Car Throttle

Subaru has a long and complicated performance history.  They've been making turbo Impreza's since 1992, and along the way there's been a dizzying array of ultra-high performance derivatives.  The standard higher-performance WRX - the STI - has had plenty of derivatives itself.  Clumps of letters and numbers: Type RA, Spec C, P1, RB5, 22B, Series McRae, Catalunya, Turbo Terzo, WR Sport, S202 - all designations that dedicated Subieheads worship.  Among the hottest have been the S20x cars, starting with the S201 on the old-school GC8 Impreza chassis back in 1999.  It featured a wild body kit, a larger turbo with more boost, and a then unheard-of 305bhp - back when Japanese manufacturers stuck to the "276bhp" gentleman's agreement. S202 through S204 were based on the

I've always liked Subaru's attitude towards performance measurements. While BMW and Audi will brag about their 0-60 metrics, or how many lateral G's of acceleration their cars can pull on a perfect skidpad, Subaru is all about their racing record.  And within a month, two different Subarus - driven by two brothers, no less - have both laid down new lap records on two of the toughest race courses on planet earth. I'm talking about the Isle of Man, and the Mount Washington Hill Climb.  The Isle of Man hosts a yearly motorcycle race that dates back to 1904, although the current course used for the race (the Mountain Course) has been in use since 1911.  This twisting, winding intricate piece of road spans almost 38

Sometimes it's hard to mask your disappointment. It'd been two years since I'd ventured from Raleigh up to College Park, Maryland for CPT (College Park Tuning's) Spring show, and I was damn excited.  The event in 2009 was large enough to fill two gigantic parking lots, and this year the event was to be moved to FedEx field in order to fit the massive amount of cars expected to turn out - easily in the thousands. With the event scheduled to start at noon on Sunday, I packed up and headed to the DC region Friday night - I've got friends and family in the DC region I haven't seen in a while; might as well kill a few birds with the same tank of

We are primarily a performance-oriented website here at CarThrottle. The amount of people interested enough in minivans to go on the web and read about them is pretty small, so performance cars it is.  What does get a little old after a while, though, is the constant one-upmanship of performance manufacturers with each other.  Look at Nissan and Porsche and their fight over Nurburgring lap times, which is about as relevant as comparing car's fuel injector rates as a measure of performance.  Or the whole Camaro vs Mustang V6 power wars - GM re-rated the Camaro's V6 after the Mustang got a new V6 so it would have 7 more horsepower.  Who cares about 7 horsepower?  Couldn't they have spent that money on making it

I will admit some personal bias on this topic. The previous-generation Subaru Forester was, in my estimation, the embodiment of the "do anything" mentality when it came to automobiles.  Especially in 2.5XT (Turbo) trim with a 5-speed, it hit pretty much all the bases.  It was fast (Car & Driver clocked one at 5.3 seconds to sixty, which was considerably faster than a V8 Cayenne S), had huge aftermarket support, it was fun on the road, decent off road, great in bad weather, and combined SUV utility with car-like handling.  It was a characterful, likeable vehicle.  So when Subaru replaced the old-style Forester with a new, bigger, softer one in 2008, I couldn't help but be disappointed. It was taller, heavier, slower, more boring to look

The Nurburgring track in Germany in one of the most famous and grueling tracks in the world. Now, it has become a test bed for handling on everything from the world's top supercars to SUV's and run of the mill sedans. We guess that is a good statement about the overall advancement of the auto industry. Maybe they can go on the track though, but how fast can they do it - that is an important question. In that area, Subaru is excited because they have set their highest time around the track since they started testing there in 1992. The 7 minutes, 55 seconds Subaru company record was set in the 2011 WRX STI, driven by World Rally Champion Tommi Mäkinen, who won the Championship four times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDCFUfMbQqM&feature=player_embedded

I'll readily admit, I've been waiting for this car to surface fully with baited breath for months. I mean, it combines two of my absolute favorite things in the automotive universe:  flat-four Subarus, and British tuning firm Cosworth, who can turn even a complete turd of a motor into something respectable.  If you need proof of this, remember:  The Cosworth 2.0L in the Sierra/Escort Cossie was based on a Pinto block, and the Cossie boys also made a screaming 16v all-aluminum version of Chevrolet's lamer-than-lame Vega motor. Now, perhaps the Cossie fellas are being a  bit ostentatious with their claims that this latest creation, the Impreza-based STI CS400, will humble supercars.  But when your Impreza hatchback is capable of a 3.7 second 0-100km/h time, maybe there's

For performance values in the small car segment, Subaru has been at the top of the list for enthusiasts. The WRX and WRX STI need no introduction in that regard. At the New York International Auto Show, Subaru announced that the sedan WRX STI will be returning for 2011, after a hiatus since 2004. To celebrate that, Subaru has made this new advertisement, in which it calls it the "fastest WRX STI ever." Its not the best video we've seen (we like real-life track ones) but we'll take it. Check it out below! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWHSrQJzj20&feature=player_embedded

When Subaru introduced the current generation of Impreza 3 years ago, one thing was missing: an STI sedan. Sure, you could get the fire-breathing STI in nifty (and arguably better-looking) five-door hatchback form, but it was a bit strange to not be able to get an STI sedan.  Subaru has finally seen fit to remedy this, and along with the updated Impreza/WRX lineup for 2011, you can now get your fire-breathing rally homologation special in four-door format. This is the first time that US consumers will be able to choose a body style for their STI since the model first went on sale here in 2004.  The 5-door will remain in production, but now there's a four door to chose from as well.  And being a four-door

Hands down, one of my favorite motorsports events has got to be the Texas Mile. In short, it's a balls-to-the-wall test of acceleration and top speed.  You've got a full damn mile to accelerate as hard as you can, and when you're done they give you a slip telling you how fast you crossed the traps at.  It's held in a small town in Texas called Goliad on a mostly-abandoned airstrip, and it's currently in it's seventh year of existance.  Initially only 35 crazies showed up to see how fast their cars could go; this year there were 220 participants with 40 on the waiting list.  Over 1000 runs were made down the air strip over the two-day event, and each of them was epic in