Sunday, July 06, 2008

Last of Subaru Impreza WRX STI saloons

Caught a glimpse of this hot machine in Damansara Jaya ...



Wikipedia has a good description of this particular GD chassis variant, which was produced from 2002-2007 ...
The Subaru Impreza WRX STI (formerly STi, officially changed in 2006) is the highest standard-edition trim in the Subaru Impreza compact car line, produced by Japanese automaker Subaru.
In the late 1980s, Subaru created the Subaru Tecnica International (STI) division to coordinate development for the FIA World Rally Championship and other motorsports activities. After the company had grown, the division was used to create high-performance consumer versions of the Subaru Impreza WRX, an all-wheel drive car with a turbocharged flat-4 engine, leading to the development of the Impreza WRX STi.
The Subaru World Rally Team has used a race-prepared version of the WRX STI as its rally platform since the model trim's creation.
In 2000, the Impreza line received a complete update. The chassis was stiffened so that it had 120% torsional stiffness increase.
The WRX STi gained 17" x 7.5" alloy wheels over the previous 16" x 7" wheels. The 5 speed semi-automatic transmission (reputed to be one of the car's weakpoints) was changed to an STi engineered 6 speed manual transmission. The engine was retained from the Version 6 STi and still retains the semi-closed deck block and is still labeled as the EJ207. However, the turbochargers are IHI models.
The interior was updated with a STi logo on the gauge. The STi's gauge also has a red shift light. The STi's and optioned Type RA STi have received Brembo 4 piston front and 2 piston rear brakes while the bare-bones Type RA STi still carried the Subaru 4 piston front and 2 piston rear brakes.
Externally, the STis had larger hoodscoops and had foglight covers with STi embossed on them. The DCCD was updated so it can work with anti-lock brakes. During braking, when the ABS is on, the DCCD will set itself to open-mode (no locking).
The version nomenclature was dropped from the name. Japanese and other auto-enthusiasts often refer to the chassis as GDB/GDF (the STi has a 'B' or 'F'(for USDM models) where as the regular WRX had an 'A'). The forth charter of the VIN gives the revision (A to F where G is the current (2007) version).

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