At first glance the Subaru WRX STi Carbon limited edition looks like an attempt to sharpen up the STi’s handling and performance by stripping out some unnecessary weight.
The obvious clue to this is the new carbon fibre roof, a popular trick in performance cars that helps to lower the centre of gravity and improve handling. The next improvement that Subaru have made is to fit a five-speed automatic transmisison that …
Hang on, they’ve fitted what? I could understand if they’d designed a new twin-clutch transmission that shaved milliseconds of each gear change, but to fit a normal five-speed without a prescription slushbox is going to do nothing to help performance. Something tells me this is a limited edition that’s all about shifting a few units to customers who are afraid of manual transmissions. Not necessarily a bad thing if it helps Subaru make some money, but don’t try dressing it up with a trick roof.
The other big selling point of the STi Carbon is that it’s got black suede seats with red stitching. Hmm, nice, but not for me.
Come on Subaru, just stick the carbon roof on the standard STi and leave it at that.
