Subaru

Associate Editor Byron Hurd introduced to you the official Subaru performance accessories that we had installed on our 2023 Subaru WRX. And of them, the one I was most excited for, and anticipated would change the experience the most, was the STI muffler. For as fun and feisty as the WRX is, the one thing I felt it needed more than anything was some growl. Or snarl. Or bark. It was just a little too quiet for its vivid paint job and huge hood scoop. So what did I think when I went to go pick up the WRX for the first time from Byron, post-op?

"Oh no, I think we might've ruined our WRX."

Yeah, the first impression, with barely any miles on the exhaust, wasn't great. The WRX has a relatively high-rpm cold start routine, and it ends up bringing out the worst of the muffler. It's extremely boomy from the cabin, especially right in that rpm range from 1,000 to 2,000 rpm where the cold start sits. So your morning quiet is broken by resonant humming all through the car. And the boominess never completely goes away. It crops up at other points in the rev band, and especially on off-throttle deceleration. 

There is some good news on this front, though. After putting on several hundred miles, the overall volume did come down a bit, seemingly after the muffler had "broken in." It never went away, but it did mellow.

Even more good news, there are genuine positives to this muffler. Aside from occasional boominess, the exhaust tone is fairly clean and deep. And once it settles into the warm idle, it has a little lumpiness like you'd hope from a boxer engine. The extra volume also is welcome for rev-matching, as Road Test Editor Zac Palmer noted, and generally is fun when driving the car hard.

There are two other important things that this muffler manages. First, it's quite civilized on the highway. That boomy start-up had Hurd and me worried, but we discovered that it's tuned just right to be quiet (just a little louder than stock) and drone-free at highway cruising speeds (60-80 mph). So you won't go deaf after hours on the freeway. Second, it's weirdly quiet from the outside. We don't know how, but the exhaust almost sounds louder  inside the car than outside. You can feel like a hooligan while driving, but without drawing the ire of your neighbors.

Oh, and the tips are sharp. The trapezoidal tips are unique and have crisp stamping, particularly the STI logos.

So yeah, in the end, the muffler is a slightly mixed bag. It gets pretty noisy inside, annoyingly so at times, but in some critical ways, it still manages to be livable. So we really can't recommend racing out and buying it, nor can we say to stay away from it. Worth noting is that Subaru makes no claims to horsepower gains, which makes sense, since it's just the resonator and tips, not any other parts of the exhaust, nor does it come with any revised engine tuning. And $1,139.95 is a decent chunk of change, even if it's not going to void your warranty. Weigh our pros and cons against your priorities, listen to the video sample, and make your decision from there.

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief  Greg Migliore is joined by multiple editors to talk about a variety of topics. Greg chats with Jeremy and Byron about the new Corvette ZR1. John and Zac join in to review the long-term Subaru WRX, Honda Civic Type R, long-term Mazda CX-90 PHEV and discuss their favorite summer rides. Jeremy returns with Joel to talk about the Tesla Model 3 and Mercedes-AMG SL 63, and reach into the mailbag to answer a “Spend My Money” question about a fun family car for life in Chicago.

Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: [email protected].

[audio mp3="https://s.aolcdn.com/os/ab/_cms/2024/08/07132822/08-07-24-autoblog-E843.mp3"][/audio]

• Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
• Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify
• RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
• MP3 – Download the MP3 directly

• 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 packs twin-turbo, 1,064-hp V8
• Long-term 2023 Subaru WRX
• 2024 Honda Civic Type R
• Long-Term 2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV
• Our favorite cars we've driven this summer
• Tesla Model 3
• 2024 Mercedes-AMG SL 63
• Spend My Money

• Email – [email protected]
• Review the show on Apple Podcasts

Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives.

Related video:

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief  Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. They discuss the week in car news first, leading off with the updated 2025 Ford Maverick that adds a Lobo sport truck variant and an AWD hybrid. Next, they chat some Cadillac news with the reveal of the stunning Sollei convertible concept and the refreshed 2025 Escalade. After the news, the two focus on what they've been driving over the past couple of weeks. They start with the Fiat 500e, then move along to a comparison between the refreshed Hyundai Elantra Hybrid and totally-new Honda Civic Hybrid. Lastly, there's a discussion of the new Infiniti QX80 and the STI mods applied to our long-term Subaru WRX.

Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: [email protected].

[audio mp3="https://s.aolcdn.com/os/ab/_cms/2024/08/02085744/08-02-24-autoblog-E842.mp3"][/audio]

• Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
• Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify
• RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
• MP3 – Download the MP3 directly

• News

• Email – [email protected]
• Review the show on Apple Podcasts

Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives.

Related video:

Joel Stocksdale

For obvious reasons, we give a lot of credit to a fun manual-transmission car to the shifter itself. But shifting has other steps involved, making it a more complicated dance. Miss some of those steps, and you'll be tripping over yourself. Fortunately, our long-term 2023 Subaru WRX nails the other details to keep it dancing all day and night.

One of the big missteps of modern manual machines is rev-hang. Presumably a result of trying to keep emissions down, lots of manual cars, particularly turbocharged ones, stubbornly cling to whatever rpm level was reached upon pressing the clutch pedal. This can make for some awkward upshifts when you really want the revs to drop for the next gear. The problem is also frequently accompanied by relatively slow revving. As such, it makes it hard to bring the revs up for a quick and smooth downshift. The Subaru dodges both of these issues. The engine feels quite free-revving both up and down on shifts. Not only does it make it smoother on gear changes, it lends a more playful feeling overall to the engine and the car.

Pedals are another tricky thing. The most common fault is a set of pedals spaced very far apart, such that doing heel-and-toe downshifting (in which you press the brake with your right foot while blipping the throttle to rev-match with either your heel or the right side of the same foot) is very difficult. Again, the WRX gets the pedals just right. They're close enough that it's a breeze to bridge your foot across the brake and gas, and the brake pedal is high enough that with pressure, it ends up lined up nicely with the throttle.

These features are further appreciated because, in the WRX's rather old-school nature, there's no auto rev-matching feature like several of its competitors have. And while it would still be nice to see a feature like that included, since it is mighty effective and makes it easier for manual rookies to learn, we'll take its strong engine and pedal fundamentals over a bit of fancy technology everyday. Good job, Subaru.

Chaydon Ford

Chaydon Ford

CHICHESTER, England — There was apparently some resistance, somewhere upstairs in the Subaru hierarchy, to the Project Midnight livery: all black. With an emphasis on “all.” Apparently, it was hard to see the wisdom in not being able to see the resplendent blue and yellow emblems of the Subaru brand on what is, at its core, a brand-enhancing exercise. There were apparently 45 or so back-and-forths about possible livery designs, including more conventional ones, but ultimately the pure murdered-out approach was taken. It was a good choice.

In the high-speed parade that is the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb, the seemingly endless stream of race cars and other brand exercises are inevitably festooned in advertisements galore. It all just blends together in one visually overwhelming blur. By contrast, the Subaru WRX: Project Midnight stood out as being one of one by going in the exact opposite direction. There was no mistaking it for something other than the mightiest and most over-the-top of Subaru WRXs. And just in case it was hard to see the stock WRX hiding somewhere beneath the carbon fiber aerodynamic body extensions and a wing larger than some produced by Embraer, there are still gloss black Subaru Motorsports emblems about to break up the matte black and bare, unvarnished carbon fiber. It’s really cool, and judging by the constant crowd around its corner paddock spot, that’s not a rare opinion.

Although Project Midnight will live to see other adventures, it was primarily created to achieve the fastest time up the Duke of Richmond’s driveway at Goodwood. The all-time record was basically not possible – the McMurtry Speirling literally sucked so much, it set a time that was effectively deemed too dangerous to chase in the future. It’s no longer allowed to compete in the day’s shootout, but did get a chance to repeatedly run up the hill, and it’s bonkers.

Anyway, Project Midnight was among the favorites to take the crown with Scott Speed behind the wheel. As the weekend went on and multiple practice runs were completed, Speed simultaneously got to know the car and course – it was his first time running the hill climb. According to technical director Yannis Loison, each run provided a bit more information, yielded more feedback from Speed, with adjustments made accordingly, such as turning up boost and other engine parameters to increase power. Each subsequent run also shaved off seconds until it sat at 45.15 with the penultimate run Sunday morning. That was a mere six tenths of a second off the pace of the Ford Supervan, the electric, vaguely van-like conveyance driven by Alain Dumas that was derived from the one that went up Pike’s Peak.

