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Subaru Impreza Outback Sport & TS
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Comments
Stephen
don't forget that your rear diff is located really low to the ground! I wonder which part of the car does Subaru measures the ground clearance from.
-mike
The rear diffy is actually far higher than the front cross member. A good 3" higher, I mean. The entire rear of the vehicle is actually pretty clean, not much to get snagged. The front is much more of a concern.
Note that the Outback Sport now has 55 series tires, so that's why ground clearance is so much closer to the WRX now.
-juice
-juice
...at 6-7pm Pacific/9-10 pm Eastern. Hope to see you there!
http://www.edmunds.com/chat/subaruchat.html
On the news last night was a story about a guy who lives near here in a little redneck town, whose pigs got loose and must have bothered a neighbor, because he found all 5 of them shot dead and dumped by his front gate. He was devastated that anyone would do this and wanted to find out who it was. However, there was a happy ending. The pigs were donated to the Sheriff's Dept. for an upcoming weekend barbecue!
The pigs get the pork, the pigs get the pork, hi ho the derry-o, the pigs get the pork. LOL!!
Lowered Foresters look odd to me. Then again, people lower all sorts of stuff. How low can you go?
Check out Beaterz.com, it's hilarious. They have an entire section of low riders.
-juice
Stephen
Around my area, the lowered vehicles I've seen are almost entirely for show. I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way. To each their own. Yesterday, I saw some guy tooling around in a radically lowered Jeep Wrangler with 18" wheels. It looked ridiculous....to me....but he probably thought he looked cool.
While I've seen plenty of lowered Hondas and other imports, I've not really noticed many lowered Subarus. There's a street racing crowd that's really into performance, and lowering is just one of tools they employ.
Occasionally I see a well done example of a nicely lowered vehicle. And some of the "low riders" I've seen demonstrate an incredible degree of workmanship and pride of ownership. But more often, the lowered vehicles I've come across are radically lowered, with (usually) cheesy looking 18" wheels, dumb, oversized wings on the back, "Folgers" exhaust cans, and phony "performance" badges, all topped off with their drivers riding in the "gang-banger" super-reclined driving position with their heads just visible above the door sills and their super audio systems a-blasting away. How these guys feel they look cool is beyond a 47 year old geezer like me. But they' re just trying to assert their individuality, I suppose. We all wanted to do that at their age. And many of us still do.
Sometimes, I think to myself, man, if these guys could a see picture of themselves in their "cool rides" 10 or 20 years from now, they'd probably laugh and say, "What the hell was I thinking"? I'd probably feel the same way if I could see some old pictures of me in some of my youthful exploits!
Those extreme low-riders don't make much sense to
this 29 year old either!
The thing that concerns me is the rigidity of the chassis after a lowering. Most of those low-riders described above have super stiff springs, which make for one heck of a hard ride. Ever see those things go over a bump? Can't imagine that does any good to the frame, let alone the comfort of the ride. But, then again, that's not why they lower them...
-Brian
The long-travel suspension is a philosophy shared with Mercedes-Benz, by the way.
-juice
-mike
-juice
My driveway is pretty steep, so even our stock Miata will occasionally scrape if I'm not going slowly or at an angle.
-juice
Suspension system is very complex. We all know that. Shocks and springs are the main components but you can;t just get a 1.5" lowerring spring to solve all ur handling issues as seen by alot of ghetto cars. if u don't couple it with a good set of shocks, u'll get an underdamped car. so u will bounce up and down like a yo yo. Sadly ppl don't care these days and it;s more of alook that go. Besides lowering springs are cheaper than shocks. So first to go are springs. Most springs are beyond the sec of a factory shock can handle.
I really am not sure if it's a good idea to lower a Subaru too much. They are after all designed with Rally performance in mind thus I'm sure the geometrical setup of the car is for that ride height. Dejecting from that height too much, might cause perhaps performance loss too! I dunno. CG is not everything.
Generally, people with 2" taller springs are OK. Adding a 2" lift kit, for a total of 4" lift, causes tranny teething problems.
I'm sure it also greatly affects the steering and ride & handling. So there is a little "slop" built in, but not much.
Dave: I don't think the RE92s are very good in snow. My wife's 626 had them, and the torque made the wheels spin pretty easily. If you really hit the slopes, I'd get dedicated snow tires. You could put those on your 16" standard rims, and get a nice 17" set with summer treads.
-juice
-juice
-mike
-juice
My guess is they offer a good "balance" between performance and day-in-and-day-out driving, which includes snow, bad roads, reasonable tread life, etc.
Bob
There are always going to be some compromises. Tread life is a big one.
-juice
-mike
I found the 5 speed no quicker than my Forester, but certainly not slow. And it was quieter and more refined.
But yes, the WRX will make anything seem slow.
-juice
I thin kthe re92s are great! for creating powerslides cus their traction is so low that it is easy to do burn outs in the rain with them!
-juice
It was a cool maneuver to pull off, although not one I was really planning. I'm glad I didn't have a FWD car, cause I would've plowed into the curb, although I probably wouldn't have tried going that fast around a bumpy turn in the rain.
Luke
Most RWD would just spin out. I did a 180 in my Miata the other day, it was wild. My fault - I lifted off the throttle in a wet turn. It's so sudden you're facing oncoming traffic before you even realize you made a mistake! :oO
-juice
In 4 years I have never managed to slide in the rain, and I've tried hard. Only if I hit an oily spot or a man-hole cover. It's either the good OEM BF Goodrich tires, the lack of hp (137) or both.
I was talking with the owner of my dealership one day and he told me someone traded a 300ZX for a WRX. He went to take it for a carwash and it had just started to rain. He hit the highway and immediately did a 180. Ahh, the Beauty of All Wheel Drive.
Dennis
Anyways keep it slideways! But keep it safe!
My wife has a 626, same V6 as that MX-6, and it too had the RE92s. We swapped to BFG Comp T/As and they are much better in the rain. Still not very good in the snow, too much torque going to an open differential.
While the wife was pregnant, she'd always take our Subie.
-juice
Pros:
-was generally much more refined than I had been expecting for the entry level model, build quality seemed quite solid
-very little wind noise, even at highway speeds (maybe because they don't have the roof rack). At idle the car is practically silent.
-supportive and comfortable front seats
-headlights that provided a generous amount of illumination
-smooth suspension, even on rough roads
Cons:
-I'm not sure why they call this the "Sport" Wagon because I found nothing sporty about it at all. It was slow "off the line" but this may have been a result of the auto transmission. Also the turning circle is too wide, and there was a lot of body roll in sharp turns.
-placement of one of the cupholders is really illogical (blocks the air vent and water can leak down onto the shifter)
-sun visors are probably the worst quality I've seen.
-the car turned out to be pricey with the options they chose
Overall, I really enjoyed driving this car, and I found it hard to go back to my Escort afterwards! But I wouldn't buy this car for myself because it just wasn't exciting enough. By comparison, the Mazda Protege5 I recenlty test drove performed much more like a sports car, but the ride was noisier, and the interior was sort of juvenile.
I guess I'm looking for something in between, maybe if the OBS is a bit more peppier it might be the right car for me. If not then I will consider the RS and the Forester. I would like to how the OBS owners out there think the TS compares?
-mike
Bob
-mike
I do agree with the "placebo effect" though.
Bob
-mike
Stephen
The TS model debuted in the USA for MY '02.
Bob