#subaru technica international

[hockeymilf]

STI Version 1

[jdmcarotaku]

1993年5月 インプレッサWRX STI スポーツパーツ

[goldeneramotoring]

OEM+

Canon AE-1 Program

50mm F1.8

Kodak Gold 200

[notfastus]

Shot | Adam Spilker (@adam_spilker) // notfastus.com

[marcopolotokes]

@Subiefest great car culture. Good festival to go to. Met rally driver chris Atkinson, and Scott speed.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

What a difference 24 years makes Alternating views of Subaru Impreza WRX STi, 1994 and Subaru WRX STI, 2018MY. The  Subaru Technica International version of the WRX was first introduced for the Japanese market in February 1994, this week the latest version (the 5th generation model with minor styling tweaks and an all-electronic Driver Controlled Centre Differential all-wheel drive system) was revealed

[fameone]

Subaru Technica International - Japan

Japan Motor Festival 2017

Odaiba, Tokyo

[hockeymilf]

[jdmcarotaku]

2000年 スバル インプレッサ S201 STIバージョン

[tvfktunc-blog]

ABD’de düzenlenen Detroit Otomobil Fuarı’nın en dikkat çekici katılımcılarından biri Subaru oldu. Japon üretici fuarda WRX STI modeli baz alınarak geliştirilen S209 adlı özel bir versiyonla katıldı. ABD pazarına giriş yapan ilk “S” modeli olma özelliği taşıyan Subaru STI S209’un buradaki satışı 200 adetle sınırlı olacak. Subaru Technica International (STI) ekibi, heyecan verici bir model ortaya çıkarmak için standart WRX STI modelinin motor, şasi ve gövde parçaları …

[savetopnow]

2018-04-05 03 TECH now

TECH

Ars Techica

Intel drops plans to develop Spectre microcode for ancient chips

Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress next week

Valve says it’s “still working hard” on Linux gaming [Updated]

Future iPhones could have curved screens, respond to a wave of your finger

SpaceX reaches the promised land of launching every two weeks

Buzzfeed Tech

This Country Said It Would Punish Journalists For Writing Fake News But Changed Its Mind

Grindr Is Letting Other Companies See User HIV Status And Location Data

Chick-Fil-A Will Soon Be Bigger Than Taco Bell, Burger King, And Wendy's

Sen. Ed Markey Says "Congress Must Act" When Facebook Fails To Maintain Safety On Its Platform

Apple Just Released A New iPhone Battery Health Feature

CNet

Ford Escape biffs IIHS crash test as airbag fails to deploy - Roadshow

YouTube HQ shooting: Here's everything we know - CNET

YouTube shooter's motive? She was 'upset' at YouTube policies - CNET

New Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 are on the way - Roadshow

What is gamma and HDR EOTF on TVs, and why should you care? - CNET

Clean Technica

French Utility Company EDF Plans Energy Storage Push

Denmark’s Largest Space Project, The ASIM Climate Observatory, Has Arrived At The International Space Station

Electric Cars = 37% of New Car Sales in Norway in March

Electric, Gas, Diesel & Hybrid: Life Cycle Assessment Of Passenger Cars — New ADAC Report

China Partners With World Green Building Council

Hacker News

The Strange Online Aesthetic of the YouTube Shooting Suspect

OpenSimpleLidar

Show HN: A React drag&drop library you might be looking for

In Defense of CryptoKitties

Tovala (Smart Oven YC W16) Looking for First PM in Chicago

Mashable

I found the commune from 'Wild Wild Country' on Google Earth, and it looks startlingly different today

Boyfriend pranks girlfriend for April Fools' Day by cloning himself in their security footage

Software used to study stars is helping protect the rarest and most endangered animals on Earth

Japan now has a Pokémon governor and it's not who you'd think

How a viral tweet sent a 41-year-old Fleetwood Mac song back up the charts

Motherboard

Indonesia Calls State of Emergency After Giant Oil Spill Catches Fire

Around 10,000 Black Holes Are at the Center of the Galaxy, Study Says

This Dad Made His Kids Manually Generate Electricity to Power Their Wii

This Interactive Tool Lets People See How Climate Change Will Screw Up Their Towns