Despite the narrow margin between the two, it sure felt being around the Subaru team that it seemed like they were much larger underdogs.

“(Project Midnight) is not electric,” Loison said while giving us a tour of his creation. “We can’t push a button and get 400 horsepower more.”

He said it matter-of-factly, and not entirely throwing shade at the Supervan (or maybe he was, I don’t know, he speaks with a French accent), but there was a definite degree of resignation to the fact Project Midnight may not be taking this one.

“We want to get 45 (seconds),” the zero-nonsense Speed said when asked if there was a time he was shooting for. “But with conditions, I don’t make promises.”

Prophetic words it would seem.

As you can see at the very beginning of the above video, Speed seemed to have some issue under braking that got the car squirrelly and therefore losing, um, speed too soon heading into the tricky corner known as Molecomb. It’s the braking zone after the run’s first quasi-straight, so perhaps it’s not surprising that an issue could arise there in a new car with tires/brakes that perhaps got a bit cold after several prolonged stoppages (Travis Pastrana crashing his Subaru GL Wagon Huckster certainly didn’t help on that front).

Whatever the reason, it likely contributed to the final run actually being slower than the previous one at 46.07. Bummer, but any disappointment was quickly tempered when the Supervan immediately set off thereafter and blitzed past its previous time to win the day at 43.98. Project Midnight probably didn’t have that in it. Even with the slower speed, though, it still came in second.

So what exactly is Project Midnight? Join me now in the paddock for a tour of its various (totally wild) components.

The engine and many of the upgrades are either derived from or brought over nearly unchanged from Subaru Motorsports’ rallycross car. It is a 2.0-liter boxer four-cylinder turbocharged and intercooled to produce approximately 670 horsepower and 680 pound-feet of torque. It revs to 9,500. Checks notes. Yes, it would seem that is quite a bit more on all fronts than the stock WRX.

You should be able to tell that engine is pushed far back in the engine bay – a fact also obvious when taking a look at the interior a bit later.

Besides cooling, the engine’s block and cylinder strength were increased, and they maximized the amount of air they could stuff inside (more on that in a sec). The driveline and six-speed sequential gearbox were retrofitted with minimal changes from the rallycross car.

There’s a restriction for the turbo intake for rallycross cars that obviously doesn’t exist for the hill climb, so the team worked with the turbocharger supplier to push the envelope.

You’re looking at the resulting turbocharger and its intercooler here. The latter is very big, because producing all that boost requires a lot of cooling. So does the engine, but that’s not handled up here.

According to Loison, with the amount of power made by the engine, a certain amount of cooling was needed. With such a short run, there’s only so much air that can go in through the front for both the intercooler and the radiator. You’d have to compromise. Thankfully, this WRX doesn’t need to have functioning doors to access a back seat. Gigantic holes were cut into the carbon fiber door-looking body panels (the cut lines are charmingly quite rough) leading to ducts that stuff air into the rear-mounted ducted radiator.

Loison said that they probably didn’t need such a big radiator, but it was better to have overkill while trying to the push the engine harder with each subsequent run than go with a lighter, smaller radiator and worry about cooling.

As for the exhaust, yeah, it isn’t back here.

Nope, that’s up front, belching flames out the hood. Shorter exhaust travel is good for power, and not having a bunch of pipes running the length of the car removed 26 pounds in total. Somehow, I figured it would be more, but still. Did I mention the flames? This is rad.

Above left is actually not an intake, it’s plugged up. This giant hole opposite the exhaust one, however, is definitely not plugged up.

Here’s a good look at the front splitter. You can see it took a few hits during the climb up.

The ulta-wide aerodynamic body work is special to Project Midnight. I don’t know, I think they should try to make this work for a road car. If the Dodge Challenger can have its Widebody and Ford can Raptor all the things, why can’t Subaru get this Batmobile treatment? Hmm? Hmmmmm?

You might have noticed, but Project Midnight has a rather large wing. If you told me the Subaru guys walked over to the Red Bull tents in the middle of the night after a few beers, crowbarred a wing off an F1 car, spray painted it black and hoped no one would notice, I would believe you. It’s actually an enlarged version of the wing found on the Subaru Motorsports team’s WRX ARA24 gravel rally car.

