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Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon
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Comments
- WRC cars have stock unibody structure, basic suspension design and engine block, cylinder heads, engine position, and outer body shape.
- minimum weight is 2700 lbs.
- 55% percent of weight on front wheels.
- a restrictor plate 0.2" thick with 1.4 inch hole sits between the airbox and turbo choking the flow. Cars are limited to 300HP but not dyno'ed meaning the teams are allowed to try to squeeze more than 300HP out of the engine (which is very difficult with the restrictor plate in place and the limitations of a 2.0L engine)
- stock pistons, rods and cams are swapped out
- anti-lag system keeps the 36 psi IHI turbo spinning when driver's foot is off the gas. It retards the ignition timing, dumps extra fuel into the cylinder and keeps the throttle partly open. There's always at least 14psi boost available.
- A racing catalylic convertor is required and that limits the amount of anti-lag used. Also, too much anti-lag is not desirable as it makes the car jumpy.
- oversized radiator is used, and water is injected into the intake manifold to cool the engine.
- every joint in the body sheel is seam welded and the safety cage is welded in. Body is now 4 times stiffer than stock. Takes 300 hours to prepare the body.
- springs, shocks and control arms are race specification. Suspension mounting points can be moved within a 1 inch sphere. Uprights are steel and hubs are titanium
- suspension travel is same as stock
- MacRae preferred manual steering and no ABS
- transmission is six speed box with straight cut gears.
- three differentials, front and center electronic, rear is limited slip. Front and center units use hydraulic pressure to control a clutch pack (driver can control the amount of lock using a knob)
- four piston vented discs used (14.4x1.3 and 12.0x1 rear), but sometimes swapped for six-piston liquid cooled units for more demanding road stages
- 8x18 magnesium wheels used for tarmac, and 7x16 used on gravel, 5.5x15 studded on snow. A single rally will go through 48 tires.
- replacement costs: new WRC engine costs $50,000. Right front suspension costs $10,000.00, 1 of the six gas discharge headlights cost $1500. New tranny $17,000.
- In the rain, C&D tested the car...0-60 in 4.1 seconds, 1/4 mile in 12.8 seconds. A wet skipad shows 0.85 g
- In the gravel with gravel tires, 0-60 in 4.6 seconds.
- fuel economy: 3 (three) MPG
So you can see how these WRC cars cost half a million dollars or more.
My comment: one thing that is noticeable on the new WRC cars is that they seem to have adopted a F1 style auto-manual. The clutch pedal is only used to launch the car. As long as the car is moving, their foot don't have to touch the pedal, the computer does all the rest.
Also, in the above post, the driver adjustable lock (by means of a knob) on the Electronically controlled hydraulic multi-plate clutch-pack, is achieved by varying the pitch of the torque sensing planetary gear of the center differential. The knob is able to vary the pitch of the planetary gear thus varying the torque splits front/back. The Auto-WRX on the other hand (which uses a system with a similar design) does not have the capability to manually adjust the pitch of the planetary gear, and has a fixed split that allows a steady 45/55 front/back split in power/torque in normal driving.
Later...AH
Indeed, Mark Lovell's car had a paddle shifter aft of the steering wheel, very neat. Karl Schieble's Group N car was basically a WRX with a roll cage.
-juice
It is interesting to see that the N class cars really aren't that much slower than the open class cars. Open class allows for faster stuff than WRC even, as the heavily modified Hyundai Tiburon they profiled was claimed to achieve 375hp (perhaps no restrictor or a bigger one?). That car needs a lot of mods, to go from 140hp FWD to 375hp AWD. They mentioned that the bigger teams, which I assume is Subaru, spend 5 times as much as Hyundai, which I can certainly believe.
It sounds like some of the i-clubbers could use those roll cages. Standard feature for 2003? ;-)
--RA
--RA
Stephen
-mike
-juice
As Warpdrive says, Subaru spends 10 times that much to prepare a WRC car (although it has a six-speed semi-auto,a limited slip diff on the front and maybe some other goodies we don't know about.)
To me, that's a indication of how good a value we're really getting in our stock WRX's (and the STi when it finally arrives.)
--RA
I personally feel that my WRX-Auto is comparable to my Acura 3.2TL on the highway (6.7Secs 0-60 with Automatic). A literal kamikaze. The 3.2TL should be way faster than your car. I would estimate that you drove a defective WRX-Auto car.
Later...AH
First fifteen people in the chat door get a free Swix Knitted Ski Hat from Subaru!
KarenS
Host
Owner's Clubs
an octane rating of 87 AKI or higher may be temporarily used.".
Phil
2x87=174
10x93=930
930+174=1104
1104/12=92
So, 92 octane. I think 91 is the minimum recommended and you'll be more than fine. Even with less the knock sensor would basically retard the timing and cost you maybe 5 horsepower or so.
-juice
Just came back from a five hour drive myself. Still grinning, must be a good sign!
-juice
-Frank P.
Other roads can be much more noisy. It's what car mags refer to as "feel of the road" and is supposed to be a good thing, as opposed to cars that insulate you too much from what is going on under the wheels.
I agree 100% that the WRX is not all that noisy, in fact really very pleasant for a high-performance car.
But I'm sure the folks that think so are the same folks that go to the aftermarket for more aggressive tire treads.
-juice
It's easier to get louder, much harder to make it more quiet.
-juice
TWRX
-mike
In fact, white is usually not a high-demand color, so you should be able to deal as much as any other color.
-juice
-juice
-Frank P.
-juice
Bob
-juice
Bob
-juice
Bob
-juice (not at all the color expert)