No power-up or dual-clutch for STI

The powered-up MY09 Impreza WRX is not a taste of things to come... Least not when it comes to the next model year iteration of the peak Impreza, the WRX STI.

Revised with more power and a tauter chassis for the new model year, the $39,990 WRX is now closer than ever in performance terms to its $25,000 more expensive flagship STI stablemate. Indeed, with 195kW and capable of 0-100km/h times in the low 5sec range (more here), the new WRX could be the performance bargain of the year.

Yet Subaru Australia boss Nick Senior is not concerned that reputation of the marque's STI performance hatch will suffer. Nor does he believe the carmaker needs to power-up the 221kW five-door to redress the performance gap.

According to Senior, there are no plans to significantly revise the MY09 STI. Indeed, the Subaru boss says the next STI will be only a slight revision on the existing car. He's also poured water on speculation the carmaker was close to debuting a twin-clutch transmission in the rally-inspired uber-hatch.

"The STI has been well received. In comparison tests it's done extremely well," Senior told the Carsales Network at this week's launch of the MY09 WRX.

"The MY09 STI will not be launched until the second quarter of next year but there's no changes as significant as this (the MY09 WRX)," he said.

"One area of the market, we're not seeing the volume in STI sales as we would like is that it does not offer a transmission alternative," Senior opined.

"That [performance car] market has dramatically shifted in the last 12 months from being 90 per cent manual and 10 per cent automatic, to being 80 per cent auto or twin clutch, 20 per cent manual.

"As of the latest figures I saw last month, STI is still the top-selling manual car in the category but we don't have a transmission option and that is where we are being penalized in sales."

According to Senior the arrival of an alternative transmission for the STI was "a long term window".

"There is no short term solution," he said.

Senior said the lack of a twin-clutch option was not for lack of a transmission partner or any specific characteristics of Subaru's boxer-engine-based powertrain.

"It [the lack of a dual-clutch option] is more around throwing available resources at developing new models, new technology in terms of diesel engines and some [mass market] transmission technology, that you'll see more about in the future. [And] That on the time scale when some of these decisions were made, that manual transmissions were still the predominant transmission [choice] in that sports car area.

"The shift has come quicker and more dramatically than anyone perceived -- hence the timelines are significantly longer term," he said.

According to Senior Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries was investing in transmission development, but with a different focus.

"There's a number of [transmission technology] alternatives.

"You'll see, both in medium and longer term, some options from Fuji that will become available but that won't include automatic transmission on an STI in the short term," he stated.

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