This Video Shows How 'Far Cry 2' Is Better Than 'Far Cry 5'

New York Times Technology

Executive Who Sold Self-Driving Truck Start-Up to Uber Departs

A Quick Online Divorce for $60? Not So Fast, Denmark Says

YouTube Policies Led Woman to Target Its Offices in Shooting, Police Say

Mark Zuckerberg to Testify to Congress on Facebook’s Handling of Data Next Week

Google Workers Urge C.E.O. to Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project

Recode

Facebook rewrote its terms of service and data policies to better explain what data it is collecting about you

Spotify’s Daniel Ek is now worth about $2.3 billion

Recode Daily: The YouTube HQ shooter was apparently upset about YouTube’s new rules

Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel is coming to Code

Mark Zuckerberg will testify before a U.S. House committee on April 11

Reddit Technology

Congress Is Trying to Stop Ajit Pai from Taking Broadband Assistance Away from the Poor: "The Lifeline program provides subsidized communications services to low-income Americans, many of whom rely on it as their only way to access the internet."

Three Congressmen Who Could Question Zuckerberg Hold Shares In Facebook

Leading AI researchers boycott Korean university over its work on “killer robots”

Google has reached its 100% renewable energy purchase goal - Google says purchase of wind and solar energy exceeded the amount of electricity used by its vast tapestry of offices and data centres worldwide in 2017.

Facebook to exclude US users from some privacy enhancements

Reuters Technology

Facebook to revise terms of service to include more privacy language

Deutsche Post to move electric van StreetScooter into new unit

Apple working on iPhones with touchless control, curved screen: Bloomberg

Facebook's Zuckerberg to testify before U.S. House panel April 11

Consumer tech gets reprieve as U.S., China spar over tariffs

Slashdot

Google Workers Urge CEO To Pull Out of Pentagon AI Project

Valve Re-affirms Commitment To SteamOS and Linux After Hiding Steam Machines from Store

Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

Outgoing White House Emails Not Protected by Verification System

Apple Working on Touchless Control and Curved iPhone Screen

TechCrunch

Police say shooter’s anger over YouTube policies “appears to be the motive”

Burst breaks you out of your filter bubble on Reddit

Millennials could be the answer to government malaise

April Underwood is now Slack’s chief product officer

Facebook rewrites Terms of Service, clarifying device data collection

The Next Web

BlackBerry’s going after Snapchat now. Who’s next?

‘Buy the Dip’ is a comedy sketch that will crack up every cryptocurrency fan

Apps are getting dumber — and that’s a good thing

Screw it, AI can have our jobs

Russia says ‘nyet’ to free exchange of cryptocurrencies

The Verge

Google now purchases more renewable energy than it consumes as a company

Pokémon Go will reward players for picking up trash on Earth Day

Intel says it won’t patch older chips for Spectre

Blue My Mind explores a young girl’s coming-of-age as a monstrous fish

This tough, $700 phone is meant for first responders, but you can buy it if you want

WSJ Tech

Virtual Reality, Now With the Sense of Touch

Police Scrutinize YouTube Shooter's Social Media for Motive

Facial Recognition Could Move Beyond Mug Shots

Zuckerberg to Testify Before House Committee

China Threatens U.S. Cars, Planes and Soy in Response to Trump

Wired

The Politics of ‘Black Panther’ Are What Make It Great

You Know, for Kids

The Life Issue

‘The Sky Is Yours’ Combines Dragons and YouTube

The Uber Crash

[autoring]

Co se vám jako první vybaví, když se řekne STI? Předpokládáme, že Subaru, konkrétně asi WRX STI. Smutné ale je, že s tímhle autem jsme se už před časem museli v Evropě rozloučit. Těžko říct, jestli japonská automobilka někdy ještě do světa vypustí jeho plnohodnotnou náhradu, ale vzhledem k tomu, že se její směrování ubírá k elektrifikaci, a předpisy ohledně emisí jsou stále přísnější, obáváme se, že nikoliv.

