I saw this on G+ and when I read the initial caption, I immediately said to myself, that’s not a GT86…
It is, but in shell only, as it has a 2JZ engine (Toyota Supra). When you start swapping engines, your car is no longer what it once was.
As well, the video was rather boring…it had two minutes of fat that shoudld’ve been trimmed by the author (mostly drag strip posturing/posing). The car ran a low 10-sec quarter-mile, but I expected it to, with a modified 2JZ.
Now, this specific video irritated me. The other Motor Trend reviews (the WRX and Focus ST comparison and the CVT WRX review) were much better and he didn’t go off on some media vendetta in those videos, although there was a bit of it in the CVT review of the WRX. This one irritated me so much that I left a rather nasty comment on YouTube about it:
+Jonny Lieberman kinda irritating that you keep mentioning the lack of a hatch in your video. You wasted a LOT of time in that video harping on shit that has nothing to do with the car that you’re driving in the video.You’ve a rather subjective hangup and it marred the review…if you can’t stay objective about things, maybe you need to let someone who doesn’t have a Subaru background review the car? Review the freaking car and not Subaru’s motives…if I wanted that, I’d keep reading the B.S. on NASIOC. We already know the hatch is gone and we already know Subaru’s decision on why…no need to keep stirring that pot (too much stirring screws up the dish). Loved you in the other reviews of this car…hated you with a passion in this one.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this, as I know the hatch fans have been bitching about the lack of a hatch since last November. It’s time to move on, though. It’s kinda late for Subaru to change their minds and it will probably take a very long time to get another hatch on the drawing board. No, it is not as simple as most people say it is…those people have no understanding of designing a product and this isn’t as simple as cutting up or adding material to the sedan’s structure…trust me, if that were the case, there wouldn’t be the issue of a lack of a hatch.
Lieberman pissed me off because he immediately went on this “no hatch” tirade and wasted valuable video review time. Then he was saying like, “Subaru alienated 50% of their buyer base”. No matter what decision they made, they’d have had to cut some fat somewhere…it it weren’t the hatch guys that would’ve been pissed, it would’ve been the sedan guys. With my project management experience, I understand that in order to have a bang-on end result, sometimes we have to give up some things as the price for success. Too many people (and journalists, obviously) live pipe dreams and tend to want things their way, without compromise or exception…that’s sometimes a real problem in today’s society and is probably why us Americans have so many issues that most countries don’t have. It’s sad.
I hated Lieberman’s whining so much in this video that I feel he tainted the whole video. I was iffy on if I would even publish it here…I hated it that much. For someone with his background, he’s awfully whiny about the lack of a hatch. He claims he owned the original USDM WRX (which, ironically, wasn’t a hatch, although they did have wagon versions). He also beat the fuck out of the proverbial dead horse by mentioning how ugly the 2015 WRX was (another highly subjective comment). You know, I’ve seen better reviews on Jalopnik (and that isn’t saying all that much).
So, I’m currently conducting research on the parts I want to install before I go to get tuned. One of the parts is a Walbro 255LPH fuel pump.
In my quest of knowledge, I decided to check several import shops for this part. I found this link. It’s a $98 part that comes with an install kit. It also has a customer review section on that page. There are several reviews that mention that the factory housing had to be modified a bit for it to fit. Dunno if I like that, but if I can understand what area of the housing needed grinding, I can fortify myself with that knowledge when the time comes for me to swap out the stock part with the Walbro.
One of the reviews also stated that the install kit was a waste of money and wasn’t needed. He’s probably right, as I remember doing a direct swap when I bought a Walbro for my Talon back in the day…it was a direct swap and no install kit was needed then, either. This link is the Walbro without the install kit. it also has a linked video (which I’ll embed in this post) and a review that states there are YouTube videos that show how to modify/grind the factory housing.
EDIT:
That video was LONG and INVOLVED! Good grief. I don’t remember the Talon’s swap being that complicated. The video didn’t show the modding of the housing but did state that IWSTI had a write-up in their How-To section about modifying the housing. I looked for it and found it here.
