It doesn’t feel like you have 296bhp under your right toe the first time you drive this car. But you’ll eventually realise that the Subaru’s ‘sport’ throttle is actually the equivalent of ‘normal’.
The flat four’s responses are languid and this, coupled with the need to wind the turbo up, makes the STi feel slightly lazy. But thoughts of slothfulness are banished when you opt for ‘sport sharp’ and mash the throttle.
Beyond 4000rpm the engine is pulling with such urgency that you’ll need a hand on the gearlever in readiness for the rev limit’s 6700rpm arrival. If you’re too slow, you’ll hit a slightly savage limiter.
The figures bear out these sensations, even if our numbers didn’t match the 4.8sec 0-60mph claim, our car needing 5.2sec in near-dry conditions. We imagine that in the wet it would get rather closer to the claimed time. But this is still fast – almost a second swifter than the Renault Mégane R26’s 6.1sec and the Golf R32’s 6.0sec. That said, the Mitsubishi Evo GSR and the BMW 135i coupé are in the hunt at around 5.0sec dead.
Given the Impreza’s demeanour and heritage, you’d expect the latest version to dart like a hare. Instead, it runs wide in corners that you merely steer through rather than charge. Commit more speed to a bend and apply the throttle more forcibly and the Impreza suddenly digs itself a set of grooves, displaying an urgent ambition to neutralise the faintest trace of understeer.
Lifting off produces little alteration of course, although a swift and decisive direction change had our car applying the ESP with thumping brutality on one occasion.
This near-instant change of personality makes the STi feel slightly unwilling at an ambling-to-brisk pace, but almost manic with enthusiasm if you’re feeling the same way. Still, one benefit is a more pliant ride, although the promise of this improved suppleness isn’t fully realised at high speeds.