Subaru WRX STI tu už s námi sice není – a my jsme rádi, že jsme se za jeho volant několikrát posadili – ale přesto si část STI můžete koupit. Divize Subaru Technica International totiž představila zbrusu nové řidičské hodinky.

Óda na radost aneb poslední rozloučení se Subaru WRX STI (2018)

Ale pozor, jde o limitovanou edici, takže si musíte pospíšit. Pro celý svět Subaru připravilo 300 kusů, v Česku jich půjde do prodeje jen 15. Hodinky mají mechanicko-automatický strojek s ručním vinutím, vyrobeny jsou z titanu a mají safírové sklo s antireflexní povrchovou úpravou. Samozřejmě jsou vodotěsné, konkrétně do 50 metrů a jejich hmotnost je jen 135 gramů. Pomyslnou třešničkou na dortu je logo STI, bez něj by to ani nešlo.

Za hodinky zaplatíte 22 020 Kč. Koupit je můžete zde.

Příspěvek Chcete si udělat čistokrevnou Subaru radost? Do Česka míří unikátní edice hodinek STI pochází z auto-mania.cz

[notfastus]

Shot | Adam Spilker (@adam_spilker) // notfastus.com

[jonathanbelloblog]

We Drive the Wicked WRX STI S209 as Subaru Celebrates 30 Years of STI

Very few brands can claim to be synonymous with the field in which they excel. For a generation of fans, though, the World Rally Championship (WRC) was synonymous with Subaru Technica International, better known as STI. In the first year after its establishment on April 2, 1988, Subaru’s motorsports division broke the 100,000-km average-speed record with a special Legacy Turbo, averaging 138 mph in the course of 20 days. It then went on to win three WRC championships in the 1990s, notch five Nürburgring 24 Hour SP3T-class victories in the 2000s, and remain a competitor in Japan’s Super GT series for more than a decade.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary—it was really the 31st, but the Japanese fiscal year starts in April so we’ll forgive them—STI held a Motorsports Day at Fuji Speedway and we were there. The event was a way for STI to share the milestone with fans and to thank them for their support, and also to announce plans, vehicle updates, and the driver lineup for the upcoming racing calendar to partners, sponsors, and media.

STI doesn’t normally hold a Motorsports Day, instead leaving them to the likes of Toyota Gazoo, NISMO, Mazda, and Honda. But STI fans were clearly hungry for such an event, and they came I droves, with around 3000 loyalists in attendance. Fuji Speedway’s various parking lots were packed with Subarus; from higher vantage points it was like looking down at an ocean of World Rally Blue, with most of the cars being lightly modified in some way.

The S209 Is Special

STI had a special treat at the Fuji Short Track, where we had a chance to try out some JDM-only models such as the STI S208, Levorg STI Sport, and BRZ STI Sport, plus get a quick drive in a prototype of the new, U.S.-only STI S209. We’d get a few laps in each car around the half-mile circuit.

Before going out on our own, however, we got a ride with Toshihiro ‘Toshi’ Arai in the S209 to get familiar with the track and to see how this car could perform with a pro behind the wheel. Arai-san is a proper WRC driver, having raced for Subaru in the Group N World Rally Championship from 1997–2000 and again in 2002–2003. In an instant I was hanging on for dear life as he pushed the S209 around corners in a way that surely violated the laws of physics somehow. The car just gripped and gripped, and then gripped some more—just as I’d assume the car was about to lose its connection to the tarmac, it somehow found a way to bite down even harder. Then we’d blast out of a corner and rocket on to the next one. It was exhilarating.

Just after, I was the first to drive the camouflaged S209, and while I don’t know how many more times I can use the word “grip,” but that’s the keyword here. The wider tires (265/35 versus 245/35 on the standard STI) are specially developed by Dunlop for the S209, and they clawed the track with a tenacity rare in Subarus driven on pavement. There was a lot of talk about how confidence-inspiring the S209 is before we drove it, and that’s certainly the case. Bolstering the car’s approachable nature is a clever flexible strut-tower brace with a spherical joint in the middle to help the tires maintain maximum possible contact with the road.

