a GTI owner review of the new WRX

[WhiteRabbit]

Hello
My first post.
............................
I look forward to enjoying the Dub culture

First of all Congrats on the GTI
Welcome a board the VWW ship, from my experience this will be an enjoyable ride.

Good cars, and good club culture, get yourself to the next Cruise and find out.

Nice review, well done. I have to say, I missed on trying the Megan Sport, the looks are contrversial, but I think it grows on you.

Now a bit of advice, GTI not GTi, the latter is a Proton, and members here are not to fond of that.

[gregozedobe]

As for the Mathletes out there, do i hear anyone citing "area under the curve"? That may determine the real winner here.. maybe..

CAUTION - This is a long post with lots of technical theories and data. If you have a short attention span you may wish to skip to the next post (I won't mind)

A lot depends on what is important to you and therefore what you want to measure.

In absolute terms, acceleration is largely dependent on 5 factors :

1 Power to weight ratio - with power defined as the area under the POWER curve (not the torque curve - admittedly this is dependent on the torque curve, but engine rpm also comes into play).

2 Traction (especially off the line).

3 Gearing (gearbox and final drive) and time taken to resume power at each gearchange.

4 Driver skill and technique (and mechanical sympathy).

5 Wind drag (mostly only important at higher speeds).

Because the Subie WRX has AWD (see factor 2 above) it can produce much better 0-50kmh times than a FWD car with the same power to weight ratio, and particularly if the driver is prepared to rev it hard and drop the clutch (see factor 4). If nothing breaks they really scoot off the line, whereas a powerful FWD has to be driven with some skill to get away without excessive wheelspin.

To eliminate the variability affect of factors 2 and 4 above, Car and Driver magazine (US) also measure what is sometimes called a "street start" where the car is rolling at 5mph in 1st gear, then they simply flatten the accelerator pedal without touching the clutch and time how long it takes to reach 60mph. This removes the launch advantage that AWD cars have, and takes driver skill and technique from the picture, but it can penalize turbo cars that take more revs to get on boost.

I always prefer empirical evidence over theoretical discussions any day, and back to back comparisons are best of all, as they eliminate a lot of variables that can otherwise distort results. With that in mind, I think the following is very relevant.

In the Jan 09 edition of Car and Driver they did a comparison test of a Honda Civic Si (197bhp), Mazda 3 MPS (263bhp), Lancer Ralliart (237bhp), Subaru WRX MY2009 (265bhp) and Golf GTI (200bhp) plus a couple of other "cheap" performance cars that I've left out (due to irrelevance, and my lack of interest plus inherent laziness).

The following are some of the acceleration figures (all in seconds and mph) they got from their testing:

Car : .......... 0-30 ... 0-60 ... 5-60 ... Weight(lbs) ... 1/4 mile (et and trap speed)

Civic Si : ..... 2.5 .... 6.7 ...... 7.7 ..... 2947 ............ 15.1@94

Mazda 3 : .... 2.3 .... 5.5 ...... 6.2 ..... 3170 ............ 14.0@103

Lancer : ...... 1.9 .... 5.4 ...... 6.3 ..... 3500 ............ 14.2@95

Subaru WRX : 1.5 .... 4.7 ...... 6.3 ..... 3204 ............ 13.5@102

Golf GTI : ..... 2.3 .... 6.1 ...... 6.7 ..... 3168 ............ 14.7@96

As expected, both AWD cars top scored for the 0-30 times, with the FWD cars trailing significantly behind. However, note the large difference between the 0-60 and 5-60 times for the WRX compared with the much smaller difference in the GTI times, and the "good" 5-60 performance for the Mazda (obviously difficulties getting traction from a standing start handicapped it quite a lot).

I have seen another more "real world" measurement that seems to have fallen from favour so it isn't seen much anymore : the "Time Exposed to Danger" (TED) which was supposed to show how long it would take to overtake a truck on a single lane highway. Typically this was 80-120 or 80-130kmh, using whichever gears gave best acceleration. I think this was a good indication of how well a car could accelerate without requiring specialist techniques (or a complete lack of mechanical sympathy).

Oh, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and safe travelling (there are lots of loonies out there)

[WhiteRabbit]

CAUTION - This is a long post with lots of technical theories and data. If you have a short attention span you may wish to skip to the next post (I won't mind)

Oh, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and safe travelling (there are lots of loonies out there)

Very good post mate, thank you for that. I wonder were I can get a copy of this review. Wouldn't mind a deeper read. I think it relates to a video I posted before.

