wrx | LENSPEED

We’re back to Michelins again

By James Wong

It seems like tyre-changing season here at Lenspeed, with the staff DS3 recently changing to Bridgestone RE002s and the LS460 fitting on Dunlop Sport Maxx TTs. The latter car actually wore Pilot Super Sport tyres, which were great if not for the fact that the Lexus was so far removed from the road, that you can hardly feel the tyres working! They were definitely quieter than the new Dunlops, but what shocked us was the rapid wear rate of the PSS rubber, which was already due for a change after a measly 15,000km. This seems at odds with what others have reported with their PSS tyres so far, so we were not so quick to dismiss using them again, although it did put some reservations into our minds when choosing the next tyre for the S204.

It has to be said that the set of PS3s on the S204 has endured its fair share of hard driving. When I bought the car it only had about 60% of its tread left, so it was only a matter of months before they were due to be changed. The pivotal moment came when the car was brought to a empty tarmac plot where the sidewalls of the front tyres really suffered from incessant understeer. Following quickly after that, the rear left tyre also punctured due to a nail, and the 204 limped along with a second hand tyre (which is in greater shape than all of the rest!).

When I started looking for tyres, it seemed inevitable that I would turn to the PSS. Although feeling like I have been having Michelins on my cars forever, the PSS does seem to be the best tyre around these days, mixing all weather ability with a decent wear rate (300). It certainly isn’t the party pooper like the PS3 was, and is quite rightly the true successor to the Michelin PS2 that preceded it.

However, being stubborn and wanting to try new things, I looked at Pirellis, Dunlops and even the AD08R from a fan recommendation on our Instagram page. They all were pretty close in price to the PSS however, a bit too close for comfort.

There was a stalemate for a while until I decided to call a shop for a price quote. To my disbelief they gave me a price that was $75 a tyre cheaper than the next best quote! I could hardly believe it for a 235/40 R18 size, and went in haste to get the tyres done.

As it turned out, there was no gimmick to the price and I left a happy man.

So far, it’s the running in stage for the tyres so I’ll leave my comments for later, but already the grip is pretty phenomenal. In fact, sometimes I have been cornering a bit too hard already and can smell the scent of tyres when I park up…

Another worrying result from getting the car on a lift: I noticed what looks like rust in the bottom left of my suspension. Before scaring myself further I’m heading to a workshop this weekend to get it looked at. It can’t be rust, can it?

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The banzai AWD Japanese saloon lives on

By The Lenspeed Team

Motor Image revealed the WRX and WRX STI to the media and public in Singapore today, 6 May, in light of a sobering market that has proven to prefer quick-shifting automated gearboxes and smaller, more fuel-efficient engines for their sports cars. While the answer to this convenience-biased and cost-conscious market could well be the CVT equipped WRX (also available with a manual) with an all-new engine sporting 268bhp / 350Nm, the WRX STI will remain a distinctly left-field choice with its >S$200,000 price tag and manual-only configuration.

Whether consumers will open their wallets or not for the WRX STI is a question best left to number crunchers over at Subaru, but it is clear that the new car is distinctly out on its own with the Evo’s future still in stark limbo. The Scoobie is also still, notably, substantially cheaper than the AWD European competition such as the Volkswagen Golf R, Audi S3 and Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG.

However, it shows. Jump into the interior and the plastic bits still feel largely cheap, although there has been some effort to replace the top dash with softer plastics. It is not a vast improvement from any previous Subaru, and definitely is nowhere near any of its European competitors in terms of interior material quality. It doesn’t even have much added functionality, like a navigation system or an in-built hard disk. That said, from our primitive initial knock-and-hear test and past records, one can assume that the interior build quality will be of a high standard, which is at least of some comfort.

Compared to Lenspeed’s staff S204, the WRX STI’s clutch is shockingly light, understandably made to appeal to a wider audience. The gearshift action is still slick and has a very short travel, which is reassuringly familiar and one feature that Lenspeed is glad to see is still intact. The seats are shaped in a more cossetting way now, and marks have to be given for their comfort level, though we’ll have to verify this for sure when we go for a drive in it soon. The steering wheel is also now nicer to hold, adopting an European feeling to its texture and shape.

Interestingly, the WRX STI uses largely the same EJ25 from the previous Euro-spec WRX STI, but the WRX will use an all-new engine. We’re not sure why this has been done, but we hope it is not because of nostalgia because the EJ25 wasn’t exactly an award-winning engine, anyway. While the WRX’s engine has impressive outputs, one cannot help but wonder why such a sporting car has been equipped with a CVT gearbox. Maybe – just maybe – our bias against CVTs may be changed forever with Subaru’s take on it. But until we try it, it appears to us a rather odd choice of transmission indeed.

What will whet our appetite is more details of the JDM WRX STI, which will most certainly be the one to watch. Until then, we thirst to take the WRX and WRX STI out for a test on our roads, and to see for ourselves whether the rally reps for the road still live up to their name, and to their ancestors…

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