This absolute beast of a car was also my first opportunity to sample the 2.5-liter EJ25 engine used in U.S.-market STIs, as Japanese versions only get the 2.0-liter EJ20. Given its America-exclusive status, the S209 is very much a development of the U.S. STI than one of the JDM car. Masuo Takatsu, chief engineer at STI, said “the larger engine was better suited for American tastes,” and with 341 horsepower—31 more than the regular car—the S209 is the most powerful street model to wear an STI badge. The first S-series STI to cross the Pacific, it’s a more compliant yet more capable weapon than the rawer S208 shown here in white. Just 200 units planned, and like everyone else in Japan I’m already very, very jealous.

Driving the JDM Models

It was almost cruel to go from the S209 and into the less powerful BRZ STI Sport. It’s more or less the same car as the BRZ tS you get in North America but with chassis bracing and a smaller rear wing, because Americans love big, flashy aero, apparently. After all these years the BRZ still proves to be fun, though, and while it doesn’t have the same level of roadholding and confidence as its all-wheel-drive siblings, it was still a very controllable and manageable car to steer around the tight and technical Fuji Short Course.

The Levorg STI Sport came last, and it’s worthwhile to note that—like the BRZ ST Sport—it isn’t a full-fat STI product. The STI Sport cars are all developed by the Subaru mothership with a few STI add-ons. In this way, they’re analogous to AMG’s 43 and 53 models as a sort of stepping stone between regular workaday models and their higher-performing halos. The Levorg STI Sport comes dressed with STI goodies such as a front spoiler, RAYS wheels, and STI-tuned adjustable Bilstein dampers. It’s also only available with CVT.

But essentially, it’s a WRX wagon. It has the same FA20F engine as the U.S.-spec WRX but upped to 300 horsepower. It’s a very competent car, and you can really turn into corners aggressively and hammer on the throttle coming out of them without too much fuss or drama as the car sorts out your vector. It deals with sudden changes in direction well, too, impressively managing the transfer of mass. Of course, with a CVT it’s never going to be as exciting as it would be with a manual. At the moment the Levorg is only sold in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and a few European markets. There are no plans to bring it Stateside, even though it would be a compelling offering with few natural competitors outside of perhaps the VW Golf SportWagen, which offers no performance variant here.

WRC Car, Ahoy!

Of course, an STI Motorsports Day wouldn’t be complete without the appearance of a WRC car, and Subaru organized rides in an Impreza WRC 98 car from the Rally of San Marino. With the names Colin McRae and Nicky Grist plastered on its sides, this was a proper pinch-myself moment. What made it even better was we would be driven by Arai-san.

It’s an understatement to say the first generation of the Impreza defined Subaru in terms of WRC. These were the cars that gave Subaru its three manufacturer’s WRC wins in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Growing up in New Zealand, where Subaru dominated rally stages in the late ’90s, Subaru and WRC was cooler and more iconic to me than Ferrari and Formula 1. To many, including myself, the Impreza WRC is the Subaru and the WRC car, and I was about to have a ride in one with an actual factory driver behind the wheel. As this was all in fun, the grip thing went out the door and Arai-san slid the car around the track as if it her were back on a rally stage. It was visceral, it was very cool, and it left a lasting impression.

And that’s the core of STI. The performance and racing arm seeks to both deliver fun to owners and foster a connection to its machines even in those simply watching them compete. That it has largely succeeded over its three decades in existence was made clear during every moment I spent behind a steering wheel or in a passenger seat.

[jesusvasser]

We Drive the Wicked WRX STI S209 as Subaru Celebrates 30 Years of STI

Very few brands can claim to be synonymous with the field in which they excel. For a generation of fans, though, the World Rally Championship (WRC) was synonymous with Subaru Technica International, better known as STI. In the first year after its establishment on April 2, 1988, Subaru’s motorsports division broke the 100,000-km average-speed record with a special Legacy Turbo, averaging 138 mph in the course of 20 days. It then went on to win three WRC championships in the 1990s, notch five Nürburgring 24 Hour SP3T-class victories in the 2000s, and remain a competitor in Japan’s Super GT series for more than a decade.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary—it was really the 31st, but the Japanese fiscal year starts in April so we’ll forgive them—STI held a Motorsports Day at Fuji Speedway and we were there. The event was a way for STI to share the milestone with fans and to thank them for their support, and also to announce plans, vehicle updates, and the driver lineup for the upcoming racing calendar to partners, sponsors, and media.

