The Subaru Targa STI and production WRX STI go head-to-head at Mosport
With their turbocharged ‘boxer’ engines, all-wheel drive system, tough bodies and solid reliability, Subaru’s WRX and STI models have long been favourites of driving enthusiasts and rally competitors of all persuasions. These and the many special variants produced by the auto-making branch of Fuji Heavy Industries have also literally become cult cars in Japan and Europe, in good part through Subaru’s long, serious and successful involvement in the World Rally Championship.
Long time coming
The first WRX models were launched in Japan in 1992, but North American performance enthusiasts had to wait ten agonizing years before the WRX was introduced on this continent. The high-horsepower STI version, with its huge rear wing and hood scoop, came in 2004 and the hot Subies’ popularity has kept growing since. High-profile drivers such as Travis Pastrana and Ken Block have drawn huge attention to the Subaru rockets in rally competition or at the X Games. DC Shoes founder Block has also literally achieved star status on the Web with his wild Gymkhana videos. Not to mention the influence on the younger crowd of racing simulations such as Gran Turismo, where WRX and STI are fixtures.
In Canada, Subaru is defending its national rally title in Canada with Pat Richard at the wheel and Alan Ockwell in the co-driver’s seat. But the Japanese manufacturer has also had another goal for the past seven years: to become the first manufacturer to win overall in the Targa Newfoundland performance rally with a Modern car. Subaru has had its share of class wins but the top spot has always gone to a Classic car (built before 1981). The closest yet was a third-place overall finish of Keith Townsend, at the wheel of his own virtually-stock STI, with Jen Horsey as his co-driver. The pair came within only 12 seconds of the overall win after five days of competition.
A very special STI from birth
This year, Subaru Canada entered a race-ready WRX STI prepared by Stewart Hoo’s team at Can-Jam Motorsports in the eight annual edition of Targa Newfoundland. I was driving this car in my third consecutive pilgrimage to the Rock with Keith Townsend as my original co-driver. Keith and I spent weeks preparing and synching up for the event, including long drives in Newfoundland to identify and analyze the rally’s major difficulties.
The new-generation WRX STI we are competing in finished 5th overall in last year’s Targa. It was originally built by Canadian rally champ Pat Richard for his own use. This meant stripping out the production STI’s interior trim to install a full safety cage and a fuel cell but also pulling out most accessories and even ABS which is of no use in a gravel rally. The decision was then made to enter the car at Targa Newfoundland, an event that runs over some 2,200 km of paved roads, with the occasional patch of sand or gravel. The Targa STI nevertheless did well in Targa, in spite of some issues with its brakes and suspension.
Stewart Hoo and his team at Can-Jam Motorsports have made several upgrades and modifications to better adapt the car to the rigours of Targa and optimize its performance, handling and reliability. To assess these changes and since the STI is so radically different from the car I drove previously in Newfoundland, a test session was a must. I also took advantage of our track time on the 2.4-km Driver Development Track at Mosport to properly measure the handling and performance gains from a strictly-stock STI to our Targa car by comparing it with a stone-stock 2009 WRX STI.
Big muscle from a stock turbo
In production form, the STI’s engine puts out 305 hp at 6,000 rpm and 290 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. Stewart Hoo estimates the Targa car’s output at around 450 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque. These are projections from the 344 ‘brake horsepower’ measured at the wheels during a dynamometer test conducted prior to our test day. Vital components such as forged pistons, an aluminum radiator and a larger oil cooler were installed to handle the extra power reliably.
On the track, the chest-flattening torque and thrust of the Targa STI’s engine, combined with its virtual lack of turbo lag, are impressive. Even when not using the ‘anti-lag’ feature it inherited from its genesis and original calling as a pure rally car. In acceleration runs, the muscled-up STI sprinted to 100 km/h from a standing start in merely 3.98 seconds, as measured with a GPS-based Vbox Mini unit. In the same test, the production STI reached 100 km/h in 5.50 seconds. Stewart Hoo later confided that I was only able to use about 80 to 85 per cent of the throttle during our testing day. The linkage needed additional work after some of the changes that had been made to the racing pedal cluster.
