2018 Subaru WRX STI - Meet STInister
How a Subaru STI became the workhorse of the Motor Trend video crew
You've all seen those murdered-out Porsche Cayennes and Panameras running around with giant robotic arms on them, right? No? Maybe it's an L.A. thing. Known in the biz as Russian Arms, they cost about 1 million bucks, or $25K to rent. Motor Trend's entire budget for an episode of either Ignition or Head 2 Head is less than that. Trouble is, we need a camera car. Preferably a quick one.
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STIninster began life when my co-host Jethro Bovingdon asked me if Porsche would give us a Panamera. That phone call went something like this: Me: "Hey Porsche, can we have a Panamera?" Porsche: "No." Next I called Subaru to ask about an STI: "We have a 2018 in Denver. Will Friday work?" Never has a phone call been easier. As for the name, a quick Google search taught me that there are approximately eleventy billion STIs called "NaSTI." Same sentiment, different spelling.
The brains behind STInister is my co-worker Mahdad Emadipour, who I believe has 17 Ph.D.s in aeronautical engineering. Something like that. Via a whole bunch of camera gear and Home Depot tubing, he created a remote-control camera system that can be operated from inside the vehicle.
My job was to help out with the brawn. First up, Cobb Tuning hooked us up with a Stage One kit to add some power. Our 0-60 dropped by 0.8 second, and the quarter mile fell from 14.1 to 13.4 seconds. Sweet! Because you don't want reflections when filming, the boys at Luxe CC swaddled STIninster in a matte black wrap (though I insisted on the gold tooth). Forgiato made us some custom gold five-spoke wheels, to which Michelin added some ultra-sticky Pilot Sport Cup 2 meats. I think we need to retest STInny on the new wheels and rubber.
Here's the dirty secret about those high-dollar Russian Arms: They don't work above 60 miles per hour. But we've seen as high as 105 mph in STInister, and the picture remains rock solid. Can we go faster? Yes, especially as soon as Mahdad replaces those steel poles with carbon-fiber ones. Stay tuned.
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars.
One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.”
When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.Read More
