Spiiiccccccccccch, wadda..............
author:
|
|
Check that valve and pipes and goodies!
|
Awesome All-Wheel-Drive that could be used to scrum bumper to bumper against a 30 ton Oshkosh truck.
It could also be used to give a Super biker a skrik, or simply to get the attention of other Super Car owners.
The Mazda advertising campaign with their strange sound of zoom zoom, does confuse the issue slightly, I remember as kid we did at least a wroooom, wroooom and then that specialized tyre screeching sound that seemed to have disappeared when the Dunlop SP93’s arrived. After that the screech was only heard before the thuuuuuumph!
Launch-control? What the hell is that?
Well you see – this device means you may (I still can’t get it over my heart) keep your foot flat, from the moment the other side’s robot changes to amber, until yours changes to green and you simply drop the clutch. After that you and whoever sat with you on the front seats, have to gather everything such as cell phones, the packet of crisps, and the coke that was placed in the holders, the radar detector and whatever else you had with you in front, from the rear seats. That is now before you and your passenger start to climb from the rear back to the front.
|
|
|
Ok, check the oil, water, brake fluid --- "heeeyyyccch!?"
|
The pull away with the launch control (LC) is awesome! It puts your eyes against the back of your skull, and leaves almost anything on the South African roads, standing.
In layman terms the LC limits the engine revs t around 4000 rpm, but it puts a “load” on the engine, bluffing the turbo to get it to start boosting. When you drop the clutch, it simply means that you have boost already!
If you therefore want to show off at friends make damn sure your front wheels are pointed in the direction you want to go before dropping the clutch.
When you drive a Subaru the first thing you experience is the traction – the ability to pull away and of course its road-holding ability, then its awesome stopping power. A combination that leaves you impressed!
Then after a while you get used to this and one day some kid will stand next to the road, and by rotating his arms bend in an L shape, he will indicate that you must do a wheelie!
Or this may happen when a skinhead with the best looking blond you have seen in a long time stops next to you at a robot, revving his Golf to tell you that he was going to take away your self-respect, destroy your esteem and shake your image to pieces!
This is when you pick up the revs to around 6000 and you simply drop the clutch!
After the initial blackout if you suffer from high blood pressure, or had a moer of a party the previous night, you resurface and see a blond hanging out of the window of the Golf waving at you to wait, she wants to change cars and driver!
After a while you get used to this sort of dominance – through corners, between robots, in mountain passes, on the wet roads, basically wherever you go – the opposition needs to throw heavy money into what they buy if they were thinking of staying with you, and they usually need some banker's support to stay ahead!
Where the hell were we??
|
|
|
Not much to identify it from! Front mounted Inter-cooler
|
Oh, yes, that was the LC or launch control of the RallyStar conversion. Now we add on the front mounted intercooler, an external blow off valve, a turbo you can also do your washing in, a Unichip and some very fancy stainless steel piping to suck air to wherever air is needed and I suppose not needed.
The car then needs to be seriously “mapped” to get all these things to work together.
The whole family by now cannot wait for the Scooby to get back onto the road.
The car is reversed from the four-wheel dyno, and you hear a funny sound, something you have not heard before – and believe me in a Subaru you do get used to many sounds! This ranges from high-pitched screams, to total valve failure farting of passengers when you go into a corner slower than usual, because you do not like scaring people in your car.
The exhaust, has also been changed, and there is a deep thumping sound, which will do the work of viagra for any real enthusiast.
Then you get into the car for the “demo” run done by a RallyStar technician.
He pulls away slowly and tells you that you will now not get the "smooth" run you got used to, you will hear some noises you have not heard before, and the car will probably respond slightly differently to how it used to.
Out of the workshop, waiting for the traffic to pass – you look around in the car at nothing in particular – touching this, setting that.
The traffic clears and you are on your way as a passenger in your own Subaru WRX. I forgot to mention this is not even the STi it is a normal every day, run of the mill WRX family saloon.
The driver cruises to the robot, and asks me whether I would like to feel the performance? Of course, I said while sitting slightly forward to look anxious and eager to go.
“To use the launch control, you keep your foot flat on the juice, like this” and he puts his foot on the juice “You will see the engine revs are limited to 4500” by now the engine was stuttering, spattering, and sounding very unhappy as the brain told it that the clutch was in and just to make sure it “cut and let go” the engine rapid fire style around the 4500 rpm mark.
|
|
|
Extra wings - to ensure you set the speed trap in motion properly!
|
Then as the light turned green he side-stepped the clutch, in came the business like sound of the new exhaust, deeper in kicked the turbo – the speedo was mistaken by me from the side for a rev counter on steroids! Second spiccch splat, followed by third spicccchh, and fourth spiccch into fifth – oh, dear, oh dear!
I told him to stop, got out, shook out the old underpants and got in behind the steering wheel, and got addicted instantly to the new spisccccccch, wadda, wadda, spiccccccch, thump sounds. The technician left hastily when we eventually ran out of juice!
This takes driving into a brand new dimension.
The Subaru Impreza WRX will put out around 245kw @ 6500 and approximately 380Nm torque at 4000. So bring on the mountains!
|
|
|
The number plate to watch - probably also all you will see?
|
It should eat up the standing quarter mile in around 13 seconds, reaching deep into the 170k/ph during such a run, while a time of around 5 seconds from 0 to 100 should be within reach.
The STi will do even better – but for now lets stick to the WRX with this RallyStar conversion.
OVERALL VERDICT:
-
This car is not a toy and is meant for the far above average, if not specialist driver.
-
-
Not for Sunday afternoon cruises with the wife and kids.
-
-
Not for the poor, not for the faint hearted.
-
A must have for the super rich,
-
the genuine enthusiast,
-
the fuel station owner, with buddies along the route,
-
the plain crazy,
-
the expert driver,
-
a perfect present for the person you have a big life insurance on!
"If I was a rich man, spiccccch wadda, wadda spicccchhh!"
If you have not done this yet - you simply have not lived!
Contact
leon@rallystar.co.zafor more info.
|
|