So the Targa STI definitely has the grunt but it also displays the tight, laser-sharp handling response of a race car with few of the typical idiosyncrasies of such machines. In spite of having almost the same ride height as the production car, it feels low and squat on the track. It also corners flatter, with excellent overall grip, even if the Toyo Proxes RA1 tires we will use at Targa, in size 235/45 R17, are actually narrower and taller than the 245/40 R18 rubber on the production STI. Rough Newfoundland roads and the occasional crater require this to avoid broken wheels and punctured tires.
The ultimate measure
Laps around a track are the ultimate test of a car’s handling, performance and braking, not to mention its balance and predictability. I drove two separate, 10-lap sessions with each car. My best lap in the stock STI was 59.48 seconds, which compares well with the larger, heavier but nonetheless Targa-ready and quick Lexus GS 450h I drove there a year prior, in identical conditions, with a best lap time of 60.61 seconds. By comparison, my best clocking in the Targa STI was 56.42 seconds, three full seconds quicker than its tamer sibling, a substantial gain on this short race track.
The production STI was easy to drive quickly and predictable on Mosport’s DDT. The only limiting factor was brake endurance. Towards the end of a second session of ten laps, the brake pedal had gotten very long and soft, the result of overheated pads. After the car had cooled off, it was back to normal.
Brake endurance was never an issue with the Targa car which I drove for close to a hundred laps that day, counting all sessions. In fact, it ran all day with the same set of carbon-ceramic Performance Friction brake pads that were used for the entire run at Targa last year. The callipers themselves are the same Brembo units you get on the regular STI. The team has nevertheless upgraded the Targa STI’s braking system to full-floating rotors after our testing day, with the high-speed nature of some Targa Newfoundland 2009’s forty-five special stages in mind.
The current production STI was impressively smooth and un-temperamental on Mosport’s Driver Development Track. I must admit that I still miss the tight, edgy and nervous responses of the older car. The new one is definitely aimed at a wider audience.
Race horse temper
The Targa STI, on the other hand, has loads of character and sharp responses, much like a thoroughbred race horse. Its modified suspension has solid metal or hard plastic bushings, which make the car much more sensitive to adjustments and changes. The car’s ferocious acceleration and its highly deceptive speed, combined with my unfamiliarity with its responses on the bumpy, undulating roads we encounter at Targa Newfoundland, caught me out during the very first special Prologue stage of the event.
The car hopped out of a dip at the apex of a high-speed corner, slid out and hit a low-standing wall with a glancing blow. My co-driver Keith Townsend woke up the next morning with stabbing pain in the chest caused by cracked ribs. I had a badly sprained left thumb and felt sore, but I would be able to drive the car for the official start of the competition on Monday. The team’s chief mechanic Stewart Hoo would jump into the right-side racing seat and be a co-driver for the very first time after fixing the STI through the night with team mechanics Lewis Myers, Nick Searancke and Andrew Sorensen.
The age-old motto of rally is ‘press on regardless’ and that’s just what the Subaru Targa Rally Team did for the five competition days that followed. With a few more miracles by Stewart, we finished 12th in the overall standings and were the co-winners of the Churchill Trophy for the best three teams from the same country, the Targa’s equivalent of a Nation’s Cup.
You can read all about our week at Targa Newfoundland and see full results by clicking here.
That said, our STI did not become the first Modern car ever to win overall at Targa Newfoundland, but neither did Steve Millen and Mike Monticello’s superb, 620-horsepower Nissan GT-R. They won the Modern division, aced most of the special stages and still finished 6th overall.
Yet, I still believe that Subaru should consider a special Targa version of the STI that would use some of Stewart’s performance and handling tricks. This time, I’m sure the testing would include abundant sessions over the twisty and bumpy asphalt one can find coast-to-coast, on Canadian roads. Solid, quick and capable, the all-wheel drive STI is a performance car for the real world. The sharper it is, the better.
