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02-12-2013, 09:48 AM | #51 |
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Yeah, Phoenix has also been a good vendor over on LegacyGT.com for parts from their prepped spec.Bs. I hope they find themselves somewhere involved in Subaru work still.
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02-12-2013, 01:34 PM | #52 | |
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02-12-2013, 05:54 PM | #53 |
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It's definitely a shame that Subaru is pulling the plug on it's road racing program. That being said, I think some folks here are taking this a little too personally. For a auto manufacturer, racing is a business proposition. And if that proposition is not getting them the exposure they want, or they aren't seeing the results they like, that's it, the plug gets pulled, especially with how things are in this economy.
As far as the "I'll be looking somewhere else for my next performance car purchase goes" well, that's pretty unfair. Rewind back about a decade to 2002. Things we're honestly looking pretty bleak in terms of the U.S. sport compact car market. Subaru took a huge risk and decided to bring the WRX to U.S. shores in a time where most auto makers had decided "Americans don't care about performance compact cars". Subsequently, Mitsubishi brought over the Evo, Subaru brought over the STi, the rest is history really. It showed auto makers that there was still a place for a performance car here in the states that didn't have a V8 under the hood, and did something besides go fast in a straight line. So for those ready to jump ship and go "elsewhere" there very well may not have been a "elsewhere" to go would Subaru not have done what they did a decade ago. -Anthony |
02-12-2013, 06:59 PM | #54 | ||
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02-13-2013, 02:51 PM | #55 |
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the fact that Subaru wasn't getting enough exposure from SRRT seems to be largely their own fault. how often do you see the Rally America cars on Drive Performance magazine? what about the SRRT car? what about in their car commercials and other marketing material?
it seems Grand-Am should have been a great place for them to work on getting more exposure, since it is televised. for that reason, I fully understand the push into GRC, and that probably cut into the race program budget significantly. but with NASCAR buying up Grand-Am, it seems they are pulling out just as the opportunity became bigger. if they had been able to provide support for a 2-car team in Grand-Am (not sure if Phoenix would've been able to, either), working out problems would have happened much faster, and odds would have been better to have Subarus finishing races. it really is a bummer that this happened after SRRT had finally worked their way to the front. |
02-13-2013, 03:03 PM | #56 |
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Dumb management by Subaru, poor decision to quit.
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02-13-2013, 03:58 PM | #57 |
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They definitely had some coverage.
http://driveperformance2.subaru.com/...2/roadrace.asp http://driveperformance.subaru.com/d...ts.aspx?page=4 http://subarudriveperformance.typepa...ors_blog/srrt/ I suppose the better question is really who reads Drive Magazine? |
02-13-2013, 04:07 PM | #58 | |
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But seriously, there are some really good performance deals in the 30-40k range and even more when considering used late model. Mustang V6 with performance pack or GT. Mini Cooper S Genesis Coupe Evo X Camaro V6 or SS (1LE would be a great package) If specifically looking at performance sedan; 328, C250, A4 all come to mind over a LGT. |
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02-13-2013, 04:18 PM | #59 |
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Which of the above (I know Ford is) are maintaining a factory Road Racing Team that makes them somehow stand above Subaru in this respect?
The 3 series, C250, and A4 are really not something I would compare to a 4th Gen LGT. They cost 10k or so more, and I'd venture that an LGT at similar 'prep' levels will outperform all of them. Maybe not make more power, but around a track. |
02-13-2013, 04:35 PM | #60 |
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That's sad news........