Merry Christmas to you to, wish us luck on 3000kms drive starting tomorrow

[gareth_oau]

When i was in the market for a car earlier this year, I initially narrowed it down to the WRX a Golf Mk 4 GTI and an Audi A3T.

The WRX was by far the best performer of the 3, but I didnt go that direction, mainly because there are so many on the road, and they were typecast young guys cars which required a milo tin to be affixed to the rear.

I kinda liked the GTI, but found mylself wanting a bit more of everything. The A3 was a bit more sophisticated than a GTI, but didnt appeal to my primal urges so much.

Eventyually I blew my budget and got myself an Audi S3 which is far more comparable to WRX, but at the same time a quantum leap more sophisticated and classy.

Fortuntely, the one I got had a few tricks up its sleeve (thanks to APR) and is delivering a very healthy output and a very large smile everytime I take it out for a spin!

[DaveMack]

Eventyually I blew my budget and got myself an Audi S3 which is far more comparable to WRX, but at the same time a quantum leap more sophisticated and classy.

Fortuntely, the one I got had a few tricks up its sleeve (thanks to APR) and is delivering a very healthy output and a very large smile everytime I take it out for a spin!

Looks like I'll have to make room on my 2009 calendar to get over to the West Coast at the beginning of Nov 2009 to see the final round of the air racing and go fo a spin in your S3, Gareth.

Dave

[gregozedobe]

Very good post mate, thank you for that. I wonder were I can get a copy of this review. Wouldn't mind a deeper read. I think it relates to a video I posted before.

Merry Christmas to you to, wish us luck on 3000kms drive starting tomorrow

I subscribe to C & D, so I get it early, it will probably hit the shops in January. I hope you have a safe drive - I cheated and did our 3,000Km "Rellie Rallye" the week before Christmas, thus avoiding overcrowding at the Olds, Out-Laws and on the roads (still saw a few loonies with death wishes though )

[WhiteRabbit]

I subscribe to C & D, so I get it early, it will probably hit the shops in January. I hope you have a safe drive - I cheated and did our 3,000Km "Rellie Rallye" the week before Christmas, thus avoiding overcrowding at the Olds, Out-Laws and on the roads (still saw a few loonies with death wishes though )

I'll be stuck driving behind our hired Caravan, I think I'll blow a couple of fuses by the end of this slow trip.

I might have to shoot ahead a couple of times.

Thanks for the heads up on the mag, I'll get my hand on it when I get it.

If I'm correct, the GTI came second to the MPS in the review, even though it was like the 2nd slowest. if it was related to the video I saw.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTxa6F0AXo

[gregozedobe]

I'll be stuck driving behind our hired Caravan, I think I'll blow a couple of fuses by the end of this slow trip.

Just relax and drive in cruise mode, and think of the great fuel economy you'll be getting See how much better you can do than the 7.2l/100km I got from my Octy (100Kmh, undulating road, aircon on, heavy load).

If I'm correct, the GTI came second to the MPS in the review, even though it was like the 2nd slowest. if it was related to the video I saw.

That sounds about right, their final ranking was:

MPS, GTI, Cobalt SS, WRX, Civic, Mini JCW, Lancer Ralliart.

[gareth_oau]

Looks like I'll have to make room on my 2009 calendar to get over to the West Coast at the beginning of Nov 2009 to see the final round of the air racing and go fo a spin in your S3, Gareth.

Dave

keep in touch Dave, i'll help you sort out a good holiday (and I might let you borrow the S3 if you promise to behave in it!!)

[DaveMack]

Welcome to the forum, Eric. I'm sure you'll enjoy your GTI and there are numerous opportunities to join in the dub fun with get-togethers, cruises and encyclopaedic information available to you (just ask).

Cheers,
Dave

[DaveMack]

... might let you borrow the S3 if you promise to behave in it!!

Of course I will.

Dave

[gareth_oau]

LOL Dave, I didnt say you could have the keys as well

[WhiteRabbit]

Just relax and drive in cruise mode, and think of the great fuel economy you'll be getting See how much better you can do than the 7.2l/100km I got from my Octy (100Kmh, undulating road, aircon on, heavy load).

Here is the result of the Drive.

Very impressed, car is very comfortable over the 2,500kms drive. I got down to 6.6 l/100km on the drive from Melbourne to Albury, and 6.7 from Goulburn to Penrith. the best I got out of a full tank was 720kms. (both those trips was aiming for a 110-115km/hr on the GPS)

That's with a full boot and back seat, and the recommended 260FW/300RW tyre pressure.

The camper van was not bad