Roody

OK, now don't call me a noob or anything like that, but I think this would be a great and very cool product. Has anybody ever thought of desiging a button-type controller for the Impreza that would shut off the power from being sent to the front wheels? This would make the AWD into RWD, which could be RWD for summer fun and AWD for bad weather, etc. It could work kind of like a 4x4's system...if you know what I mean. Anybody ever thought of this?

xhengmanx

iTrader: (57)

uhh thats why the have 4wheel drive... awd is different for a reason. but nice try tho

pwargcm

usually people buy subarus for the awd. i would hate having it rwd. if i wanted rwd i would buy rwd. and why cant you have summer fun in an awd car. i do all the time. i actually think its more fun than rwd anytime.

meilers

Lots and lots of SUVs and trucks have that feature. There's nothing new about it. It is known as "part-time 4WD" and has been around since the '70s. I had a 1986 Jeep Cherokee that just had a button on the automatic shift lever. The problem with adapting that to an Impreza is the symmetrical all-wheel-drive design of the car (and its three differentials) is quite a bit different than typical 4x4 setups with two differentials, one per axle with a long driveshaft in the middle. The on-the-fly systems work either by disengaging the drive system at the front wheel hubs (the Cherokee did this) or disengaging the driveshaft from the front axle hydraulically.

Roody

I know lots of SUVs and pickups have it, I'm just saying, wouldn't it be cool to have it available for the WRX and STI? I mean, really, who wouldn't like to do a powerslide once in a while?!

Superglue WRX

My guess is that Subaru doesn't see this as practical and people wouldn't want to fork out the extra cash to pay for the extra equipment. Not to mention there are going to be people who are going to forget what mode they are in in and end up doing unintended power slides into other cars and pedestrians.

:armee_smilies071: Yo Joe!!!

meilers

If you'd read the post, I mentioned why there are technology obstacles to making this happen. Also, if you think you need RWD to do a powerslide, you need some more time behind the wheel in unpopulated areas

sammyswrxsti

The kingpin bugeye in sport compact magazine has awd to rwd conversion through electronic push button

wroxsti

iTrader: (1)

awd is definatly more fun than rwd I had a friend of mine (he is a mustang driver) he nearly pissed himself as i was taking the turns at tipple the recomended speed. he was telling me that his car would have been in the ditch if he was to drive like this on the back roads.

BlingBlingBlue

It's been around longer than that.

charlesj

This can sort of be done on certain cars....not ours.

The Skyline GTR and a widely variable center diff that could go from almost completely rwd to 50 50 lock depending on what it felt was right. There area couple companies that make a controller for it that switches this to manual sort of like our DCCD on the STI, but with far more adjustment. Even at full back though, it still has aboutn a 5 percent preload which is as goo as it gets for an AWD. However, the GTR had such a RWD feel to it anyways, that it was really best left alone