The R/A is better then the subby for sure. The hands free device lets you order Chinese while going around the track without taking your hands off the wheel. Not to mention the GPS lady is like having a WRC navigator in your ride "turn left, turn right". Stop the arguing guys. I am just surprised that there are some Subby fan boys on an EVO site anyways. Maybe I should go join a REX site and start bashing there cars. This whole thing amounts to one or two tests we have seen online. I am sure that if you get out from behind the key board and go to a couple of car meets/Dragstrips/time trials you will see MITSU's beating REX's and Rex's beating Mitsu's. Alot of the time the cars are evenly matched and it ends up being who is the better driver in the end. Don't get me wrong some times it is the cars. I dont want to go up against an AMG or Z06 anytime soon. But most of the time trials I have attended have had Buschur EVO's tearing up any car (STI,ZO6,LOTUS,COMAROS,MUSTANGS,ECT) that gets in it way drag or road course!

 

It would really depend on what track, but power is power. Sure, it would help more on tracks with long stretches, but acceleration after corners is not something to be ignored. The other thing is, and this is the one major advantage that the WRX has over the RA in my opinion, the WRX has better stock brakes. Both cars suffer from brake fade with the stock brakes, but the RA suffers more. It's just one more thing for the rest of the RA's AWD system to make up for. It might end up being more even, but the experiment shouldn't be about how to make one car better than the other (which is what this review seemed to want to do; that and showcase their wares).

And, as UT_EVO mentioned, once both of these cars have their weak points addressed, they will, for all intents and purposes, be too close to call. And for all of us average drivers out their, we will never be able to replicate the numbers seen with these cars by a number of pros. I can guarantee you that a stock RA in the hands of a pro will out run a highly modded WRX in the hands of a joe around the track, and vice versa.

 

And we're fanboys how, because we post real results with real data? Some of us have been here a long time and had Mitsubishi's long before the Ralliart was even a wet dream. These comparisons have been going on for a couple of years now and the WRX regularly ranks above the Ralliart because of the large performance difference between the two.

 

How is that fair though? If the Ralliart comes stock with 215s, by upgrading to 225s, you're giving the Ralliart an additional 1 cm of tire to work with. If you want to make it completely fair, give them the same tire compound but in OEM size. Otherwise, like I said before, you should give the WRX an additional 1 cm of tire to be fair.
If you're limiting the modifications to the tires and a tune, the WRX would likely still win. Even with the RE050 tires, the Ralliart didn't blow away the WRX in the handling department, the skid pad was lower, the slalom MPH was pretty close and the braking was still in favor of the WRX. With just a tune, the WRX will still be more powerful since it has a larger turbo, a larger engine and was already more powerful to begin with.

 

That is not my argument... what I was trying to point out is that on the grudge match video, the producers were not entirely putting both cars on equal footing (they even used the sportback instead of a sedan). A more accurate way to measure both car's true performance around the track is to give them both exactly the same mods: (ie. same exact tires & each a tune to unleash the full potential of the stock ECU), while retaining everything else stock. To me, that will show how well each car's powertrain/drivetrain/suspension were engineered.

 

Are you UT_EVO? I was just reiterating what he had said, since it seemed pertinent to your comments about whether addressing the weak points on each car would have different results around a track than at a drag strip. The ability to produce more power in a lighter car, regardless of being technologically outclassed, goes a long way. All I was saying is that, much like the EVO and the STI, modded or unmodded, the WRX and the RA are too close to call.

Even without increasing the contact patch of the tires on the RA (just using the same compound as the WRX), Edmunds was able to drop a considerable length off the RA's stopping distance as well as surpass the WRX's slalom speed. In the end, evne with the same size tires with the same compound, the two cars would probably be incredibly even around a track.

 

Perhaps (& probably) you are right... but I'll believe it when a grudge match w/ those simple changes I wished for is actually going to happen.

 

LOL... sometimes I read too fast and respond in haste. But yes, I am fully aware that even if the weak points of the RA are addressed, still the WRX is a much lighter car w/ a bit more horsepower, and that means a lot even if it's a twisty track. The best it could probably do w/ the same tires and each a tune is finish at the same time. The RA has superior technology/handling, but the WRX has the power/weight ratio.

As a sidenote, it's far easier to mod & make more power compared to changing the handlling characteristics of a car.

 

I wasn't necessarily saying that. I honestly don't know a ton about the RA and WRX, but if I had to make a general track enthusiast guess, I'd say the WRX would still win. One major weak point on the RA is it's power to weight, and fixing that to get even would cost a decent bit more than just getting the WRX. I'm sure they'd be close, they probably already are not too far off, and for a DD, who cares? Buy the car you like better for whatever reasons. If you're buying an RA or WRX solely for being a fast track car then you're buying the wrong car.

That all depends on what we are talking about here. There's a lot of things you can do for pretty cheap that help the handling of a car. Ripping weight off, for example. An alignment can make wonders on an otherwise factory car, just ask hardcore stock class autocrossers. Sway bars, tires, wheels. Lots of things for pretty cheap. And for not much more than a tune and a decent full TBE, I'm sure you could pick yourself up a set of decent coilovers.

 

I should have added "I heard it's far easier to mod & make more power..." LOL since I don't have first hand experience in modding hardware, only thing I've modded is the ECU =X

 

Plus it depends on what you define as "easy" anyway. No worries.

 

? Edmunds used the tires off of an MS3, which I believe are 225s. They're also not the same tires as the WRX.

 

http://www.insideline.com/subaru/imp...preza-wrx.html

 

Sorry, I kind of mixed your opinions with mine a bit. The ultimate point was that for average-joe drivers, there won't be a discernible advantage from one to the other.

 

Bingo. So buy the car which has the other features you want. I bought the STi primarily based on looks over the X. I couldn't care less which one performs a hair better than the other when they both perform in the same range of awesomeness. Sub 5.5 0-60 and decent handling and I'm set, the other stuff is just icing on the cake.