Road tripping Subaru
There is something utterly irresistible that creeps into the subconscious of motorheads when the words “long drive” and “Subaru” are mentioned in the same sentence. Sort of like a hypnotic suggestion that tugs like nothing. I know this to be factual. I used the trick on two of my writers. While admittedly every motoring section contributor in The STAR line-up wants to be a part of every
We made arrangements with Nicky Mariano and Ariel De Jesus of Motor Image Pilipinas for this one. We planned it over an entire month and invited the crew of the television show Hotwire for good measure. The destination: not so far off Lucban, Quezon. The route: a well-kept secret I have for fantastic test driving – the back highways that run through the mountains of Antipolo, cut through the straights of a small portion of Laguna and end with the twisties that start in Pagsanjan and end in Lucban. With just the right mix of traffic, straight roads and zigzags, the route is perfect to simulate everything you’d ever want to experience when behind the wheel of a four wheel drive with a horizontally opposed engine that’s raring to eat up roads.
So, on a very early morning in February, James Deakin, Andy Leuterio, Mariano, De Jesus and I, along with several members of the Hotwire crew and Motor Image’s own service staff, met up at the Motor Image showroom along EDSA and took off on what would be a great driving experience. Our convoy of an Outback 3.0R, a Forester 2.5 STI, an Impreza 2.0R A/T, an Impreza WRX 2.5R M/T and a Forester 2.0R breezed through the route in roaring fashion. In less than four hours (which included a breakfast stop and several video and photo shoot opportunities), without having to speed past legal limits, we’d made it to our destination: Piknikan sa Batis Aramin in Lucban, Quezon. There, our hosts Chicoy and Gertine Capistrano, who run the resort/hotel, made sure we were treated to every imaginable local delicacy, including the famed Pancit Lucban and Longanisang Lucban. To top it off, the couple took us to shoot the cars in the picturesque Kamay Ni Hesus Healing Center put together by famed healing priest Father Joey Faller.
Soon enough, adrenaline was flowing like crazy. Before the drive was even through, Mariano was already beaming with excitement. “We’re very happy to be part of this very innovative and exciting road trip. This only proves that Subaru vehicles are built to be driven and enjoyed by its drivers in any given terrain,” he beamed.
Given the good vibes prevalent the whole trip through, and amidst such lush scenery, James was naturally in his element, as you can attest to just by looking at these photos. Andy, meanwhile, started begging to write about the cars as soon as we got off them. So much for trying to convince these guys to work after what we’d prepared for them, huh? Which brings us to the here and now. I’ll leave it to both my writers to depict the experience from behind the steering wheels of the Subarus we drove – because (Surprise!) they actually asked to work on this one. Take it away, boys! – DONG MAGSAJO
While every other manufacturer screams about practicality and sensibility, a Subaru whispers to the other side of your brain. Take the Impreza 2.0R as an example. On the surface, there are plenty more cars that make more sense. They may have bigger trunks, or better fuel consumption, or larger dealer networks. But if you listened to your mother when you were growing up, and believe that true beauty really comes from within, then prepare to fall in love.
It all starts as soon as you slip behind the leather-trimmed, multi-functional steering wheel and nestle in to those body hugging sports seats. Twist they key and pop it into D and it won’t be long before you feel like the most important person in the engineer’s and designer’s minds. It is like they had a picture of you up on the wall and built every component around you. You really feel that special.
Perhaps it’s the surefooted feeling of having the power divided between all four wheels, or the precision that comes from having a boxer engine placed so low into the engine bay, giving it a lower center of gravity and that crisp, razor-sharp feeling on your turn-ins.
Coming into the winding roads of Quezon, the Impreza feels beautifully poised and balanced, never getting overwhelmed by the frequent changes of direction. I drop down a gear using the sports shifting feature of the auto transmission and dive in for the apex. It holds the gear all the way up to the rev limiter and never second guesses me, giving me complete control in the corners and allowing me to always remain in the power band once I exit.
The shifting is smooth and the ratios are well spaced out, although the addition of a fifth gear would help improve fuel economy and really complete the driving experience. Just like the Subaru Outback. Forget the wolf in sheep’s clothing, this is a UFC fighter in an Armani suit. Family wagon by day, rice-boy killer upon request.
Driven normally, the Outback glides over the road like a proper luxury car. A little on the firm side, but it delivers beautiful body control and sophisticated damping over imperfect roads. The cabin is handsomely trimmed in plush leather and feels every last bit of a 2.240 million peso luxury car. But then something strange happens.
The sight of those massive boomerang-shaped paddles just behind the beautifully crafted leather steering wheel contradict the stereotype of a family wagon and look like a written invitation to your own private amusement park. And switching the knob on the center console to ‘Si’ mode is like taking away Britney’s Prozac – all hell breaks loose.
It is like unleashing 245 horses after injecting them with a triple espresso from Starbucks. The suspension firms up even more, while the transmission becomes even more sensitive than a senator being linked to the ZTE scandal. It is an executive’s family wagon permanently stuck in puberty. They should have called it the 2008 Subaru Schizophrenic. – JAMES DEAKIN
“A vacuum cleaner for the road.” It’s what I kept thinking every time I found myself behind the wheel of Subaru’s punchy little soft-roader, the Forester 2.5 STI. Because even if it’s not your first choice for crossing a river, this little SUV pulls no punches everywhere else. Sharing much the same turbocharged, all-wheel drivetrain as the Impreza WRX, it’s pretty much the same kind of driving experience. Acceleration is instant and categorical; the go-pedal might as well be labelled “Fast Forward”. No other SUV comes close to matching the Forester’s hyperkinetic dynamic for the price. It inhales just about every car in front of you and spits it out the back.
In fact, on that pleasant driving day in the hills of Quezon with the WRX for reference, it even held its own against the latter… although the driver might have been more interested fiddling with his iDong, err, iPod more than with keeping pace. Now that the 2008 Impreza and WRX have arrived, the natural progression for enthusiasts is to ask when the 2008 Forester will. But while Subaru is mum about the topic, it’s safe to say the current model is far from being over the hill.
Style-wise it has never been much of a fashion statement, but I like the chunky, pugnacious looks anyway. It says “I’m fast, I’m bad, and if you don’t like me I can kick your teeth in.” The cabin is undeniably feeling old though, with rear seat legroom that feels skimpy compared to newer models like the Mitsubishi Outlander and Hyundai Santa Fe, road noise that’s a touch too high, and the tinny sounding stereo disappoints for the price, but those are very minor issues here.
The people who buy this car will not care that it isn’t as roomy as it could be, or that the stereo is low-rent. All they will care about is that it is the most dynamically exciting SUV in its niche right now. Laser-precise steering, firm, almost go-kart-like suspension tuning, and rock-solid brakes are all part of the package, but so is a superb automatic transmission.
Yes, I said automatic, and a 4-speed at that. And it’s not even a manumatic. Normally we’d be aghast at the prospect of a slushbox in a sports SUV, except Subaru has truly made a dream gearbox in the Forester. Shifts are fast and clean, instant downshifts are triggered by the simple expedient of pressing just a little bit deeper on the accelerator. Unless you’re a race car driver, you’ll not be able to shift faster with a manual setup. It’s a superb exclamation point to this high-performance, all-wheel drive compromise. You get pseudo-rally car dynamics in a two-box, family-oriented package that will hold the spouse, the kids, and the dogs to just about anywhere there’s a decent road surface. Drifting just became a family bonding experience. – Andy Leuterio
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