BRZ/FRS vs 2015 WRX
 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P_eKhfhuNU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P_eKhfhuNU[/ame]

I've never been a fan of the WRX slush box tranny or the general driving feel, but this video does make me curious of how the 2015 will drive. I might be swayed to the dark side if Subaru stepped their game up for this vehicle.

Slush box? The WRX is manual only...

Handling looks amazing

Yepp, handling is right on the money ... WRX design is gross (imho) and has always been, as is Subaru design in general (and I love Subaru for their engineering) ... thank goodness Toyota took care of the BRZ/FRS shape ... the 2015 WRX will be different story though, and even then - it is AWD... nah

Well, different cars for different people.

Wrx: AWD, Sedan, handling, sporty
Brz: RWD, coupe, handling, sporty

I like the BRZ as well, but living in the west east, nothing beats an AWD with handling, let alone a 4 doors for my family. I tend toward the WRX STI.

Rumor has it that the new WRX is 335hp, and STI is 400+ that is a lot.??but it uses Brz engine. That means Brz should receive the same STI power variant.

Sorry perhaps slush was a bad adjective, i meant sloppy.

BRZ is all about handling, WRX is all about muscling it out. If need to carry more than one passenger more than occasionally then the BRZ will present you with more than an occasional problem. For me, BRZ is the only option this side south of Lotus. And Vette... And Porsche, in that order

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I don't know if I'd really say the WRX has great handling on the dry. Its handling is excellent on slick surfaces (it's tail happy, but very controllable with the AWD and abundant torque), and it's a lot of fun to toss into giant 4 wheel drifts on snow, but it understeers and has a bit of excess body roll on dry pavement (although based on that video, they may have improved it in the new model, which would be awesome).

I always find it funny when people say "Body roll is always BAD!". It isn't always bad. In fact, some body roll is needed to pull off the Scandinavian Flick. Most rally cars, unless set up for all tarmac racing, actually are just slightly stiffer than the stock car to allow them for variations in road levels and conditions. The reason they can pull off some of the ridiculous drifts is partly that (PARTLY). Rally cars aren't the fastest ever but they are a jack-of-all-trades short of an off-roader due to the multitude of conditions they can face in one stage.

There was a video where drift king himself sat in the Subaru WRC car with Tommi Maakinen driving and his comments were that the car was surprisingly compliant and almost comfortable yet so easy to turn around.

Just saying.

Body roll isn't always bad, and the more compliant suspension in the WRX is part of the reason it's so much fun in a rally-type environment. However, for dry pavement handling, the WRX does indeed have too much body roll, and too soft of a suspension.

(That having been said, I hope they don't stiffen it up so much that it loses its fun element on dirt/snow)

not really. body roll is generated from weight transfer, not the other way around. also, i would imagine a rally car would be more compliant than you would think because of the five figure shocks and the extra foot of suspension travel. im not saying body roll is bad i just think its not intentional. simply a byproduct of particular traits that are desired.

"Not really" what? I don't know what you are referring to but I agree with what you said. Weight transfer and the amplification of it during the left-right-left turn of a Scandinavian flick is what makes it possible to have those crazy wild sharp turns.

I hope they don't make the WRX too tarmac oriented - makes them less Jack-of-all-Trades worthy at that point.

i was just saying that body roll isnt what allows someone to do a scandanavian flick. i would love a more tarmac oriented wrx. i think its what the evo apart from the sti this generation. i imagine most rally cars are set up to understeer pretty heavily due to how often they would be left foot braking for bias reasons (at least i imagine) while adjusting to continuously changing grip levels.

KB short shifter and bushings nip that problem squarely in the bud. My 2013 STI had the KB SS and f/r bushings and that shifter was more accurate and just as fast to shift (if not faster) than the BRZ's. It wasn't F&F toggle-switch-like shifting (which actually is very hard and bad on your synchros), but it was more like:

Neutral, *snick* in 1st
*snick* neutral *snick 2nd.. etc.

Very good feeling and with a weighted knob it smoothed out but remained definite.

If the shifting feel can be made smooth, precise and accurate with just a short shifter and bushings, then there's nothing really sloppy about the transmission.