Yesterday I took the car for its first proper early morning, warm(ish) dry weather, full revs drive on some great roads in Herts and Essex.
What a machine. It's hard to know where to start.
The main thing that grabs me is how solid the car feels. No matter how bumpy the road or how fast your are going, it never feels like it runs out of suspension travel because the bodyshell seems incredibly stiff with no wobbles, shimmies, creaks or rattles. This gives the suspension a great base to work from giving you the confidence to push harder where in other cars, you might want to back off and wait for a better stretch of tarmac. Given the state of our roads at the moment, that's refreshing.
The engine is the other star, coupled with the short gearing. You can rev hard in the first 3 gears without risking your driving license which is great because the last 1000rpm sounds serious (with ASC deactivated), a hard metallic wail. I don't really wish for a louder (or even audible) exhaust but some more intake noise would be nice. Even when you're not in the right gear, there's enough torque to make good progress at lower revs and you can easily adjust the car's attitude on the throttle. It's a great lesson in how exciting and involving a car can be without forced induction.
The way this thing goes round corners inspires so much confidence, particularly with the kind of driving that catches out heavier cars, such as a twisty section of road with quick direction changes one after the other. It takes these in its stride. The grip is really strong which is a bit of a shock given what it was like during colder weather. This is exactly what I wanted, a car that makes you think about driving, rather than insulating you from it.
I finally worked out how to heel and toe although I still find it harder than it should be. My technique is to put my foot higher up on the pedal than normal. This allows me to twist my foot around to give the accelerator pedal a prod but I'm still a long way from getting it right.
Driving through the odd village with narrow streets and odd camber changes proves the car is still satisfying to drive at lower speeds as I quietly dodge between the parked cars.
When driving home on a dual carriageway I get some time to think and I realise that finally we have a proper challenging and entertaining driver's car that proves you don't need turbocharged power, tons of weight, an anti-social noise and a massive price tag to have loads of fun from the pure thrill of driving on a great road.
Those moments don't come around too often with our congested roads and it's easy to forget how good the car is if you don't take it on such roads from time to time. But when you do, all the usual criticisms of low pixel screen, losing a drag race to a diesel hatchback, road noise and tricky low speed throttle response just melt away. The memories of a great drive stay with you long after such mundane complaints have melted away and they remind you that you bought a great car which had been made great by Subaru & Toyota sticking with and improving on the perfect formula for a lightweight sports car.
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