Unlike the side aero, I’m OK with this being left off the options list. Then again, we do have a long-term WRX at Autoblog. To hell with it, I’ll put in a call to Subaru. They had no problem installing that CD player for us.

You can tell by just how far the suspension is dangling down here that it was originally intended for rallying, but the team reduced it to the absolute minimum because the car was going to be racing on an aristocrat’s driveway.

The brakes are by Alcon; 350 mm front, 320 mm rear. It has Endless brake pads. I assume that’s a brand and not an adjective.

The steering rack is custom and has a 11:1 ratio, plus a high-flow power steering pump. Speed apparently reported that it felt twitchy in early runs, which came as a surprise to the engineers given the venue and surface. Loison said it apparently therefore needed greater straight-line stability, which is something they’ll keep in mind for the future.

If you look closely, you’ll see the subtle differences between the Project Midnight interior and the stock WRX interior. Every damn thing, for instance. And here, you can see the result of the enormous, blocky tunnel that results from stuffing the boxer into a mid-engine position.

So there you have it, Project Midnight. It probably won’t be the last we’ll see of it, and I sure hope Subaru will come back for another go up the hill with additional learnings under its belt. And even if it can’t add another 400 horsepower at the push of a button and best Ford, well, at least it’s not a van.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a fantastic time for automakers and builders to show off their quickest, fastest, and most ridiculous projects. While there’s no shortage of smoky burnouts and tomfoolery, some take the hill climb very seriously, challenging others for the fastest time up the run. This year’s Shootout results are in, and it was a runaway victory for one funky vehicle and factory team.

Romain Dumas had the fastest time of the day, clocking a 43.98-second run in the Ford Supervan 4.2. The electric Transit tackled the Goodwood hill in a chaotic fashion, putting its 1,400 horsepower and up to 4,400 pounds of downforce to good use. The top 10 times include:

• Romain Dumas/Ford Supervan 4.2: 43.98 seconds
• Scott Speed/Subaru WRX Project Midnight: 46.07
• James Wallis/Porsche 992 GT3 Cup: 48.04
• Astier Raphael/Alpine A110 Pikes Peak: 48.61
• Chris Ward/Czinger 21C: 48.82
• Jake Hill/Nissan Skyline GT-R R32: 48.91
• Andrew Morrow/Ferrari 296 Challenge: 50.02
• Nick Padmore/Lotus 77: 50.10
• Phillipp Eng/BMW M4 GT3: 50.21
• Michael Lyons/Gurney Eagle FA74: 50.29

Dumas is a two-time Le Mans winner and a fixture in the hillclimb world, but Speed’s Subaru looked menacing. The automaker worked with Vermont SportsCar to create a lightened carbon fiber chassis, and the turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four was cranked up to produce 670 horsepower and 680 pound-feet of torque. Of course, nobody can buy a Subaru like that today with the loss of a road-ready WRX, but the Supervan isn’t on sale either, so it’s hard to complain too much.

The event wasn’t without drama, as a few people found out the hard way that the Goodwood hill can bite back. Annette Mason’s Ferrari 512BB LM and Pierro Longhi’s SCG 004C both left the track sideways, with Mason finding the hay bales on the Flint Wall. Travis Pastrana had a lockup in his Subaru Family Huckster, also built in conjunction with Vermont SportsCar, and found himself in the hay during his run.

Travis Pastrana said he was going to err on the side of aggression when making his final climb up the Duke of Richmond's driveway at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Well, there's no denying that. 

A couple hours after saying that to a handful of journalists, the racer and stunt driver extraordinaire seemed to carry too much speed into the turn known as Molecomb, understeered and smashed the so-called Subaru Huckster into the hay bales lining the course. While there were a number of incidents in the final "Sunday Shootout" (far more than normal), his was the only one to occur in that notoriously tricky spot.

Chaydon Ford

Fellow Subaru driver Scott Speed seemed to have some issues just prior to that corner while driving the epic Subaru WRX: Project Midnight car, perhaps leading to him being slower than his previous run the day before, and about three seconds off the pace of the eventual Shootout-winning Ford Supervan driving by Romain Dumas.

You can see Pastrana's last few split seconds in Molecomb before hitting the hay bales in the video below. 

