Jamie from Officially Gassed – OG organized a fun drag race that had two very different contenders take on each other. It was a Stage 1 Audi RS3 up against a stripped-out Subaru Impreza WRX STI. The Subaru is an old-school car with a manual gearbox, whereas the RS3 comes with all the modern tech and a lightning-quick DSG gearbox. The Audi makes slightly more power than the Subaru, but it is also over 900 pounds heavier. Which car do you think will get the win here?

It’s A Highly-Modded Subaru Impreza WRX STI Versus A Stage 1 Audi RS3

The first contender is the old-school Hawkeye Subaru Impreza WRX STI. It comes with a whole lot of changes under the hood, like a fully forged EJ25 engine, an RRX450+ ceramic turbo, etc. It is completely stripped-out and features a carbon floor, carbon roof, and a carbon boot floor that further helps with weight reduction. Thanks to all these saving measures, the car weighs around 2,425 pounds only.

This isn’t stock either, and the mods include a forged motorsport inlet hard pipe and turbo elbow, a BMC panel filter, a Stage 1 remap, and a TCU gearbox remap. It stands at 3,330 pounds, which makes it 905 pounds heavier than the Subaru!

How Did They Fare Against Each Other?

First up, they ran 0-60 mph to set the pace for the race. The Subaru took 4.21 seconds to sprint to 60 mph, falling a hell lot short of the German, which took just 3.19 seconds. However, it must be noted that the RS3 comes with a dual-clutch automatic, unlike its rival’s manual gearbox, and also has a launch control to aid those perfect starts.

So, to make things a little fair, the RS3 was tested again, this time, without the Launch Control. But, it was still faster than the Subaru and took 3.48 seconds. The second round was the individual quarter-mile run. Here, the Subaru took 12.82 seconds at 109 mph, again falling short of the Audi RS3’s 11.51 seconds at 120 mph.

They finally got to the drag race. Seeing the trend, there was no way the Subaru could win… and it didn’t. It lost by probably around a second, although the times were not revealed. They then got together for a rolling race from 40 mph. The Subaru had a better kickdown and stayed ahead of the RS3 for quite a bit, but the Audi eventually took the lead and the win to claim a clean sweep over the Japanese car.

Conclusion

For a car that’s essentially made for rallying, the Subaru did impressively well even with some odds stacked against it. Watch the video below and share your thoughts with us in the comments section.