Drove an 08 STI Today

Working for Source Interlink (formerly Primedia) has its perks. One of the other editors ended up with Cobb's 08 STI to tool around in, so I took it for a spin.

Although it was only lightly modded, it was still sweet to drive. I'll leave out most of the details since the story hasn't been published yet, but let's just say is wasn't much faster than my car. It just felt like a tighter, neater version with about 50-75 more horsepower and a 6-speed.

Didn't really have a chance to blast around turns, but I did get to tach it out in 2nd and 3rd. Pretty good tuning, you can tell its on the stock turbo, but it was still fun. It had some sticky tires that I wish I could have tried out a little more, but my drive was a little too short.

I can see where all the reviews are coming from that say the new STI is softer and more livable than the previous models. Even though it was modded, you could still feel how it mellowed out. I can only image how a stock STI must feel. But this is actually appealing to me considering how rough and annoying my current suspension set-up is on my WRX for daily driving.

The only downside was that I didn't get a chance to check out the new stock STI seats. Lots of Subaru fan boys have been flaming the 08's seats (probably because we got gypped on the Recaros... I don't blame them) but I couldn't tell you either way... it had some sweet Prodrive buckets in place of the stockers. Only thing was, they sat you on the floorboard. If I wasn't 6'2", I might have had a hard time with visibility, seeing as how Subaru appears to have raised the dash higher than previous models.

Bottom line, I want one. The new STI has gotten all this flack about the styling, but I really like it. Fast hatches / wagons are awesome. I totally regret not getting the WRX wagon (or an STI), and now that the new STI is a hatch, I want one. Badly. Cobb's car represents exactly what I want. Minimal mods to keep it street legal and daily drivable. Looks wise, this is exactly how I would roll - white on gold. They also took care of the nasty tail lights, adding some red tint.
How could you go wrong? A livable, manageable wagon (technically a hatchback) with 300+HP and all wheel drive?
And not to mention, this car smoked a new GT500 Mustang...