KEY POINTS:
Subaru New Zealand is not making a lot of noise about its latest-generation hero car, the all-wheel-drive Impreza STi hatchback.
The 12 examples that have already landed here are sold already. The next shipment is due in April, when six are expected. "After that," says Subaru NZ general manager Chris Rickards, "we will get five or six a month."
Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries is building 500 Impreza STi models a month - 100 for the Japanese domestic market and 400 for export. But the United States is taking 50 per cent of export numbers, leaving 200 for the rest of the world.
New Zealand is a small market and has to take its place near the end of the production queue, hence the low numbers and low-key introduction of the STi here.
There will be no flash marketing campaigns, no go-fast television ads. The only hype about the new STi is an in-house catchphrase Subaru executives are keeping pretty much to themselves: "There's the hot hatch and there's the hottest hatch." They reckon that says it all about the new car.
But the Americans, on the other hand, are talking the STi up a storm. The US has never had the Impreza STi and Subaru's marketing people Stateside are billing it as a giant-killer.
The US advertising hype includes strap lines: "It's more than a car, it's a culture", "descended from champions, raised in the dirt" and "heritage behind it, glory before it."
Subaru's marketing people in the US want American owners to join an STi fraternity. Membership is free and includes the 'Fraternity of STi' badge with the code: "Thou shalt always ride the line, Thou shalt always hug the curves, Thou shalt always overtake."
The membership pack also comes with stickers for the STi, showing silhouettes of overtaking "victims", something like the wartime kills fighter pilots painted on their jets' fuselages. In New Zealand, fortunately, the STi owner gets a cap.
The STi was launched on the track at Taupo 48 hours ago. It is shorter than the outgoing car, but taller, wider and with a longer wheelbase. The bodyshell has been beefed up, too, with extra stiffening in the front and rear chassis rails.
The car weighs 1505kg, 10kg heavier than the previous model and comes with a whole bunch of new whizzbang aids, including traction, stability and suspension systems, a centre viscous coupling and limited slip differentials front and rear.
Locked up, drive can be split from the standard cars 59:41 rear/front bias to 50:50. The 50:50 split sharpens turn-in considerably, pushing substantial traction to the front.
The wishbone rear suspension is new, replacing a MacPherson strut set-up. Like the old model, the front suspension struts are inverted.
The STi is powered by a 2.5-litre turbocharged flat-four engine producing 221kW of power at 6000rpm and 407Nm of torque at 4000rpm and driving all four wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. The engine in the previous STi delivered 206kW at 5000rpm and 392Nm at 4000rpm.
The new engine sits 22mm lower and the centre differential has been lowered by 10mm. The car runs Brembo brakes, with four-pot callipers at the front and twin-pots at the rear.
The interior is roomier front and rear, and the switchgear is in the right places. The dash is a no-nonsense design without frills. Just like the car.
On the track, the STi was happy to rev beyond 7000rpm before the read-out on the rev counter demanded the driver go up a cog.
Power delivery aside - and it's certainly on tap despite faint turbo lag at times - the STi resisted every attempt to provoke it into doing something rash. It is accurate, predictable and delightfully adjustable.
Subaru NZ are offering two STi models - the standard unit with five-spoke wheels and alacantra interior for $59,990 and the B-Spec with lighter seven-spoke BBS magnesium wheels, Recaro seats and leather interior for $64,990.
Subaru also took the wraps off its updated Tribeca lifestyle wagon, which gets a whole new face in an effort to counter the vehicle's much-criticised droopy look.
The new model abandons the aeronautical theme Subaru deliberately dialled into the original Tribeca. The aircraft fuselage and wings motif has been replaced by a more conventional large grille with horizontal bars topped by the Subaru logo. Wider narrower headlights replace the triangular, swept-back units. The bonnet has changed too.
The Tribeca is based on a bigger version of the Outback platform. Subaru launched the vehicle in the US in 2005. The name is short for Triangle Below Canal Street, a cutting edge area of New York's Manhattan.
It was meant to convey that the Tribeca was cool, different, distinctive. But Subaru was too late with the car and the look - the hip moved from Canal St to a district under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, known as Dumbo for short.
Changes to the Tribeca haven't been confined to the front. The rear end gets new three-quarter windows and tail-lights. The interior gets a new look too.
Apart from the front end, the most significant change is to the engine. The Tribeca's 3-litre six-cylinder horizontally opposed unit has been replaced by the carmaker's largest engine yet, a 3.6-litre boxer producing 190kW (255bhp) of power and 334Nm of torque.
The new engine is mated to a revised five-speed automatic gearbox with manual mode. Subaru says the Sportshift unit produces faster shifts and weighs less than the current gearbox.
The combination answers criticism about the 3-litre unit - okay for the Legacy range but wanting in the bigger and heavier Tribeca, especially in the hills where it constantly hunted for an efficient gear.
The new look was in place in the company's design centre even before the Tribeca went on sale in New Zealand in 2006. The 3.6-litre Tribeca retails at $67,990.