STI doesn’t normally hold a Motorsports Day, instead leaving them to the likes of Toyota Gazoo, NISMO, Mazda, and Honda. But STI fans were clearly hungry for such an event, and they came I droves, with around 3000 loyalists in attendance. Fuji Speedway’s various parking lots were packed with Subarus; from higher vantage points it was like looking down at an ocean of World Rally Blue, with most of the cars being lightly modified in some way.

The S209 Is Special

STI had a special treat at the Fuji Short Track, where we had a chance to try out some JDM-only models such as the STI S208, Levorg STI Sport, and BRZ STI Sport, plus get a quick drive in a prototype of the new, U.S.-only STI S209. We’d get a few laps in each car around the half-mile circuit.

Before going out on our own, however, we got a ride with Toshihiro ‘Toshi’ Arai in the S209 to get familiar with the track and to see how this car could perform with a pro behind the wheel. Arai-san is a proper WRC driver, having raced for Subaru in the Group N World Rally Championship from 1997–2000 and again in 2002–2003. In an instant I was hanging on for dear life as he pushed the S209 around corners in a way that surely violated the laws of physics somehow. The car just gripped and gripped, and then gripped some more—just as I’d assume the car was about to lose its connection to the tarmac, it somehow found a way to bite down even harder. Then we’d blast out of a corner and rocket on to the next one. It was exhilarating.

Just after, I was the first to drive the camouflaged S209, and while I don’t know how many more times I can use the word “grip,” but that’s the keyword here. The wider tires (265/35 versus 245/35 on the standard STI) are specially developed by Dunlop for the S209, and they clawed the track with a tenacity rare in Subarus driven on pavement. There was a lot of talk about how confidence-inspiring the S209 is before we drove it, and that’s certainly the case. Bolstering the car’s approachable nature is a clever flexible strut-tower brace with a spherical joint in the middle to help the tires maintain maximum possible contact with the road.

This absolute beast of a car was also my first opportunity to sample the 2.5-liter EJ25 engine used in U.S.-market STIs, as Japanese versions only get the 2.0-liter EJ20. Given its America-exclusive status, the S209 is very much a development of the U.S. STI than one of the JDM car. Masuo Takatsu, chief engineer at STI, said “the larger engine was better suited for American tastes,” and with 341 horsepower—31 more than the regular car—the S209 is the most powerful street model to wear an STI badge. The first S-series STI to cross the Pacific, it’s a more compliant yet more capable weapon than the rawer S208 shown here in white. Just 200 units planned, and like everyone else in Japan I’m already very, very jealous.

Driving the JDM Models

It was almost cruel to go from the S209 and into the less powerful BRZ STI Sport. It’s more or less the same car as the BRZ tS you get in North America but with chassis bracing and a smaller rear wing, because Americans love big, flashy aero, apparently. After all these years the BRZ still proves to be fun, though, and while it doesn’t have the same level of roadholding and confidence as its all-wheel-drive siblings, it was still a very controllable and manageable car to steer around the tight and technical Fuji Short Course.

The Levorg STI Sport came last, and it’s worthwhile to note that—like the BRZ ST Sport—it isn’t a full-fat STI product. The STI Sport cars are all developed by the Subaru mothership with a few STI add-ons. In this way, they’re analogous to AMG’s 43 and 53 models as a sort of stepping stone between regular workaday models and their higher-performing halos. The Levorg STI Sport comes dressed with STI goodies such as a front spoiler, RAYS wheels, and STI-tuned adjustable Bilstein dampers. It’s also only available with CVT.

