TAKING THE MONGREL OUT OF REX

RALLY-BRED ICON TAKES ITS TRADITIONAL VIRTUES OF TRACTION AND PACE UPMARKET, BUT SHEDS SOME OF THE OLD BARK AND BITE ALONG THE WAY

- ALEX INWOOD

TWENTY YEARS AGO, if you wanted a fast and affordable performance car with five seats and all-wheel drive, your choice was simple: buy a Subaru WRX or a Mitsubishi Evo.

Fast-forward to the present, however, and things have changed. The Evo is no more (that one still stings, doesn’t it?) and the WRX has been swamped by a hoard of hugely capable front- and all-wheel drive hatches that are quicker, quieter and more comfortable.

Valiantly, Subaru rallied and the WRX’s recipe was refined and improved, but its icon status had started to wane. It felt more like a visceral throwback than the pioneer it once was, and against tech-infused rivals with slicker interiors and ‘Drift Modes’, you got the sense it was half a step behind.

Now, though, we have an all-new Subaru WRX and the headlines are promising. It rides on Subaru’s stiffer and sharper Subaru Global Platform, the 2.4-litre turbo engine has been overhauled, the cabin is more luxurious and fitted with a large portrait touchscreen and, perhaps most excitingly, buyers once again have the choice of two body styles: a sedan and a wagon.

There’s also a fresh injection of tech with adaptive dampers available on some models and a high level of active safety gear, providing you choose the right variant (more on this later).

The question is, has it worked? Has the WRX once again leapt, sideways, to the top of the affordable performance car segment? Or is it still an old stager for rusted-on Subie fans?

To find out, we drove the WRX range across some of the Victorian high country’s most challenging roads. And the answer, as you’ll soon discover, depends entirely on which WRX you go for…