A post shared by James Riswick (@jamesriswick)

For those unfamiliar with the Huckster, it may look like a 1983 GL wagon, but this Subaru is anything but stock. But you already knew that by looking at its wild and wide body kit. It's built atop a tubular frame and powered by a Subaru flat-four that's been turbocharged to produce 862 horsepower.

While we get new and updated car models every year, its inevitable that we'll need to say goodbye to some nameplates as well. This time around, it feels like we have confirmation or reports of an unusually large number of vehicles being discontinued in 2024 and the coming years. 

We shouldn't be surprised. A large number of automakers are approaching their various target dates for electrification of their fleets. As such, some beloved internal combustion cars are going away, sometimes with appropriate fanfare like special editions. Others are slinking away quietly, killed by slowing sales and changing consumer trends. Of course, the end of production doesn't necessarily mean permanent death. Some of these models could be resurrected in later years ... and probably as an EV.

With that in mind, here are the vehicles that are being discontinued in 2024 and beyond.

Alfa Romeo ended the production of its combustion-only Quadrifoglio models in April 2024 as the Italian automaker moves toward an electrified future. This isn't the end of the Quadrifoglio entirely, though, with Larry Dominique,  Alfa Romeo senior vice president and head of North America, writing, "I look forward to presenting the next chapter in the four-leaf clover’s journey."

Audi is discontinuing the two-door versions of its A5 and S5 for the 2025 model year, both fixed-roof and convertible, as well as the fixed-roof-only RS5 Coupe. With the TT and R8 already gone, the decision leaves Audi without a coupe or a convertible in its range for the first time in decades. The Audi A5 Sportback continues on, though.

GM is ending production of the Chevy Camaro after 2024, but is sending it off in style with a Collector’s Edition. Wouldn’t it be cool, though, if Chevy brought it back as an EV?

Rumors of its demise have been around for a while, but now it’s official. GM will end production of the Chevy Malibu in November of 2024. The assembly line in Kansas will be retooled to build the replacement for the Chevy Bolt.

The three-row Durango is slated to be replaced by the Stealth nameplate after 2024. The Durango name could make a comeback later, according to rumors, on a body-on frame SUV based on the Jeep Wagoneer’s platform.

This is the last year for the Edge in the U.S., with the final unit rolling off the assembly line in April. On sale since 2007, the Edge topped 100,000 sales in all but three full years of production.

Newly refreshed for the 2023 model year, Ford’s popular Escape compact SUV is reportedly taking its leave in 2025 in order to usher in — you guessed it — an EV in its place.

According to a report, the Genesis G70 is being discontinued, with no successor in the works as the brand electrifies its entire lineup by 2025.

Yes, the long-lived Cherokee nameplate hits the trail. In fact, production already ended earlier this year. The larger Grand Cherokee sticks around, though.

Another Jeep bites the dust. As Automotive News reported, and Jeep confirmed to Autoblog, this entry-level Jeep is following the Cherokee down that trail into the sunset. That will make the Compass the least expensive nameplate for the storied brand.

One of the most affordable cars you can buy is getting the axe, per a report from Automotive News.

Maserati’s midsize sedan is on the chopping block for 2024, along with its Ferrari-sourced twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8. But, Maserati's Australian general manager Grant Barling toldDrive, “The plan is for the Ghibli and Quattroporte to become one. So the Quattroporte will become a short-wheelbase [model] – Ghibli-sized, but called a Quattroporte.”

The Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door is slated to depart the scene in 2024 or 2025, according to a report from Car and Driver.

While the coupe versions of the C- and E-Class have already stepped aside, making way for the CLE-Class, so too will the convertible versions.

Mini sent off the wagon-esque Clubman with a Final Edition, but unlike other Mini models, the British automaker says it won't be getting an electric replacement.

Mitsubishi is reportedly killing off its, and America’s, most affordable model in 2025, and hasn’t named a successor.

Godzilla is finally retiring, with 2024 marking the final model year for the Nissan GT-R. Nissan is sending it off with a pair of special editions: Takumi and Skyline. "Sunsets always come before a new dawn approaches," Nisan said in a press release. "While the R35 GT-R leaves an unforgettable legacy, Nissan is now hyperfocused on the future and the next era of exciting innovation in performance."

Nissan struggled to break into the full-size pickup market with the Titan and, unsurprisingly, the automaker announced it would end production in 2024.

