eastsidemav wrote: Not sure who you're talking about, ( not me obviously), but I learned when I had my Legacy that Subaru 5 speeds really don't like being downshifted into first on course.
I have never had a problem with any of the Subarus I've driven. I've driven four on-course with manual trans, a Certain Green OBS, a Certain Blue WRX (yes, that one), and a Certain White 2.5RS. Also Tim White's old car, and I've forgotten what color it was...
Neutral, rev, clutch in, 1st, clutch out and GO. No problems. I was doing it while braking into corners with the Certain Green OBS, to boot.
Then again, practically every car I've ever driven requires a double clutch downshift to get into 1st if you have any speed going at all. The RX-7 requires it for all gears.
My experience with Tim White's car was interesting. Tim was sharing the car with ZB and I, at Roos' Farm. ZB was running opposite of our heat, and Tim and I were working the same corner. We were debating on how to drive the course in a certain spot: downshift to 1st here and then upshift there, downshift to 1st here and ride it out for two or three more course features before shifting back to 2nd, or just leaving it in 2nd. ZB happened to try it all three ways while we watched. All of his times were nearly identical. Tim and I found the same thing when our runs came up. No matter how you drive them, they just work nicely.
That was also the day that I discovered that Subaru shifters can pop out of their socket sometimes. Since then I've seen it happen two more times.
2.5RSs are nice driving cars but CRIPES it's expensive to find a decent one. Especially if you want to run in stock class, since a large percentage have been modified in some way.
