Autocross Debut

David S.
Update by David S. Wallens to the Subaru Legacy GTk project car
Jun 28, 2011

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The Legacy GTk does look good out there.

It's a little bigger than a Miata, though.

As the class name suggests, this is basically a catchall class for street-legal, all-wheel-drive cars. It attracts the usual suspects, including Lancer Evos, STI Imprezas and the Nissan GT-R. And guess what? All of them showed up for the June Mini Prix, the club’s high-speed autocross held at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center.

The Legacy GTk is a really neat car: turbocharged engine, big brakes, giant wheels. However, it wasn’t built with any eye toward the rule book, and during our first autocross outing with the beast we were placed in the Martin Sports Car Club’s Street Mod Street Tire 4WD class.

As the class name suggests, this is basically a catchall class for street-legal, all-wheel-drive cars. It attracts the usual suspects, including Lancer Evos, STI Imprezas and the Nissan GT-R. And guess what? All of them showed up for the June Mini Prix, the club’s high-speed autocross held at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, home of the PRI Trade Show.

The results were as expected—we got our clock cleaned—but we still had a great time and spent the day with some old friends. The Subaru actually did well on course, as it was composed and well behaved. If anything, all of that weight—high up and out back—is definitely noticeable from the driver’s seat. The car can carve a good sweeper, but let’s just say that it’s not super happy in the slaloms.

Still, lots of people stopped by to check out the car, and we had the only entry capable of transporting a kart. Plus, the a/c blows nice and cold.

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Comments
pktzygt
pktzygt None
6/29/11 8:54 a.m.

Subaru has sold out to the mainstream SUV driving crowd and abandoned those of us who really enjoyed driving fun cars that aren't tall fat and heavy for no reason.

I have a Jeep for wheeling, a van for the wife and when it came time to replace the WRX, I had to look elsewhere. Now I have a CRX HF for commuting and a Porsche for going fast. There is no room for a Subaru anymore. I miss the old Subaru though.

soulshinobi
soulshinobi New Reader
6/29/11 9:17 a.m.

I like the white lip.

Subarus were never very sharp handling cars (though admittedly sharp-er in the '90s), just very capable, and that hasn't changed. They're not moving away from a sporting heritage (if anything they're moving away from a quirky one if you recall before the '90s). The WRC was a public testing ground, and Subaru still campaigns cars in less costly competitions now. They're still Subarus, and still everything they're meant to be.

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