Here’s a visual of a boxer engine in motion, for those of you who don’t know how a boxer engine performs. I thought this would be pretty cool to share!
Now, on Motor Trend’s FB page and the article’s comment section, several people stated that they thought this comparison was flawed because of the platform difference. Well, I don’t remember anyone saying anything similar last year when the cars were compared…seriously. As well, there isn’t much the WRX is going to compare to, since there aren’t many AWD cars in it’s category (cars that are at or under $30K that have 270 HP that are AWD)…but it’s been like that for years. Someone also mentioned that it should be compared to the Evo…no, the STI is the better Subaru for that.
This WRX may not be as quick as the last generation WRX in the quarter-mile, but I’ve said this several times now: it’s because of the change of gearbox (it now has a 6-speed instead of the GR/GV 5-speed manual). It has a good bit of thrust in the quarter-mile, as well…that trap speed more accurately reflects the car’s HP, IMO. It also sounds better than I thought it would, since it has equal length headers now…that’s the first video I’ve seen of a manual-equipped WRX.
The overall comparison shows that the WRX has been improved upon and is quick (pulling a peak of .96g on the skidpad and 25.3 sec in the figure 8). It bested the Focus ST in every contest of performance and also got decent enough comments in the road portion of the comparison. I’ve the feeling that this car may be getting a lot of such reviews.
Here’s the video that’s within the article. If you get bored, just skip everything and go to the last 2 minutes…you’ll love it!
http://wot.motortrend.com/1401_2015_subaru_wrx_goes_head_2head_with_ford_focus_st.html
Now this is funny!
She didn’t see the driver???
If you’re curious as to how Subaru engines are disassembled and assembled, the two videos below are bursting with knowledge and pertain to the EJ257 (STI engine in this case).
What’s cool is that the person in the video is a master Subaru technician. He explains a LOT of things (with the help of the person behind the camera). As well, he explains such terms as cracked ringlands (30 minutes into the assembly video). Ever heard the term “spun a bearing” and don’t know what the term means? He explains that term. He shows what bearings are and shows the differences between forged & cast pistons (and explains the differences between the two). He also shows the damaged caused by driving these cars with no oil.
These are great videos!
Note: I’m having a hard time finding the disassembly video, but will post it here when I find it.
So, Subaru put the STI fanbase on their heads earlier this week with the debut of the 2015 Subaru STI.
What’s the uproar? Well, it’s using the same exact EJ257 as it has the last 10 years. There’s been no power upgrades (it’s still rated the same as last year’s model), and the ringland issue will probably be carrying over.
Many people have been stating that the WRX is the better deal. I was initially disappointed when I found that the engine was a carry-over, but after thinking things through, I believe the STI might have the more trustworthy engine.
The 2015 WRX has the FA20, which is the same engine as the Forester (and BRZ, only the BRZ’s engine is NA). That engine is unproven. Sure it outputs 268 HP, but we do not know what weaknesses it’ll have. With the EJ257, we know exactly what we’re getting and know it’s weaknesses. As well, the STI still has some technology that’s exclusive to the STI — DCCD, SI-Drive, tuned suspension, robust brakes, proven 6-speed transmission, and a surplus of HP (compared to the ’15 WRX).
The torque vectoring isn’t really going to help in a track environment, though, as I’m betting it will overheat the brakes…it should be defeatable by disabling VDC, though.
This STI should be just as quick in the 0-60 and quarter-mile tests, as last year’s model, as there’s been no weight gain but the 2015 hasn’t lost or gained any power, either.
I also recorded the debut video:
The following video is actually about a year old, but The Smoking Tire hadn’t revealed who the owner was. This was because the owner, Paul Walker, had asked them not to, and Matt Farah had wanted to respect his privacy. But there’s no harm in saying it now, and it is one hell of a collection. There are a lot of Mustangs, Saleen Mustangs in particular (which makes it more impressive) plus a lot of 911s and BMWs, although surprisingly few Japanese cars of any make.
http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/12/12/Matt-Farah-Tours-Paul-Walker-s-Car-Collection-7717599/