the sounds are quite invigorating actually. It lets you know you are hauling a$$. My friend's M3 is so quiet that you tend to not know how fast you are actually going unless you look down, which can be dangerous when a car can go 160mph. When you break 120mph in a wrx you deffinatly know it, I think everyone here can agree with that unless you havn't gone that fast.

Here is the deal, if you want to pimp hunny's the Acura is a better platform to do so. Tint, rim's and drop it. Get a stereo system, and you have a tricked out acura luxery car. That's probably good for some girly action here and there. ALSO that engine and trany are weak on high rev's. Cylender 3 on most honda 4 cylenders are weak. If you want to impress some chick and lets say you redline 3rd try to go into 4th and slam down into 2nd, i've seen that engine blow sky high the first time people do it. I've seen cars with less then 10k blow the engine completely. It's really easy to do, the shifter is tight and close together, especially when shifting in a turn. Really easy to go into 2nd from 3rd, and when you hammer down it will most likely send a rod through the block and a pistion into the head.

If you don't give a flying F*** about what anyone thinks and you want to lay the smack down on 99% of the cars out there get a Wrx or STI and mod it. I've done the money shift in my car once and it didn't affect anything, low compression and a low redline help you out on that one. But seriously, I love the 05 interior and the 05 rims. I have v2 manifold, up pipe, down pipe, and an hks exhaust. STI intercooler, k&n, and a cobb stage two. it's about 2500 dollars worth of stuff done. Trust me there is no better fealling then absolutly raping a C5 corvette, EVO, ( add anything else that would be fun to beat). Much like I said, nothing can take you off the line, and most cars can't keep up with you in the first 3 gears. The highway you are going to have trouble beating some faster. But trust me I've never worried about any TSX comeing down the road and beating me.

 

Invigorating? I can hardly have a conversation on some roads due to the road noise in my WRX, especially on Highway 80 on the way to tahoe. It's fricken loud, and is akin to someone blasting static at full blast. It was "bad" with the stock tires, and even worse with 17s on the car. I don't even like to take my car to tahoe because of it.

I'm considering adding some dynamat type stuff to the floor, and some sound deadening mat under the carpet to help.

I thought the noise was somewhat tolerable until I rode in my buddy's Audi Ultrasport 1.8t... it's super quiet even rolling on 18s. Audi even puts sound deadening mats inside the wheel wells...

 

yes, I love the fealing you get from a car that lets you know what you are doing. Love the road fealing, I love the slight understear, I love the turbo, exhaust, tire's, scoup, wing, side mirrors, and the wind going through and over all of it.

 

Yep, I would agree. It's the character of the car.

The only part I hate is driving the car over loud road surfaces.

 

Now that I have decided to keep my WRX for at least 3 more years, I am going to spend $1800 to have it soundproofed. Almost any car audio shop will do this, and there is lots of room to add soundproofing as the car comes with almost none. It adds about 35-50 lbs to the car's weight, but the good stuff (dynamat or fattmat) really makes a difference. 90% of the car's noise (besides the drivetrain noise) comes from the rear trunk and wheel wells.

I agree, the noise, turbo whine and understeer are all the character of the car; it is a driver's car, like a Porsche 911, and it makes no compromises for comfort. The lack of soundproofing is most likely a symptom of Subaru's desire to keep the cars at $22k and $30k (WRX/STi), price points that seem to have worked well for them.

 

I have a few issues with the above statement.

First, VTEC might run more efficiently, but pushing the car hard will guzzle up the gas, regardless of how efficient cam timing is.

Secondly, I thought DOHC VTEC requires 91oct whereas SOHC VTEC does not.

Third, wouldn't a 2.5TS be exempt from using 91oct.?

 

Certainly; VTEC is not miraculous. My point (and I thought I was pretty clear on this ) is that the VTEC-based engines don't suck gas quite as badly as turbocharged or larger-displacement N/A non-VTEC engines at high RPMs. VTEC will never equal the performance of a turbocharged engine at the top end, but you do gain some of that back in better MPG. If I drive my stock-engine (no ECU mods) WRX like a fool I can burn gas at 14-16 MPG; a Ford F150 can beat that! Meanwhile a friend of mine with a V6 accord gets 22-25 MPG, and he drives with his foot held firmly to the floor.

I'm not the expert on this; but all my friends with Hondas run 87 AM/PM crap gas and their little VTECs come up smiling.

EDIT: Just checked the Acura web site; it says 91 is "recommended" but that you can use other grades.

Yeah, perhaps, but this thread is discussing the WRX