Confirming a previous rumor, Porsche has said that it will no longer produce the gas-powered Boxster convertible and Cayman coupe after some time in 2025. They will be succeeded by electric versions, however. Porsche also said the gas-powered Macan will phase out after 2026, but that already has an electric replacement.

Ram is concluding production of the hefty TRX with a Final Edition. Ram will bring an off-road-capable 1500 RHO in 2025, but the automaker insists it's not a replacement for the more powerful TRX. Stay tuned.

Model year 2025 will mark the final Subaru Legacy. The all-wheel-drive sedan was designed specifically for the American market and was built in Indiana. Over 1.3 million have been sold since 1989, spanning six generations. The hot-selling Subaru Outback, which is built on the same platform as the Legacy, will continue.

Toyota plans to retire the Venza hybrid after the 2024 model year, according to a report from  Automotive News. The Toyota Crown Signia comes in to take its place as a two-row hybrid crossover to slot between the RAV4 and Highlander. The Venza lived in an odd place in the Toyota lineup. It was similar in size, though a bit ritzier, than the RAV4 it's based on, and a bit cheaper than the Lexus NX. The Crown Signia better distinguishes itself from those other hybrids. The Venza was short lived in its new form, with the current generation reviving the nameplate for the 2021 model year.

2025 will be the final model year for the Volvo S60 sedan. S60 production will end at Volvo's South Carolina plant, making room to build build the Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3. Volvo will continue to make the S60 in China, but not for the U.S. market.

A few weeks back, as Zac was on his way out of the office to go drive the new Porsche 911, he fired off a brief but exciting note: The STI accessories we'd pondered installing on our 2023 Subaru WRX Limited for several months were not only approved, but waiting for us at the local Subaru dealer. Oh, and could I have it ready for pickup in less than 24 hours? Well, heck yeah, I could, and did. But first, some preparation. 

Not knowing exactly which parts were waiting for us, I figured it would be wise to assume they could throw anything in the catalog at us. That meant it might be wise to record some exhaust clips for comparison purposes on the off chance the STI mufflers were among the items we'd receive. Good thing too, as the WRX was returned to me 72 hours later with the upgraded exhaust, a new front strut tower brace and a short-shift kit. Not a single purely cosmetic item to be found. You love to see it. 

The stock outlets are above left; the accessory muffler tips are shown above right. Yep, those are "STI" emblems embossed into the tips, which are either hexagonal or heptagonal, depending on how you define a "side." But looks are only part of the equation, right? This is an exhaust we're talking about, not a set of side skirts. So I arranged for some before-and-after clips. In each of these, the first half was recorded from about 10-12 feet away and the second from on the ground directly below the exhaust itself. Both were recorded with an iPhone 11, which is far from perfect, but we're less concerned with absolute accuracy than we are with the difference between the two, right? But take it from me, these are pretty true-to-life. 

[audio mp3="https://s.aolcdn.com/os/ab/_cms/2024/07/11150654/stock.mp3"][/audio]

When I say true-to-life, what I'm telling you is that the stock WRX exhaust sounds like... well, that. I've called it "nothing" on more than one occasion and I stand by that evaluation. This is essentially a blank canvas; plenty for STI to improve upon. 

[audio mp3="https://s.aolcdn.com/os/ab/_cms/2024/07/11150652/sti.mp3"][/audio]

There's quite a bit more bass in the STI mufflers than there is in the stock setup. It's quite a bit boomier inside the cabin as a result, but I'm pleased to report that it's not exacerbated by drone at highway speeds. You notice it a lot more around town than you do during a steady-state cruise. That's a win. Still, the added low-frequency noise may not be to everybody's liking, and those in condo or apartment complexes should take their neighbors' sleep schedules into account. 

The benefits of the remaining two upgrades — the strut tower brace and short-shift kit — aren't so easy to demonstrate here. The stock shifter never really bothered me, and the short-throw upgrade is subtle, but pronounced enough that it threw off my timing the first time I drove it. The strut tower brace provides a better visual than the buried linkage of the shifter, but it's going to require some real back-road seat time to accurately assess. 

Unfortunately for me, I won't be the one doing it. Shortly after its return, I handed the WRX off to News Editor Joel Stocksdale for his first modified stint in our long-termer. Stay tuned for further thoughts; I know he has plenty.