Subaru has always been a misunderstood brand in Mexico, its vehicles offer many technical innovations that few understand and their designs.
In other latitudes, the brand is cult and has given us products like the Impreza, which we could say is the father of the WRX that we have in our special today.
Before talking about the WRX that we tested in 2022, let’s do a little history, one that has to do with the World Rally Championship (WRC) and the predecessor of the WRX. You guessed it! The Impreza that was born in the 90s, and whose first version called WRX emerged in 2002, and in fact there was an even more radical version called WRX STi and that lived many glories until 2014 when the brand decided to launch a new vehicle based on in the Impreza, but with another name.
Plain WRX
Born as a 2014 model and marketed until 2021, the second generation is presented in 2022 built on the SGP (Subaru Global Platform) platform and shared with other brand products. The acronym WRX stands for “World Rally eXperimental”
Why did we choose it for our special?
The 2nd Generation of the WRX was unveiled in 2022 and almost immediately it arrived in Mexico and this effort is very plausible for a small brand like Subaru in our country.
The mechanics are entirely proactive since no brand offers a front-mounted boxer engine, here we find a 2.4-liter turbo four-cylinder that delivers 271 hp in the 5,600-rev range and generates 258 lb-ft of torque between 2,000 at 5,200rpm. What isn’t very convincing is the CVT box attached to it – it honestly works a lot better than I expected – but just hearing the name CVT on a sports car makes us feel the same way we do when we find a fly in our ointment.
The traction is AWD, that is to say integral and that was noticed when our pilots: Carrión and Gotes set the fastest laps on the 1,250-meter track at the Pegaso Dynamic Center, whose time stopped at around 33 seconds and as a cultural fact with times very similar to the Toyota Supra that we also had in this 2022 Special.
The WRX has a special concept, with a different look because it looks a bit like a rally car, but it also gives us a look focused on a “Cross Country”. What is undeniable is that it is different from everything that is available and it is precisely what is applauded and for this reason we gave it a place in our select group.