With a curb weight identical to the Mitsubishi's (3260 pounds), an axle ratio only slightly less aggressive, and a positive-shifting six-speed manual transmission, the Subaru's extra juice makes it the drag-strip king. One word of warning to those who might try to duplicate our acceleration numbers: Don't. These are not drag racers, and what a stopwatch considers a good start a dealership service department considers a lucrative one. But there it is: a sprint of 4.6 to 60 mph, 0.4-second faster than the Mitsubishi and a figure that's going to be hard to achieve in any car near the STi's $31,520 base price. Our 5-to-60-mph street-start sprint of 5.8 is a more realistic, less-abusive gauge of real-world acceleration. It's all accompanied by a tough-sounding midrange trill of an exhaust note.