But essentially, it’s a WRX wagon. It has the same FA20F engine as the U.S.-spec WRX but upped to 300 horsepower. It’s a very competent car, and you can really turn into corners aggressively and hammer on the throttle coming out of them without too much fuss or drama as the car sorts out your vector. It deals with sudden changes in direction well, too, impressively managing the transfer of mass. Of course, with a CVT it’s never going to be as exciting as it would be with a manual. At the moment the Levorg is only sold in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and a few European markets. There are no plans to bring it Stateside, even though it would be a compelling offering with few natural competitors outside of perhaps the VW Golf SportWagen, which offers no performance variant here.

WRC Car, Ahoy!

Of course, an STI Motorsports Day wouldn’t be complete without the appearance of a WRC car, and Subaru organized rides in an Impreza WRC 98 car from the Rally of San Marino. With the names Colin McRae and Nicky Grist plastered on its sides, this was a proper pinch-myself moment. What made it even better was we would be driven by Arai-san.

It’s an understatement to say the first generation of the Impreza defined Subaru in terms of WRC. These were the cars that gave Subaru its three manufacturer’s WRC wins in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Growing up in New Zealand, where Subaru dominated rally stages in the late ’90s, Subaru and WRC was cooler and more iconic to me than Ferrari and Formula 1. To many, including myself, the Impreza WRC is the Subaru and the WRC car, and I was about to have a ride in one with an actual factory driver behind the wheel. As this was all in fun, the grip thing went out the door and Arai-san slid the car around the track as if it her were back on a rally stage. It was visceral, it was very cool, and it left a lasting impression.

And that’s the core of STI. The performance and racing arm seeks to both deliver fun to owners and foster a connection to its machines even in those simply watching them compete. That it has largely succeeded over its three decades in existence was made clear during every moment I spent behind a steering wheel or in a passenger seat.

[eddiejpoplar]

We Drive the Wicked WRX STI S209 as Subaru Celebrates 30 Years of STI

Very few brands can claim to be synonymous with the field in which they excel. For a generation of fans, though, the World Rally Championship (WRC) was synonymous with Subaru Technica International, better known as STI. In the first year after its establishment on April 2, 1988, Subaru’s motorsports division broke the 100,000-km average-speed record with a special Legacy Turbo, averaging 138 mph in the course of 20 days. It then went on to win three WRC championships in the 1990s, notch five Nürburgring 24 Hour SP3T-class victories in the 2000s, and remain a competitor in Japan’s Super GT series for more than a decade.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary—it was really the 31st, but the Japanese fiscal year starts in April so we’ll forgive them—STI held a Motorsports Day at Fuji Speedway and we were there. The event was a way for STI to share the milestone with fans and to thank them for their support, and also to announce plans, vehicle updates, and the driver lineup for the upcoming racing calendar to partners, sponsors, and media.

STI doesn’t normally hold a Motorsports Day, instead leaving them to the likes of Toyota Gazoo, NISMO, Mazda, and Honda. But STI fans were clearly hungry for such an event, and they came I droves, with around 3000 loyalists in attendance. Fuji Speedway’s various parking lots were packed with Subarus; from higher vantage points it was like looking down at an ocean of World Rally Blue, with most of the cars being lightly modified in some way.

The S209 Is Special

STI had a special treat at the Fuji Short Track, where we had a chance to try out some JDM-only models such as the STI S208, Levorg STI Sport, and BRZ STI Sport, plus get a quick drive in a prototype of the new, U.S.-only STI S209. We’d get a few laps in each car around the half-mile circuit.

Before going out on our own, however, we got a ride with Toshihiro ‘Toshi’ Arai in the S209 to get familiar with the track and to see how this car could perform with a pro behind the wheel. Arai-san is a proper WRC driver, having raced for Subaru in the Group N World Rally Championship from 1997–2000 and again in 2002–2003. In an instant I was hanging on for dear life as he pushed the S209 around corners in a way that surely violated the laws of physics somehow. The car just gripped and gripped, and then gripped some more—just as I’d assume the car was about to lose its connection to the tarmac, it somehow found a way to bite down even harder. Then we’d blast out of a corner and rocket on to the next one. It was exhilarating.

