This afternoon, I went with my manager to test drive the Subaru Forrester. He wants an SUV and will only drive a manual transmission so his choices were limited. Today's test drive was the Forester.

First of all, Subaru is awesome about Test drives. The sales guy gave us the keys to both a XS (4 cylinder NA) and the XT (turbo model) and said enjoy. Keep them out as long as you like. He didn't come along. Awesome experience! Props to Subaru!

We first took out the XS. It was solid, quiet, handled well (for a SUV) and had adequate power. Overall it was a nice truck for it's price (~23k). Shifter was a little vague but it had a nice clutch action. The interior was decent with solid feeling buttons and firm plastic. Only complaint was the crappy cloth seat material.

Next drive was the XT. This is the Turbo model that uses a supposedly de-tuned version of the STi's 2.5L Turbo I4. It's quoted at 210hp, but I can tell you without a doubt that this figure is HIGHLY underrated.

I remember a few months back when C&D tested the Forrester at 5.3 0-60 and a 13.8 1/4 mile. A bunch of people here were in disbelief, including me. The thought of getting burnt by a mommy SUV while driving my Z sickened me.

Well, let me tell you that the figures from C&D were not a lie. This truck is freaking fast. It has decent torque before the boost comes up around 3-3.5k... After that, it's takes off like it got rear ended by an 18 wheeler. I have to say that it felt about or almost as fast as my Z and definitely faster than my CL.

I never thought I'd say this before, but I believe this truck has too much power. I almost crashed as I was taking a turn because it's easy to go too fast. It still handles and brakes like a truck, so you have to be really careful not to go beyond it's limits.

Overall, I was very impressed with the performance of this truck. It was definitely faster than the WRX I have driven in the past and more pleasant due to the extra torque due to a .5L size advantage.

My manager was also very impressed, but he felt the same way that this model has too much power and feared he'd lose control one day or get too many tickets.

Moral of this story: For those of you here driving your CL's, G35's and Z's - beware of the Forester's with a hood scoop! (in a straight line of course)

 

My dad just got one. Who will win?????????? My dad got an auto cause he needs to drive people around, plus he needed a reason to get another car so my mom can drive it. we have 4 cars for 3 people.

 

Can you say baby Typhoon! A few XT owners from NASIOC are running low 14's to high 13's stock.. I think that is impressive for such a lil truck.. I saw one yesterday and he gaved me a friendly waved.. I guess it's a hoodscoop thing.. lol

 

This is very interesting...I was just thinking of what the potential of this Forester XT (MT) could be. It is basically the same displacement as the STi & with a few mods this thing could be a real threat to many unsuspecting V8's & imports. After reading the thread about the 11 sec Ford Explorer I think we could have a new trend...SUV Sleepers

:thinking:...or how about swapping the STi's Engine & 6-speed tranny into the Forester!!!

 

I may be incorrect, but I believe the Forester has the STi's engine, just with less boost and maybe missing the variable valve timing. I'm sure with an increase in boost, the Forester would run some pretty sweet times.

The problem is that it's an SUV. It handles and stops like an SUV. Totally not fun to drive in a sporty manner.

 

SO this thing is FASTER than a WRX

 

You are correct, the handling is no where near that of a Sti or even a WRX, but it sure would be nice to shock a few people in a straight line.

 

SEE I TOLD YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!! HA HAHA

 

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...light=forester

 

We bought ours at the end of August and love it.
http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...hreadid=112105

Check out the Subaru Forester Forums at http://www.subaruforester.com and the NASIOC Forester Section at http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/foru...s=&forumid=36.

After simple suspension upgrades, people are already autocrossing these and kicking ass. Dynos by some of the respected Subaru tuners show that the XT was significantly underrated by Subaru (people speculate this was on purpose so as not to make the WRX people too upset). Flywheel HP is estimated at 235 and torque is estimated at 265 ftlb. At the wheels, a stock XT made 192 HP and 221 torque AWD.

Suspension mods are the same as the STi, so that stuff is already out there. Performance mods are coming. The large Subaru tuners (Cobb, Vishnu...) are already working on this stuff.

The big complaint about the Forester is its large final gear ration of 4.4. It works well for the 4EAT, but the 5MT guys are complaining a lot about this.

Within it's class (the mini-SUV), the Forester XT really is way ahead of it's challengers. The one thing that this class of vehicles needs is a luxury or luxury hybrid. I know Acura is supposed to come out with a luxury form of the CR-V in 2007 -- that'll change the playing field significantly.

We love our Forester!

 

Engine - same 2.5 block with semi closed deck, same forged internals. Both have variable valve timing (called ACVS in Subaru-ese), twin cams, electronic throttle, sodium filled valves...

Subaru has not come out and said it, but when you compare the specs of the STi and the F-XT engine, they are the same. Performance differences seem to lie in the turbo, intercooler, and ECU mapping. The STi also has a 6MT with better top ratio.

Turbo - Smaller turbo in the Forester with max boost set at 11.6 psi (I think). This is the same turbo as in the WRX. People have already tweaked this to get more boost (to 15 psi). Smaller turbo means less lag, but also less boost.

Intercooler - STi has larger intercooler. People have already put on the STi intercooler. Semi-simple bolt on mod.

ECU - STi obviously has more aggressive mapping. Vishnu and Cobb are expected to come out with re-flashes very soon.

Suspension -- as said above, people are already autocrossing these. The poor skidpad rating in the C&D article is directly attributed to the stock tires. Upgrade to summer tires and this car is going to be one of the ultimate sleepers. People have already confirmed fitment of WRX/STi destined springs, coilovers, sway bars, tie end bars, and bushings.

 

interior looks nice too!! wheels kind of look like 2003 CL wheels.

 

Holy sh!t i never would have though they were that fast.