For obvious reasons, we give a lot of credit to a fun manual car to the stick itself. But shifting requires other steps, making it a more complicated dance. Skip a few of those steps and you’ll trip over yourself. Luckily, our long term 2023 Subaru WRX makes sure the rest of the details are correct and keeps dancing all day and night.
One of the great failures of modern manual machines is rev-hang. Probably a result of trying to emissions down, many manual transmission cars, especially turbocharged cars, stubbornly cling to the RPM that was reached when you depress the clutch pedal. This can make for some tricky upshifts when you really want the RPM to drop for the next gear. The problem is also often accompanied by relatively slow acceleration. This makes it difficult to get the RPM up for a quick and smooth downshift. Subaru avoids both problems. The engine feels free, both up and down when shifting. Not only does it make it smoother when shifting, it gives the engine and the car a more playful feel in general.
Pedals are also a tricky thing. The most common mistake is a set of pedals that are very far apart, which makes heel-and-toe downshifting (where you brake with your right foot while pressing the accelerator to match the RPM with your heel or the right side of the same foot) is very difficult. Again, the WRX gets the pedals just right. They’re so close together that it’s a breeze to get your foot over the brake and gas, and the brake pedal is high enough that it lines up nicely with the gas pedal when you apply pressure.
These features are further appreciated because the rather old-school nature of the WRX means there’s no automatic rev-matching feature like some of its competitors. And while it would still be nice to see such a feature, as it’s very effective and makes it easier for manual transmission novices to learn, we’d rather stick with the strong fundamentals of the engine and pedal than opt for a bit of everyday tech. Way to go, Subaru.