Just after, I was the first to drive the camouflaged S209, and while I don’t know how many more times I can use the word “grip,” but that’s the keyword here. The wider tires (265/35 versus 245/35 on the standard STI) are specially developed by Dunlop for the S209, and they clawed the track with a tenacity rare in Subarus driven on pavement. There was a lot of talk about how confidence-inspiring the S209 is before we drove it, and that’s certainly the case. Bolstering the car’s approachable nature is a clever flexible strut-tower brace with a spherical joint in the middle to help the tires maintain maximum possible contact with the road.

This absolute beast of a car was also my first opportunity to sample the 2.5-liter EJ25 engine used in U.S.-market STIs, as Japanese versions only get the 2.0-liter EJ20. Given its America-exclusive status, the S209 is very much a development of the U.S. STI than one of the JDM car. Masuo Takatsu, chief engineer at STI, said “the larger engine was better suited for American tastes,” and with 341 horsepower—31 more than the regular car—the S209 is the most powerful street model to wear an STI badge. The first S-series STI to cross the Pacific, it’s a more compliant yet more capable weapon than the rawer S208 shown here in white. Just 200 units planned, and like everyone else in Japan I’m already very, very jealous.

Driving the JDM Models

It was almost cruel to go from the S209 and into the less powerful BRZ STI Sport. It’s more or less the same car as the BRZ tS you get in North America but with chassis bracing and a smaller rear wing, because Americans love big, flashy aero, apparently. After all these years the BRZ still proves to be fun, though, and while it doesn’t have the same level of roadholding and confidence as its all-wheel-drive siblings, it was still a very controllable and manageable car to steer around the tight and technical Fuji Short Course.

The Levorg STI Sport came last, and it’s worthwhile to note that—like the BRZ ST Sport—it isn’t a full-fat STI product. The STI Sport cars are all developed by the Subaru mothership with a few STI add-ons. In this way, they’re analogous to AMG’s 43 and 53 models as a sort of stepping stone between regular workaday models and their higher-performing halos. The Levorg STI Sport comes dressed with STI goodies such as a front spoiler, RAYS wheels, and STI-tuned adjustable Bilstein dampers. It’s also only available with CVT.

But essentially, it’s a WRX wagon. It has the same FA20F engine as the U.S.-spec WRX but upped to 300 horsepower. It’s a very competent car, and you can really turn into corners aggressively and hammer on the throttle coming out of them without too much fuss or drama as the car sorts out your vector. It deals with sudden changes in direction well, too, impressively managing the transfer of mass. Of course, with a CVT it’s never going to be as exciting as it would be with a manual. At the moment the Levorg is only sold in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and a few European markets. There are no plans to bring it Stateside, even though it would be a compelling offering with few natural competitors outside of perhaps the VW Golf SportWagen, which offers no performance variant here.

WRC Car, Ahoy!

Of course, an STI Motorsports Day wouldn’t be complete without the appearance of a WRC car, and Subaru organized rides in an Impreza WRC 98 car from the Rally of San Marino. With the names Colin McRae and Nicky Grist plastered on its sides, this was a proper pinch-myself moment. What made it even better was we would be driven by Arai-san.

It’s an understatement to say the first generation of the Impreza defined Subaru in terms of WRC. These were the cars that gave Subaru its three manufacturer’s WRC wins in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Growing up in New Zealand, where Subaru dominated rally stages in the late ’90s, Subaru and WRC was cooler and more iconic to me than Ferrari and Formula 1. To many, including myself, the Impreza WRC is the Subaru and the WRC car, and I was about to have a ride in one with an actual factory driver behind the wheel. As this was all in fun, the grip thing went out the door and Arai-san slid the car around the track as if it her were back on a rally stage. It was visceral, it was very cool, and it left a lasting impression.

And that’s the core of STI. The performance and racing arm seeks to both deliver fun to owners and foster a connection to its machines even in those simply watching them compete. That it has largely succeeded over its three decades in existence was made clear during every moment I spent behind a steering wheel or in a passenger seat.