2006 Subaru Impreza Sti on 2040-cars

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Subaru recalls new Forester over pedal entrapment fears

Pedal entrapment and unintended acceleration are hot-button topics these days, so automakers are always staying alert for potential problems. For Subaru and its newly introduced 2014 Forester, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall due to improperly manufactured floor mats that could become an obstruction for the gas, brake or clutch pedals. The good news, of course, is that even if drivers experience this problem, the 2014 Forester comes standard with brake override.
At issue with the floor mats on 10,137 Forester models built between January and March of this year is that the resin material used on the underside of the mats can curl when exposed to heat. If the leading edge of the driver's mat curls enough, it can come in contact with the pedals making acceleration, braking and shifting more difficult - possibly resulting in a crash. To fix the problem, Subaru is replacing the entire set of floor mats in all of the affected units. The official NHTSA recall notice is posted below.

Subaru planning to use Evoltis name on battery-electric crossover

Two years ago, Subaru Japan applied to trademark the name "Evoltis" in the U.S. At the time, it was thought the name would accompany the brand's new plug-in hybrid or some component of the hybrid system. Instead, the PHEV we got returned the Crosstrek Hybrid name to active use, after Subaru retired the first non-plug-in Crosstrek Hybrid in 2016. Whither the Evoltis, then? According to CarBuzz, citing "reports from Japan," Subaru will apply the moniker to a coming battery-electric crossover it is developing with Toyota. The automaker previewed the concept version of the crossover in January of this year during a technical meeting in Japan, built atop a flexible platform to accommodate multiple production vehicles from both brands. Subaru's known for exciting concepts that get stripped to comparative blandness for production. Perhaps tired of the ensuing vitriol, reports say Subaru's inverting the process this time, the production model promising to be more radical than the concept. That won't be difficult, seeing the concept looked like an appliance from a low-budget sci-fi movie, and if not for the Pleiades badge on the front fascia most enthusiasts probably would have thought the concept was a Toyota. Underneath the eventual sheetmetal, rumors figure electric motors turning both axles will combine to produce about 280 horsepower, supplied by a battery stout enough for a range of more than 300 miles — note, that could be a Japanese-cycle figure for range. The concept sat next to a cutaway of a boxer engine, so it's possible there'll be a number of powertrains on offer. Additional tech could include the next generation of Subaru's EyeSight driver assistants, and cameras providing a 360-degree view around the crossover. The debut's been mentioned for October 2021, which would be the same month as the next Tokyo Motor Show. Market launch won't happen until nearly 2025. From left field comes news of another Evoltis, however. TopGear magazine and other outlets from the Philippines write that our Ascent is headed to the island nation in the third quarter of this year. Instead of taking that name to Southeast Asia, it will get the name Evoltis — that's what Glenn Tan, the deputy chairman and managing director of Subaru's Philippines distributor Tan Chong International, told journalists at this year's Singapore Motor Show.

We race a 2019 Subaru WRX STI up the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb

SHELSLEY WALSH, U.K. — Keep your foot down, I tell myself. Easier said than done in a 2019 Subaru WRX STI on the narrow and treacherous Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb. Right away, thereÂ’s a very hairy fast left sweeper the STI takes in third gear, leading into another left that requires even more bravery: lifting just before entry without braking. The STIÂ’s all-wheel drive helps to pull us up and out of the corner, on the way to the fast straightaway up a steep hill. Abrupt berms, vegetation and walls line the right side, while the left has a poor excuse for a guardrail and a long drop past that. The road itself is extremely narrow – only big enough for one STI at a time – but smooth, picturesque. The prototypical meandering British B-road. An obligatory herd of sheep mill about in the distance partway up the hill, and a few cows watch the STI careen over the finish line.  This is the essence of the British hillclimb, an archaic form of motorsport that has survived to this day. In this pastoral setting, Shelsley Walsh happens to be the oldest continuously running (well, save a break for two world wars) hill climb event in the world, with the first official event being held August 12, 1905. It is, like many British hillclimb courses, almost comically short – just over half a mile, so thereÂ’s not much to memorize. Cars from the early 1900s (when it was still paved with stone) struggled to even make it to the top. Part of that struggle can be attributed to the rule that you must race with a full car of passengers, no less than the number of seats available. Besides that, cars just werenÂ’t very powerful back then, and Shelsley is a steep course. It peaks at a 16 percent grade. The course record belongs to a Gould GR55 NME open-wheel single-seater racecar at just 22.58 seconds. I managed to break into the mid 37s for my fastest run in the STI, but there was still a fair bit of time to be had in the course. Car preservation was much more important than chasing lap records — it was an hour drive back to our lodging that night, and the STI was our ride. There were two flavors of Subarus available to us for the hillclimb, and motoring around the British countryside after. One was the regular WRX STI, and the other was the shockingly expensive (and limited to 500 examples, long sold by now) Type RA. All the minor tweaks and upgrades made a tiny, tangible difference in my hill climb times.