My WRX STI Experience, kinda long, possibly worth the read? Options

[bloodrain]

well, yesterday I was talking on the iwsti.com forum and there are a few people who live around my area with them. I finally got one of the guys to hang out with (his name is David, and hes mad cool) so we meet up at Target, talk about cars for about 30 mins and then 6 more sti's pull up. So they are all talking about turbo this, awd that, and they want to go driving. So I leave my car at Target and jump in the sexy blue and gold STI. While he is driving he tells me "hey reach under the seat and grab the bag for me," so without hesitation I start to reach and I hear a sound that is similar to a million bats excaping from hell, while im being flung back into the seat and just figuring out there is no bag under the seat I think to myself, man, I gotta get one of these. After hitting the seat with an ungodly force I hear "sorry, I do that to everyone" and I start laughing and call him an ass. Then he says "wanna give it a test drive" needless to say I was a bit nervous but somehow I manage to get out "sure why not." So we all pull over by TY park and we switch seats. Then I hear someone from the unholy shiny black STI infront of me "have you ever drove an STi before" I answer no. He then ask's if I ever drove an EVO, I answer "no," he then warns me "put your seat belt on and unleash the power how Thor into your hands to hang on." Im thinkin, 'ya, sure thing... psycho...' at this point I listen to him and put my seat belt on, look around for a bit and finally get a clear spot with no traffic. This is where the fun starts... As I put it into gear and start to ease off the clutch, I have a million things runnin through my mind and Im nervous as hell now. As im letting the clutch out I feel like it needs more gas so now im at about 2.2k rpms and the car starts to move forward. Im now rolling at about 5 mph and decide to let the clutch completly out, bad move. To keep the car from stalling I had to give it more gas, so now im at 3k rpms, and then... the turbo kicks in... the sound was all to familar as again I hear that sound of bats out of hell. A quick half second later I notice im redlining and quickly shift gears before David kicks my ass and I ruin his transmission. I shift into 2nd and am now cruising at a safe 2k rpms and notice the other STI guys are pretty far ahead of me again. So I give it some more gas and hit that magical 3.2k rpm's and feel the STI's best friend kick in again. So right before I hit 6k rpm I shift again and am now cruising at 30 mph in 3rd. I speed up again and am now in 4th just cruisin. Kick it up a bit, put it in 5th and notice the left turn arrow about 150 feet ahead of me turn yellow. Now I have a dilema, do I start my downshift into neutral and stop at the light, or downshift into 4th and gun it... Well, considering it wasnt my car, I decided to neutral it. David notices me getting on the brake and he says "GUN IT!!" a split second later im in 4th watching the tach climb higher and higher, as I start my turn I now realize why Mr.Black STI mentioned Thor earlier. So as a magical lightning bolt comes from the sky and runs through my body I grib the wheel like my hands were welded down to the steering wheel. While turning the corner I notice I dont hear much, no tires squeeling, no chirping, nothing. Just a spooling turbo, a screaming engine, and my pulse thumping inside my head. As I ease off the gas finishing the corner I upshift back into 5th, I felt like punching it and seeing what this bad boy could really do, but my instincts got the better of me and said no considering there was a fire station not to far ahead of me. So low and behold I let off the gas a bit and go past a nice looking crown victoria with a pig sitting inside of it. So as I hit the light on Sterling and 441 we do a chinese fire drill and im now back into the passenger seat. We all pull into McDonalds on Sheridan, talk for a while and then head back to target. After I thank him for letting me drive the ungodly car everyone leaves and Im walking to my car thinking 'man, I've GOT to get one...'

After this 'test drive' I've decided to get my celica painted and sold. So hopefully In about 4 months I will be driving a new '06 STI. Dont worry though I will still be lurking around the 6gc.net forums.

This post has been edited by bloodrain: Feb 23, 2006 - 4:40 PM

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

The reason the SRT-4 can't keep up has nothing to do with raw horsepower. The power it makes at the crank is almost identical to the EVO8.

Enlighten me please. 276 hp and 286 lb-ft. Evo8, and 230 hp and 250 ft-lb for the SRT-4. Those are the numbers I got from a 3min search. First sites I came too.
How does the srt-4 have the same hp as an Evo8? And then, how come they can't run with them if they do?

from a roll, the srt-4 wont be far behind stock for stock. Now $3000 worth of mods for the srt-4 and you can outrun an evo from a roll. He also said at the crank, the numbers u posted are at the wheels. Also the 2 cars have VERY different gearing and transmissions.

I don't doubt that the SRT-4 is fast. I bet with $3000 or a little more worth of mods, from what I hear, they could run with an Evo8. All you would need is a wide set of tires and the right suspension, and you could hold from the line. I just don't understand why the SRT-4 doesn't get any more attention. I do need to do a little more research on it. That's why I was asking though, I'd like to know more. And if both those numbers I posted were at the wheels, the Evo is still 46hp up on the SRT-4.