2007 Legacy Spec B

[VTEC_Inside]

The owner of the dealer where we just got my brothers '03 Legacy Wagon has been practically twisting my arm to take his Spec B for a drive.

Tommorow I get my grubby little hands on this thing for the day. I've got about 400kms worth of driving to do, but he's ok with that so.

I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but the price tag is a little steep for me to actually aspire to owning one.

Pics and my thoughts to follow tommorow :)

[goldenlover1101]

Enjoy!!!!

[Catman]

No pics?  I'm disappointed.

[TheIntrepid]

Thanks for making the thread before posting pics.

Just joking Vtec :)

[Raza]

Cool.  I've driven the 2.5GT 5 speed, and it was great. 

[S204STi]

Drove a GT 5AT, also great.

[ro51092]

That is SUCH an awesome car, you have to get pics.

[SVT_Power]

why does the guy want you to drive one that badly?

[Raghavan]

So that if something goes wrong with the car later, he can blame it on VTEC.

[VTEC_Inside]

why does the guy want you to drive one that badly?

I mentioned that I wouldn't mind trying one when we were there talking about my brothers car and he said I could have it for a day if I wanted. I told him that wasn't necessary, but...

I dunno, I've tried to let the issue die, but really, would you argue with a man offering you this?

Just to be clear, my dad has known this guy for 20 years. He's the same guy that handed me keys to a Prelude and said "have fun" when I was 19.

Anyways, I'm going to get the thing shortly. Fortunately we have somewhat nice weather(no more f'in rain) today so pics won't be a problem.

[VTEC_Inside]

Here goes,

Interior:
Seemed a little tighter than I expected at first. Very nicely put together. Certain plastics did strike me as a little on the cheap side, but as a whole it still had a quality appearance. The only exception would be the SI drive switch, it looked a little like an afterthought.

The seats were really nice. I loved the center alcantra(?) material on the seats. They hold you quite well.

I was a little suprised that the steering wheel didn't seem to telescope, but I found a comfortable driving position quite easily nonetheless.

Radio was decent. Sufficient volume and frequency range. I was kicking myself for not bringing any CDs and the XM was not active. The GPS DVD was not in either so I couldn't play with that.

I did have plenty of fun with the INFO screen though. Other than avg and instant fuel mileage numbers, on one screen the throttle position was also displayed.

So generally speaking functionally everything was good. A couple nitpicks though.

The leather "boot" around the handbrake "floats". When you pull the ebrake up and let go, the leather rides up. The bugger with this is that when I go to put it down, my hand catches the boot and the boot is then tugged from the base of my palm as I lower the handle.

The climate control is the lowest thing on the center stack. I really had to look down to adjust temps and vent positions. I'm pretty sure this would be non-issue after any length of time though. I mean I seldom do anything but adjust the temperature in my RSX, and I don't do that too often either, beauty of auto-climate.

No auto up on the drivers window! Arg, the RSX has spoiled me there. On that note, I'm not quite sure I'm crazy about the position of the switches, but not a huge deal.

The last thing is the position of the mirror switch, and stability/traction control defeat button. From my seating position I couldn't see them at all.

Exterior:
I like it a LOT, but  I prefer subtlety. A friend of mine thought it looked too boring. The only thing I didn't like here is the red turn signals. I firmly believe that all turn signals should be amber.

Driving Experience:
I'll start with the simple stuff.

Stock shift knob was a little on the chunky side, but I like the pull-up collar for the reverse lockout vs the electronic lockout on my RSX.

All the controls were great. No clutch issues, great steering and brake feel.

SI-Drive? What a interesting little knob we have here.

"I" Intelligent mode. I didn't use this very much as there is a shift light that becomes active in this mode and even if I would normally shift I tend not to just in spite of the light :P. Alas this is the fuel economy mode if one could call it that. Normal if not a little subdued throttle response, shift light, etc...

"S" Sport? (cant remember) mode. Spent the better part of the day driving in this mode. I couldn't discern much if any difference between this and "I" mode other than the fact that there was no shift light. I'd call it the conventional simulator mode.

