OK, So I was on my way home today and about 2 lights from my house I was stopped next to a black Subaru WRX Impreza. I was thinking in my head "I know I can't beat this guy but i'll just have a quick race with him for fun". So the light turns green and and we both take off slowly then we look at each other I knew he wanted to go for it. We both floored it and he took the lead for a little. And yes he had a turbo... i could hear his blow-off valve :sigh:. Anyways, I started gaining on him really quickly and we were dead even for a long ___ time until I came up to a car in front of me so I slowed down and got behind him and it was over. At the next light he was making a right so I lowered my window and gave him a thumbs up and he smiled and gave me a thumbs up and a friendly wave.

I was extremely shocked/amazed that my tC kept up so well. :D I know those cars are pretty quick.. anyone know why I was keeping up with him? His blow-off valve was goin off quite a bit.

 

i don't believe it...i can't even keep up with a mustang v6 200 hp

 

i'm not tryin to show off or anything... i was really amazed myself thats why i was posing the question if anyone knew how that happened.

 

maybe you have a freak motor

 

nice

 

maybe he was holding back to see what you could do or maybe you were in a lower gear and just getting some good torque...

 

u should ask the subaru guy u raced

 

i would if i knew who he was.

 

too bad our cars cant keep up with wrx's at all, he wuz probably a bad driver or started in a higher gear then you or just made it look like a close race to make you feel good... im not hatin or anything but our cars are no match for those cars =/

 

hopefully we can make them a match with some engine work... afterall they do have around the same engine size... like a 2.5L isnt it?

 

nvmd.. i just remembered you said something about his blow off valve

 

He was probably just messin around.. those are quick cars for sure.

 

i'm positive it was a wrx impreza... he did have the badges on. it seemed pretty stock. no exhaust. just black 18's or 19 inch rims and tint.

 

The only reason why i don't believe this is because in my scion i beet a tc to 110mph by 2-3 cars. I race a wrx with exhaust wheels and b.o.v. and i lost to 80mph by 2 cars. So you couldn't have kept up with him. But maybe he had an automatic. I beet an automatic wrx by like 2 cars to 110mph so maybe that's what it was.

 

Also i have yet to see a stock WRX run faster than 14.5 in the 1/4 mile. They are usually high 14's to mid 15's. So there is a possiblity that you could have kept up with him.

 

it most likely was not the wrx STi... it was prolly a wrx base or a 2.5l that had all the wannabe stickers all over it.

But either way, he was probably very surprised that you kept up that well (even if he wasn't racing)... I had when people say "he probably wasn't gunning it"... Ok seriously, why would anybody not gun it in a race? I've raced 95 civics and totally raped their a**es, there was no way in hell I was gonna be like "yeah lemme hang back and see what this POS civic can do"... if you were gunning it, 99% of the time, he was too. SO kudos to you on a good race becuase not every impreza out there is a STi.

 

if his blow off valve was going off a lot, wouldnt that imply that he was letting off the gas, I.E. letting you catch up? a tC should not be keeping up with a WRX, but maybe since you were already rollin that gave you a slight advantage?

 

ummm... we weren't going that fast. it was on the street. max speed i hit was prolly around 75 - 80.

 

Umm, you sure that mustang wasn't a "sleeper"? I've kept up with 'em...

 

You guys are missing something very important here, actually two things.

1) Off the line the WRX will kill a tC, no way around that. This was not off the line, this was from a rolling start where the AWD is a liability not an asset. And the tC may have been right in the middle of the best gear for the speed as well as the WRX a bit below where he needed to get well into boost.

2) Power to weight ratio is not all that different when you count in drivetrain loss and actual weight of each vehicle.

Please remember, drag racing is a very very limited way of determining the true performance of an automobile, it is just one part of many. Though the tC is setup a bit soft and has too much body roll(damm glass top mainly) with a few tweaks it can become a very serious performance car. Hooking up off the line will take a good driver and a few mods but once done, it will be quick then, get the suspension dialed in for handling it will be quite fast for all other aspect of real performance driving, except the too low gearing, which I plan on changing in our car;)

Rick