RE: Spotted: Subaru XT
Discussion
untakenname said:
I remember seeing one near me that was traded in for the scrappage scheme a couple of years back, shame there's only six left on the road as would make an awesome cheap sleeper if you transplanted the running gear from an impreza into one.
Driven a Vortex (what the XT was called back in Oz) many years ago back in Sydney that had a full WRX conversion done. Dear god, that shifted!Price is insane though - you would get a very nice SVX for that money.
We ran a white one of these XT Turbo's (same as in the photo except a manual) from about 1988-1995 took it from 20,000 miles to 120,000 miles very hard driven miles and it coped quite well - it was rust that killed it in the end.
Have not seen one on the road for more than ten years (they rusted badly and they had air suspension struts which were expensive to fix).
When it was launched it was a real leap forward for Subaru, who were mostly selling pick ups and rugged 4wd estates, then this oddball turbo charged sports coupe, switchable 4wd, low drag factor, air suspension which could raise the ride height for rough road use and a space age cabin with a joy stick style gearlever with a button on the top to engage 4wd and a green light on the dash to show when the turbo had built up boost. Plus these cars had the same flat 4 warble you hear on the Impreza which made it a distinctive car.
It looked odd at best, ugly at worst. The handling was ok in 4wd but in 2wd was an understeering pig. It used to wear out tyres in less than 10,000 miles and the early ones had no centre diff so you would get transmission to wind up if driven in 4wd in tight confines eg a 3 point turn.
They obviously learned from all this as the first Impreza turbo was a million times better to drive than these things, but its nice to see a photo of one surviving as it really was an unusual car.
Have not seen one on the road for more than ten years (they rusted badly and they had air suspension struts which were expensive to fix).
When it was launched it was a real leap forward for Subaru, who were mostly selling pick ups and rugged 4wd estates, then this oddball turbo charged sports coupe, switchable 4wd, low drag factor, air suspension which could raise the ride height for rough road use and a space age cabin with a joy stick style gearlever with a button on the top to engage 4wd and a green light on the dash to show when the turbo had built up boost. Plus these cars had the same flat 4 warble you hear on the Impreza which made it a distinctive car.
It looked odd at best, ugly at worst. The handling was ok in 4wd but in 2wd was an understeering pig. It used to wear out tyres in less than 10,000 miles and the early ones had no centre diff so you would get transmission to wind up if driven in 4wd in tight confines eg a 3 point turn.
They obviously learned from all this as the first Impreza turbo was a million times better to drive than these things, but its nice to see a photo of one surviving as it really was an unusual car.
Edited by rallycross on Tuesday 15th May 13:35
J4CKO said:
Chris71 said:
DrMekon said:
If I was going for a quirky Subaru, it'd have to be an SVX
Used to see one in Hove in the mid 90's. Looked other worldly.
Used to see one in Hove in the mid 90's. Looked other worldly.
A more interesting proposition IMHO.
What do we reckon, potential parts bomb or shrewd future classic?
Twincam16 said:
scottiedog said:
This needs to have the digital dash option for the full retro effect!
Don't make em like that anymore
If I had that, I'd rig something up that went bip bip bip, bip bip bip, bip bip bip - CHECKPOINT! every time I went under a motorway gantry.Don't make em like that anymore
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