"S#" Sport sharp mode. This is the "holy shit so thats what DBW CAN do" mode. Seriously, the throttle response stepped up like 10 levels. In effect it seems as though it probably just reduces the required amount of gas pedal stroke, but there had to be more to it than that, it was such a drastic difference. For that reason, I didn't really like it at first. I found it a bit difficult to drive/shift smoothly in this mode. I did try it again a couple times and ended up leaving it in this mode the latter half of the day. I could have imagined it, but it seemed as though the car was actually faster in this mode. Then again it could have been because I had burned through over half a tank of gas at that point.

Turbo Lag? I would not go as far to say that there is NO turbo lag, but I would say that its a non-issue in any event. If anything I noted a very slight sluggishness on a couple occaisions, but I was kinda looking for it too. On the turbo topic, don't expect to hear much of it. If you try hard you can hear it spool up, and you can hear the blow-off, but you REALLY have to listen for it.

Onto the meat and potatoes:
Out of the hole this thing is a f#$king rocket. I loved it, positively loved it. I'm so used to having to modulate the throttle in the RSX to take off, this Subaru was a godsend. Even later in the day when it was a bit wet out, between the AWD and minimal intervention from the traction control it still just hauled ass.

It cruised very well at hwy speeds. I had to take my grandpa to the airport in it and he echoed my thoughts that it was very quiet for a 4cyl, even when I wailed on it entering the hwy.

Quiet indeed, at first I thought it a little too quiet for my tastes, but near the end of the day, I started to feel that maybe they got it about right.

The handling is wonderful as well. Again, being able to really lay into it through and out of a corner was such a satisfying feeling. I had the tires squealing through one corner, but never detected any indication of the stability control intervening, thing just felt glued to the road.

The brakes were more than up to what I put them through. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the pedal feel was better than my RSX-S, I think I know why they shortened the stroke on the '05+ RSX now. Possibly a greater credit to the 18 inch Bridgestones, but the car throws out the anchor just as well as it sets sail. Pretty sure I only triggered the ABS once, but even that was quite subtle in operation.

I think that covers most if not all of it.

Note: I haven't really proofread all that, so sue me :) Ask away if I missed something.

I took pics as promised, with my old Coolpix 5000 though in the rain :)  I will put them up later.

[J86]

Awesome!  Glad you liked it, I've always loved the looks/idea of it!

[the Teuton]

Awesome!? Glad you liked it, I've always loved the looks/idea of it!

You would. 

[TheIntrepid]

Glad you had fun. Nice review. Much better than Raza's

[J86]

You would.?

Well, so would you!

[the Teuton]

Well, so would you!

You're right.

[VTEC_Inside]

Always wanted to try a shot like this so,

[TheIntrepid]

[VTEC_Inside]

[TheIntrepid]

I see you listen to Chum Fm as well.

[VTEC_Inside]

Yep, seems to be the only station that I can just leave on.

[the Teuton]

I...want...very...much...

What's the sticker price on it?

[VTEC_Inside]

I...want...very...much...

What's the sticker price on it?

$44,995CAD...

[sandertheshark]

I test-drove one of those.  I like it a lot.

[TheIntrepid]

I like your E92 better... but it's surely a nice car.

[Raza]

Now, how did you do that?

[sandertheshark]

I like your E92 better...

so do I.

[VTEC_Inside]

Now, how did you do that?

Tripod. One shot hood open, one shot hood closed. Layered the hood closed pic over the hood open pic and then erased the open hood from that layer. It was a quick and dirty job, note whats left of the prop rod on the left. I also didn't lock the exposure for both pics, so its not 100%, but not bad for a first try I think.

Edit, then 50% tranparency the hood closed pic.

[Raza]

That's cool, man.

[VTEC_Inside]

That's cool, man.

Thanks... I'm just pissed that it rained. I wanted to do similar with my D200, but take my time with it. As it was I was using my Coolpix 5000, my older pos tripod and running around in light rain taking pics. It was supposed to have been warmer too, but oh well.