Provided by:
Find at new and used cars at CarsDirect.com
Driving Impressions
With SI-Drive, Subaru has raised the bar for automotive journalists, as well as other manufacturers. This section might be three times as long, because there are three separate sets of driving impressions, in Intelligent, Sport, and Sport Sharp modes. The driver changes the engine modes by rotating or pushing a dial on the console. Counterclockwise is Sport, clockwise is Sport Sharp, and pushing down on the knob gets Intelligent.
The turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine in the GT makes 243 horsepower and 241 pound-feet of torque at 3600 rpm. (On paper that's 7 horsepower and 9 pound-feet less than last year, but the difference is only in a revised method of horsepower rating by SAE.)
The SI-Drive influences horsepower, torque and throttle response, but not turbocharger boost or valve timing; and with the five-speed automatic transmission, SI-Drive also changes the shift points. In Intelligent mode, peak horsepower is reduced to about 195, and peak torque to 228 pound-feet.
The throttle response in Intelligent mode is quite soft, designed to make stop-and-go driving, for example in freeway jams, smoother. It's not the mode for abrupt throttle application. We found a stunning lag when our foot hit the floor; in fact, we drove down the highway pumping the gas pedal on and off the floor, and the car never felt a thing: not a single lurch or waver from our 50-mph cruising speed. The engine uses electronic throttle control (ECT), which eliminates mechanical linkage to the throttle pedal and theoretically improves response; however, because it's electronic it's mapped, and the mapping can be the culprit behind most anything that's not an improvement when it could or should be.
The throttle gets more responsive as you move the dial from I to S to SS, although it's still not immediately responsive until the tachometer needle approaches the lofty height of 5000 rpm.
Intelligent mode doesn't provide strong acceleration, but the dial can be used to fix that; on a freeway on-ramp, when we weren't satisfied with the acceleration, we moved the dial to Sport Sharp, and the car zoomed as if it had been kicked in the rear license plate: not surprising, considering it was an instant addition of nearly 50 horsepower. Our spec.B test car felt like it had an Indy Car's push-to-pass button; and come to think of it, the dial could be used like that during passing on two-lanes.
Subaru says Intelligent mode delivers about 10 percent better fuel mileage (91 octane required), so if you used it half the time, figure 5 percent. That's about the same claim that Chrysler and GM make, with their variable displacement egines, which can switch from eight cylinders to four when your foot is very light on the pedal. During a 180-mile drive with other automotive journalists, the highest mileage anyone got in a GT was 25 mpg, and the lowest was 18. That was us.
The engine incorporates AVCS, or Active Valve Control System, which electonically varies the camshaft and valve timing for optimum efficiency in pusuit of the sweet spot between torque and horsepower. The Engine Controle Module (ECM) regulates the AVCS based on input from various sensors.
The four-channel anti-lock brakes on the GT are big and solid, with vented rotors measuring 12.3 inches in diameter in front and 11.3 inches in rear. The feel is heightened by a tandem booster like that used on some expensive European sedans.
There's also a new Torsen limited-slip rear differential, and the spec.B gets a stronger, four-pinion front differential.
The roads in Quebec were pretty bad, with a lot of unfixed potholes from the previous winter. But our GT spec.B was never uncomfortable over the many sharp bumps, despite being very firm on its Bilstein shock absorbers; this versatility is the mark of an excellent suspension. Only once did we feel a harsh thunk like bottoming, when a rear wheel clipped a pothole at speed.
We also thr
Read Review at NewCarTestDrive.com
