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Subaru Announces New Platforms For WRX, STI
September 10, 2019
There are reports coming out of Japan that we have seen in Road & Track as well as Auto Blog that seem to confirm that the 2021 STI is going to get a complete ground up make-over.
There are two big pieces of information in these stories. The first is that the WRX and STI are going to move onto the global Impreza platform. This is significant because in years past (think the GD chassis from 2002 - 2007) a make-over wasn't really structural as much as appearance based. Subaru would change the bumper, headlights and hood which would give the car a different appearance, but under the body panels, the car remained mostly untouched. But since Subaru is moving the car to a different platform, there is a good chance that we could see some significant changes to the STI and WRX again.
The concept that was recently shown that is meant to demonstrate the direction Subaru is taking with this new generation is the Visiv Performance Concept, and the Visiv Tourer Concept. The Visiv Tourer Concept looks a lot like a next generation Levorg Wagon (which we didn't get here in the US). Could this mean that we will at least get a WRX Wagon again? For those of us that love having a Subaru that is fast and fun to drive, but that can carry stuff too, we can only hope.
But the even bigger news is that for 2021, the STI will be getting a direct-injected engine. The WRX has had a direct injected FA20DIT since 2015, and for 2021 the JDM STI will be getting a tuned version of that engine that they are reporting will make 315hp. What's really interesting is the speculation that for the US market, the STI will get a version of the FA24DIT that's in the Subaru Ascent.
We have seen how easy it is to get the FA20 WRX to make power with some simple bolt-ons, so it is very easy to believe that Subaru could give us a 2.0 liter STI that makes 315 hp on the current platform. But if we could get a bit of extra displacement for the STI, that should really open up some potential for the tune-ability of the DIT platform. Either way, the hope would be that Subaru would fortify some of the weaker links of the Directed Injected platform so make it more reliable in the higher power configuration.
And if they could bring back a port injector as well, that would be a welcome addition too.
Direct injection offers a lot of benefits in terms of efficiency but now that there are a number of cars that have had Direct Ignition for a long time, there are some unique issues that also come up with Direct injection. Carbon build-up on the valves is definitely the most common one, but for higher power applications, and especially higher revving applications, it can be hard to get enough fuel into the cylinder with only a DI injector. For the STI at least, it would make a lot of sense to go with dual port and direct injectors to make the platform more reliable, and to keep the tune-ability of the STI high.
Let's hope that Subaru is paying close attention to what the enthusiasts are looking for from the next-Generation STI so that they can really blow our doors off.
-Jon Cooley