, kick-back through the wheel is a very rare occurrence.

In effect, the STi makes a hero out of whoever happens to be behind the wheel. The gearshift is fabulously direct and mechanical and the engine delivers a classical boxer riff, with a bit of shrieking gear-whine thrown in for good measure. Left in 'auto', the centre differential decides which end of the car needs more torque, and you just get on with the whole Colin McRae fantasy.