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02-13-2013, 06:35 PM | #61 |
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yeah, I did see some articles, but never saw a cover (and the cover is what makes people pick up a magazine in a sales room). I actually meant to say "on the cover" in my post, but still, the coverage was very lopsided. Drive Performance showed the Rally America cars many times. I certainly haven't seen all the covers, but I thought I did see a recent one with GRC on the front. so, it seems to me that they are pushing the others, and were mostly ignoring SRRT coverage.
but I agree that Drive and Performance don't have a large audience, and more specifically, are rarely seen by potential new customers. I used it as a gauge because I would expect that the teams themselves aren't paying for spots there, where they might be in other outside publications. so, they had a team they could have used for promotion, and they seemed to ignore it for the dirt programs. I just think they underutilized their own potential marketing of this team, and gave up on them because there were no measurable sales leads from their lack of marketing. |
02-14-2013, 07:29 AM | #62 |
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so toyota starts making sports cars again...and subaru is going to stop in europe...i have a feeling we are next....
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02-14-2013, 05:39 PM | #63 |
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Well, that explains there hasty departure after the Conti race at Daytona, I looked everywhere in the pits and could not find them. After running mid pack (15th) for the first two thirds of the race, they had worked their way up to 4th, with about 20 minutes left. Then a lap into a restart they blew the transmission (or so I was told), they were looking at a strong top 10 finish up to that point.
Bummer that Subaru pulled the funding, I've been a fan since their days in ST. Too bad supporting the team was not one of the contribution options when you bought your new Subaru (instead of the dumb charities i really didn't give a damn about). They seemed to advertise heavily during the Grand Am broadcasts, I wonder if that will be cut back as well. That's racing. |
02-15-2013, 08:21 AM | #64 | |
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02-15-2013, 05:16 PM | #65 |
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What would be cool is, more details on their Road Race car. Such as what works and what doesn't. This would help everyone that is trying to race a Subaru.
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02-17-2013, 12:51 AM | #66 |
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That's a bummer to hear. Another bad move by SOA.
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02-17-2013, 02:36 PM | #67 |
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Check out what I found on Ebay today...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2011-...-/300862871331 |
02-18-2013, 07:21 PM | #68 |
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Subarus golden age ended long ago in 2008. The 2007 wrx and STi was the last good vehicle they made.
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02-18-2013, 09:36 PM | #69 |
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02-18-2013, 09:41 PM | #70 |
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Quite happy with my 2009 spec.B, I'd venture to say it was a good vehicle they made after the 2007 Imprezas.
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02-19-2013, 03:31 PM | #71 |
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Look what i found
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02-19-2013, 03:36 PM | #72 |
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You should read back like, 4 posts.
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02-20-2013, 08:47 AM | #73 |
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Rally racing is what brought me onto Subaru from the get go. Watching Colin McCrae throwing that legacy around the European countryside was probably the most exciting thing I could ever imagine doing on terra. I dont like Toyota as a company as I've had the pleasure of working on a few of them. So far in my experience Subaru is the one Japanese manufacturer that seems to be conscience about the cars they build and the way that they build them. Lately, however, it seems that they are going down a different path. I just hope that Subaru doesn't share the same fate as Lancia (post-Fiat).
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02-20-2013, 09:28 PM | #74 |
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While I don't agree with how Subaru handled this situation, they are leaving road racing so that they can put more focus into rally racing which gives me hope that this new found focus on rally means that Subaru is truely looking to get back into WRC
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02-21-2013, 04:55 PM | #75 | |
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Group N Impreza's have been allowed to compete alongside S2000 spec cars for awhile now in WRC (as well as IRC and other global rally series), in fact years back they made R4 regs to try and make them a bit more competitive against the S2000 cars (with varying results). I suppose they could maybe make a "R4+" spec reg or something to compete against the current World Rally Cars (which are modified S2000 cars). That would be the only way I think you would see a Impreza back in top level WRC, and even then they would have to make some serious reg exemptions to their current rules to make them competitive against the faster, lighter, more nimble, current spec World Rally Cars. I suspect when Subaru says they want to commit more to rallying, they mean U.S. rally program, and maybe Rallycross. I know last I saw the contingency for running a Subaru was pretty good: http://vtcar.com/rally/subaru-contingency-program/ So while I think Subaru's heart is still in rallying, I don't know if/when we will see a Subaru in top level rally like WRC. But hey, we can keep our fingers crossed. -Anthony |
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