Participated in Road & Track Invitational Drive (long po

[sameerrao]

Today, I went to Reliant Park in Houston for an invitation to compare the new Subaru Legacy GT with the BMW 325i and the Volvo V70/S60. They had the sedan and wagon versions. All cars were automatics though. It was a good mix of RWD, AWD and FWD.

There were three courses set up in the parking lot- A Performance course with couple of straights and interesting corners; A Handling corner with a mini slalom in it and a Traction course with some sand thrown strategically at the exit of one corner.

At the parking lot I saw an Imola S4 with a licence plate "00 S4" - I think. Also there was newish Lotus Esprit V8.

We were split into groups of three and rotated between each for all three courses.

I have rated the three cars on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is best based on my seat of the pants impression.

Power:
The BMW was smooth as silk and was a delight thru the corners where it was a delight to smoothly feed the throttle with linear response from the engine. It made the car very easy to drive and fun too. The only problem was the BMW was the slowest in the straight line - on the short straight it was about 5 mph slower than the Subaru and Volvo.

The Volvo was the old school turbo here with the most "on-off" feeling to the throttle. There was quite a pronounced tubo lag here. But when the power hit it was pretty nice.

The Subaru wasn't faster down the straight than the Volvo even though it had more power and torque. The turbo lag was lesser than the Volvo also. But the exhilaration one gets in an S4 was missing.
BMW - 9
Volvo - 6
Subaru - 8

Handling and Suspension
The BMW was fun and agile, it pretty much did a Fred Astaire through the cones and cornered with elan. It exhibited the least amount of understeer and was easy on its tires. Boy! it was fun when exiting one of the tight corners with sand on the exit - the tail came out - to be corrected with a quick opposite flick of the wheel.

The Subaru was the most stable and took all corners pretty well. Had the expected understeer but it wasn't that bad. On the sandy corner it briefly slid but recovered on its own very fast. The main problem was that the car was really softly sprung and seemed to exhibit a lot of squat and dive. The wagon felt like it had better balance than the sedan. One nice feature was that it would turn in on its sown if you momentarily lift the throttle just before the apex.

The Volvo was pretty much out of its depth on the handling sections - it was floaty and didn't likme being pushed around. It was a case of oging fast thru the straights braking early and coasting thru the corners and pretty much wait for the straight before you can pick up the throttle again.
BMW: 10
Subaru: 8
Volvo: 4

Looks and comfort:
BMW: Not fair to comment as it is a 5 year old design - but at least it hasn't been Banglized yet! Still a pleasing look. Interior is nice - to me it had the best driving position of the three. The seats were nice and firm. It was the most cramped of the three in the rear

Subaru: Was pretty nice on the inside. The interior looked scandinavian - looked like a Volvo to me. The matte look plastic in the center console didnt look too upmarket to me. The exterior looks pretty nice from the front but I thought it looks quite bland from the rear. Roomy inside with rear cupholders. The seats were average - nothing special

Volvo - Boring on the outside, OK on the inside. The seats were like comfortable recliners - nice and soft. But I personally like hard seats over long journeys - so I wasn't impressed. Others loved the seats. Nice and roomy. More like a luxury car than a sports sedan.

Overall: I rated the BMW the best of the three as really it had no flaw. Sure it could do with more power but it puts what it has to good use. The Subaru was next best - quite agile and nice for an AWD car but for a 250 hp car it did feel that fast to me. The Volvo was quite unimpressive to me.

Looking at the specs, the Legacy GT and my Audi S4 are fraternal twins. So would I trade in the S4 and buy the Legacy GT? I was curious to see how they would compare. To me I don't really see anything that special that would make me trade in the piggie for the Subaru. The Subaru doesn't feel as fast, its interior quality is not as good. But I think its lower weight helps it in the corners. From a mod standpoint, you can add the STI hardware to have it go up to 300 hp. But you can go more gung-ho on the mod side in the S4 as most of you are already aware.

So I am happy to state that my S4's place in my garage is safe for at least 4 more years. After that I might trade up to a RWD for a change. An M5 perhaps?