Subaru Legacy West drive sedan since 2009 sedan

Subaru Legacy, Subaru Legacy Wagon

The long-awaited car with manual transmission and a 6-cylinder engine
The Legacy family, namely, in the lineup of the 3.0R set, on which the Subaru Boxer H6 engine is installed (a 6-cylinder engine with the opposite location of the cylinders), a replenishment appeared: a new model with a mechanical gearbox. I wrote in the title of the paragraph that this model is long -awaited, since I have some reason to state my personal point of view on this event. The fact is that once in one of my automobile reports I noticed that it would be nice to test the sports sedan of the Legacy brand with a 6-cylinder engine, but with manual speed switching. Rummaging through my archive, I even found this manuscript. Here it is, dated to Mai 2001. And it concerned the Legacy car of the previous generation, namely the Legacy Touring Wagon model. So, in size it is the Legacy body, and it has a 6-cylinder engine with a volume of 3.0 liters. According to all the rules, such a car should accelerate well in any situation and starting at any speed. Still, because the engine has such a large working volume, such a high torque! But the problem is that the engine of this Subaru Legacy refers to the category of high -speed engines. And therefore, at low and medium -speeds, he cannot quite intensively tear the car forward. And when trial trips on the then Legacy car with a 4-speed automatic gearbox, this was clearly noticeable. In such a combination, the engine could not demonstrate everything that it was capable of.
In order for the engine similar to this to demonstrate all its advantages, it was required to supplement it with a mechanical box, on which you can choose a gear ratio at the junction of two gears and thus hold such turns that are most consistent with the conditions of movement. Take, for example, the former generation of Legacy with a 4-speed automatic gearbox. If the owner assumed that he would move mainly along the city streets, where a lot of acceptance is needed, then the best option with a 2.5-liter engine with 4 cylinders suited him. Last year, the engine of the 4th generation of the 3.0R modification car was finally adjusted towards the average revolutions, and instead of a 4-speed transmission, a box appeared on it with 5 speeds and cross-interior gears. But if we take into account the main characteristics of the 6-cydindry opposition engine Subaru, it turned out that the most suitable option is a manual gearbox. I remember this, I came to the conclusion then, and this doubt never left me.
Of course, I have nothing to do with me and such experts. These themselves are the engineers of Subaru finally ripened. If you recall, after the 4th generation debut last year, engineers all as one argued that they have ripened the idea to put a 6-cylinder motor on a combination with a manual gearbox on their car. Already in the spring of this year, a conceptual model of Legacy was exhibited at the Motor Show in Geneva, which included a 6-cylinder opposition engine, SPEC B4 suspension and a 6-speed gearbox with manual switching. And autumn, and an official announcement about the appearance of such a car on the market.
 
Eliminate the difference between European and Japanese execution
The previous Legacy model with manual gear shifts, even in its highest-speed version, 2.0gt Spec B was equipped with only a 5-speed gearbox. Therefore, the real model is essentially the first time when a 6 -speed manual transmission appears on the machine of the Legacy family (model ST 401 with its limited circulation does not count). Finally! Indeed, in Europe this model is already known. And her European drivers recognized her after an expanded exhibition and sale was held. As a result, the Subaru Legacy 3.0R car with a 6-speed manual gearbox was widely recognized in the western market in the FAN To Drive machine sector, where such manufacturers of first-class sports sedans, such as BMW, dispute the palm. For this reason, Legacy 3.0R was not only equipped with a 6-speed hand gearbox, but, as I already noted, was a sports adjustment in the Subaru company according to the scheme called Spec B. And the car was selected as a standard of adjustment (TOP SPEC) 2.0gt Spec B.
The 6-speed gearbox here is almost the same as on the Impreza WRX STI car. However, since we are talking about the type of transmission, which is intended for installation on the most cool models of the Legacy family, it has passed special adjustment, including to improve handling. Indeed, in relation to such a sports model as impreza, switching should be sharp and hard, with a short course of the switching lever. At the same time, for the car of the Legacy family, it was necessary to maintain the accuracy of switching, but to make it smooth, with a softer clutch. It should be noted that the greatest difficulty was that the box itself makes a very tangible working noise. And in Europe, for example, there are clear restrictions on noisiness. Therefore, internal gear gears had to be made more durable and their transmitting coefficient is increased. By this, the new box is significantly different from the one that stands on Impreza.
The suspension adjustment using BillStein shock absorbers was significantly different from the one that was used on the Legacy GT Spec B C 2 -liter turbine engine, although both cars belong to the same series - Spec B. This difference was that the suspension became a little softer.
 
Sports model worthy to represent Japan
What can be said about the differences between a 4-cylinder opposition engine from its 6-cylinder counterpart? The latter, of course, has a large length and increased weight. The Legacy series models always gravitates to 4-cylinder engines, so active admirers of these machines may have objections: they say, a 6-cylinder engine is no longer, uncomfortable in maintenance, etc. I believe that these objections are insignificant. As many probably already know, both a 4-cylinder opponent, and a 6-cylinder were developed for installation on small cars and were calculated taking into account the permissible sizes of cylinder blocks. For example, the length of the 6-cylinder engine differs from a 4-cylinder less than 20 mm, and as for the engine weight, it is almost equal to the weight of a 4-cylinder brother with a turbocharger.
What, however, can cause a complication when driving on a 6-speed hand gearbox? They explained to me that the appearance of a machine equipped with such a transmission was postponed during the year because, supposedly, that it was necessary to improve its controllability. This is a reasonable argument. In fact, this is on a sports car to force a lever in order to perform switching. On a regular machine, it is better to have a softer operation of the switching mechanism to switch with one fingers. But at the same time, the number of gearboxes is quite large, and the high -speed range of the engine rotation speed is distributed unevenly between the gears. Subaru engineers insist that the range from the 1st to the 4th gear is the most important turning, and the 5th and 6th programs are intended for movement along the highway. But in this case there is a large gap between the 2nd and 3rd programs. And in Japan with its many mountain roads, this circumstance will surely cause a lot of inconvenience. Restriction on the speed of engine rotation when driving in 2nd gear is 7,000 rpm. If you then switch to the 3rd gear, the turnover falls to 4000 rpm. But when driving up the mountain in 6th gear, while the car returned to the previous traction, several moments will pass. Having tightened the ride in the 2-3rd gear, you have to go to the 4th of the uncomfortable position. That is, I want to say that in order for the ride on mountain Japanese roads to give pleasure, it is necessary to donate a distance between the 1st and 2nd speeds to bring the distance between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th programs. The range of peak power, developed by the 6-cylinder Opposite engine Subaru, as I already noted, is remarkably shifted to the high-speed zone. Thus, choosing the appropriate speed of rotation of the engine using manual speed switching, you can stretch this zone to one more, maybe even by two steps. This is my personal point of view, and perhaps someone else will want to choose a different distribution of power between transmissions. As they say, desires have no limits.
It is no secret that many owners of Japanese cars love power orientation cars, and many of these owners prefer to all the Legacy family. For such amateurs, I think, the 3.0r Spec B model is quite suitable, which until recently behaved a little sluggishly on the road, but now, after its high-cost engine was complemented by a 6-speed manual transmission, it has become completely different. If you do not take into account cars equipped with a high -tech ADA system, then this model has become the most expensive of all Legacy cars available. Therefore, in any situation, the volume of its sales will not become too large. But I am sure that it has such a potential that will allow it to adequately represent Japan in the category of sports sedans and station wagons.
 
 
 

Source: CarView.co.jp