First test, highway driving. I put it up on the expressway and put the hammer down. It's not exactly a sledgehammer, let's be honest, but it's not a brad hammer either. More like a ball peen, the peen end. Why that end? The torque dip is real, folks. Holy shit is it obvious and you will have to learn to drive around it or you are going to be upset. I took note of the dead area and checked the graph this morning and yup, spot on what I could feel. Don't try to do anything between 3500-4500. Downshift into the mid 2000s and accelerate through the torque black hole to achieve joy. You can feel the dip on the way through, yes, but if you are passing through it, it's manageable. If you start anywhere in it, however, it's DOA. I came up with a metaphor that I feels best illustrates the feel of it. Image you have a turbo car with a big laggy exhaust housing. It takes time to wind up and you can feel it coming, BUT, when it spools, it's still not that impressive. It's like a TD05 with a 16cm housing laggy build up to 200hp at full boost.
I pulled over into the parking area to write down my observations, take more glam shots and to listen to the engine.
No fuel pump chirping, just the steady ticking of injectors. Kind of sounds like a sewing machine.
http://vid119.photob...zpsigrorgvv.mp4
That, is the sound generator. Yes, this engine idles and revs very quietly. Surprisingly, I really don't mind not hearing it. The exhaust is whisper quiet as well and that, too, is ok with me. Subaru, though, seems to have harbored some embarrassment about not having an engine noise you could hear in the car and I understand that concern, but I find their solution to be lame. Subaru takes intake noises, runs a pipe to a resonator that then runs to a hole under the dashboard so you can hear, something. That would get pulled from any car I own. Come out of the closet, I'll still love you.
Cruising at 100kph in 6th I'm steady at 2500rpms. This is great for gas mileage if you care about that and despite my ownership of a slutty rotary I actually care about that too. It's also good because you are outside the dip and can accelerate directly from there if you would "like" to go faster, slide it down into 5th if you "want" to go faster or whip it over and down into 4th if nothing but angry naked, nipple-twisting thrusting screaming acceleration will do. The car will not scare you, but it takes off with purpose and it will make you think "weee!" and a goofy smile will cross your face. Wind noise is present, but it's not too bad for a car in this price range and you have to think to listen for it; it's not pronounced. The homotube works; you can hear stuff as you wind the engine up.
The suspension is firm, but not stiff and felt very confident at highway speeds. I ran it up to the upper reaches of the speedo and it was composed all the way through the gears and didn't start to feel floaty until north of 100 mph. Now, some would consider this bad, but let's be honest. To make a car that can keep it's cool at those speeds, barring very expensive active suspension would lead to a car that was a torture rack in town. I know, I own one. My RX7 sails along at hyper speed just whistling a happy buuuuurrrrrr, but rolling down 58, all exits lead to a chiropractor.
At this point I'm starting to form an idea of this car's mission statement which I will wrap up with in a later post.