Autoblog

If your inner rally driver lusts for something different than the run of the mill Subaru or Mitsubishi, there's a tasty new Gallic morsel to spice things up. Citroen is taking their C2 to the FIA Junior World Rally Championship this year, and the C2-R2 Max Rally kit is their ticket to homologation. The kit keeps the price down, but doesn't skimp on serious pieces. The 1.6-liter engine belts out 190 horsepower, and there's larger brakes and a hydraulic steering rack to keep that power in check and make sure it's properly directed. There's also an adjustable rear suspension to help fend off competitors on the track. All of our puppy-dog enthusiasm is for naught; we can't get this un-subtle killer hatch in the United States. C'est la vie.

[Source: Inside Line]

Alright... so you've openly lusted after the performance envelopes of road-bound rally cars like the Subaru WRX STi and Mitsubishi EVO IX MR, but you can't get around their frump four-door roots, or their look-at-me aerodynamic addenda. So what's keeping the two firms from building a lighter, more lithesome coupe?  Mitsubishi has little excuse, as it already has the rumptastic (if overweight) Eclipse in its fold, a car that was once upon a time known for its turbocharged hooliganism.

Subaru, however, doesn't have the same luck-- the last time it did a two-door coupe, the interestingly-styled SVX, it was an overweight, slow-selling cruiser, not a true performance car. So while enthusiasts have waited around for some time for the boys and gals at Fuji Heavy to pack their winning mechanicals in something smaller and sexier, it's taken the WRC wizards at Prodrive to deliver.

Seen here is the P2, a car that's been hinted about for some time, and Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear is the first scribe we know of to drive it... as well as suffer its ill-effects.

Based on Subaru's diminutive R1 supermini, but packing the drivetrain from the WRX STi with a bigger turbo, and the attractively 'New Edge with chunk' styled P2 puts 345 brake horsepower worth of smack down. The net-net? 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds, and a top speed of 174 mph.

Better still, Clarkson figures, is the handling. The engineers at Prodrive have not only figured out some sort of indescribably complex anti-lag system for the turbocharger, they've gone and developed a driver-adjustable active center differential. While the latter trinket doesn't sound terribly different from a bog-standard STi's piece, the Subaru's is essentially a mechanical system, while the P2's is supervised and informed by all manner of sensors, including yaw, throttle position, and so on. The end result is a coupe that can be neatly tailored for the demands of the road and the driver-- safe as houses understeer, or tail-out antics. It all works so well that it makes Clarkson sick-- literally.

Sadly, according to JC, ProDrive has no plans to put the P2 into production. 

[Source: TopGear via YouTube]

Given the somewhat lackluster response by consumers to Subaru's B9 Tribeca, the automaker's first 'real' crossover could probably use a little help. Enter COBB Tuning, a Subie-specific tuning house best known for ratcheting up the performance envelope of the WRX and Forester, has stepped in to augment the controversially-styled vehicle with improvements in three areas: Power, Control and Styling.

To that end, the tuners put together a Rotrex compressor-based supercharger setup with a side-mount air-to-air intercooler. Along with a reworked programmable ECU, the 3.0-liter flat-six generates 320 horsepower and 270 lb.-ft. of twist. To give the force-fed Tribeca a properly sporting tone, a COBB-designed cat-back set of pipework was fitted.

Given the bonus chutzpah, COBB wisely added big brakes (four-piston, 13" units) and a lowered, retuned suspension, along with a set of 20" x 9" Advan Connoisseurs in a bronze finish.

Of course, the B9's Achilles heel has arguably been its aesthetics. In an effort to clean up its visuals, their stylemeisters have added black mesh grille inserts, modified headlamps, and shaved the roof rack rails. According to COBB, the changes were inspired by "older Soviet MiG fighter planes," which may be a bit of stylistic hyperbole, but there's no denying that the reworked schnoz looks a good deal more aggressive than the factory's take.

Autoblog's staffers haven't had the opportunity to sample any of company's handywork first-hand, but we were there to watch a COBB-prepped 2004 Forester XT make an improbable run to a 14th place finish in One Lap Of America two years ago, and if Subaru won't oblige enthusiasts with an STi variant, this aftermarket solution ought to do the trick.

[Sources: COBB Tuning; One Lap of America]

 

Subaru is well-known for knocking out special edition models of their performance-minded lineup at the rate of about one every 15 minutes. Problem is, historically we haven't had access to them here in the U.S.-- they've largely been Japan-only, UK-only, or mainland Europe exclusives. For Stateside automobile aficionados, it's been tortuous stuff.

Fortunately, Subaru has been showing signs that it is ready to ingratiate itself more thoroughly with American enthusiasts. Last year, it brought a limited run of 500 units of its Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B to U.S. dealers, and this year, it returns as a regular production model. For 2007, the already excellent Scooby sedan gets a reworked version of the six-speed manual gearbox found in the WRX STi, along with Vehicle Dynamics Control (a stability control system previously only seen on the B9 Tribeca and high-end Outbacks) and a tire pressure monitoring system. Underneath, it also arrives with the Bilstein Sport Suspension of last year's spec.B, incorporating inverted struts up front and aluminum lower control arms. The rear architecture has been subtly reworked as well, incorporating aluminum rear arms and upper links (lesser Legacy models make do with cast iron bits).

(More impressions and press conference shots, plus dozens of stock images and press release after the jump!)

 

Already available in Europe as the Suzuki SX-4 and Fiat Sedici after its Geneva Motor Show debut, the SX-4 crossover jumps the pond to U.S. showrooms later this year. The five-door hatch is targeted squarely at younger buyers (although it ought to be a popular tag-along vehicle for the RV demographic as well), or as Suzuki likes to call them "Life Enthusiasts." The full-on rally concept exhibited alongside the street version may point to a higher-performance version down the road, and certainly won't hurt the SX-4's AWD/all-conditions image.

In the suddenly crowded small car segment, the Suzuki sets itself apart as the lowest priced all-wheel drive vehicle sold in the U.S., with prices in the $15,000 to $18,000 range.

Live shots from Eric, press shots from Suzuki and full specs - all yours after the jump.

You asked for it, and we're doing our best to listen. Chief on our readership's list was more shots of the Mitsubishi Evo X, which marked its North American debut with its New York appearance.

This red-hot number impresses in person not with its beauty, but with its intimidating nose and massively wide stance. We're happy to report that the showcar's interior is every bit as merciless-looking as the exterior, with metal fittings, racing seats and harnesses, and a dashboard clearly geared toward high-speed driving. The interior's high metal parts count and expensive materials bear out that this is definitely a show piece, but marque devotees can hope for accomodations heavily influenced by this showstopper.

Although no more information was forthcoming, we took a bevy of snapshots in and out for rally fans to drool over, including a couple of high-resolution images. Check them out after the jump!