TL7 Sports Car question (Campaign)

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Personally, I have a 227hp Subaru WRX without those bells and whistles...and I still have a hard time MAKING my car lose grip in snow or water, all thanks to the symmetric AWD system. I probably could have afforded the 300HP STi, but honestly I didn't think I was skilled enough to handle that power. Plus, icky mpg.

I have an STi. It is a fun car, and as you say, these sporty Subarus have excellent handling. They can lose traction on glare ice or gravel if you get too cocky, though.

The STi only is only 1 mpg worse than the WRX, according to Subaru. :-P

The extra power isn't terribly difficult to learn to handle. The main difference when going from my Toyota corolla to my STi was the agility and responsiveness of the STi - it seemed jittery for the first week or so, after which I got used to it. You do learn a few safety tricks - like not accelerating hard when turning sharply, but otherwise the power is mostly just there when you need it, and not in and of itself a safety problem. It is actually probably safer when, for example, merging onto a freeway when the guy in front of you on the on-ramp decides he has to drive at 40 mph, and people are whizzing past at 70 mph on the freeway.

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

If I wasn't clear, I agree. My WRX is a fun ride, but not a "nice" one. And "real" sports/racing cars, which mine isn't but can be modified to be, can be far more harsh.

I actually prefer the feel of sporty suspensions to those of luxury cars. It gives you more of a feeling for the road. When driving a more luxurious car, it seems like I have lost a connection with my environment, lost important sensory feedback for controlling my car. Those luxury cars always seem to wallow, like boats in water.

For what it is worth, while the sportier Subaru impreza models are quite good sports cars on good quality tarmac, where they really excel is on rough roads, gravel, and dirt. Their high ground clearance, for example, means they can perform well on unimproved dirt roads but are not quite as good as they could be at cornering on flat asphalt.

Luke