Through the SASC Winter Driving School I’ve had a chance to drive all sorts of cars, and as someone who is seldom content with what is in his own garage, I’m doing a lot of comparing. A couple people have questioned how I like my GDA WRX, so I’ll say now, “I like it a lot.” Even after driving GR STI’s and EVO X’s I am not at all disappointed with my lowly ten year old WRX.
That’s not to say that my car is as good, but for costing less than 1/6th of what a new GR or EVO X would cost, it comes awfully close to performing just as well out on the snow and ice. How can that be? The stiffer spring rates and wider, lower profile rubber on the new cars really doesn’t work as well as tall and soft when there is very limited traction. Neither does an extra 100hp help at all. The only trait that I really love about the STI’s and EVO X’s is the active center diffs and real LSD’s.
After experiencing how much they can aid drivability, I am browsing yahoo auctions hard looking for an affordable way to fit similar parts on to my car. So far it seems like a task that might be prohibitively expensive, even when GD STI’s are still $25,000.