2024 Subaru WRX RS Review: Track Upgrades Make a More Fun Road Car

Photos by: Jeff Wilson

It was an impressive flex by Subaru. Not only had they invited a handful of automotive reviewers to come and sample the highest-performing versions of their WRX and BRZ models at Shannonville Motorsport Park, but then they made it pour with rain.

For most car companies, rain at a track event spells disaster, but for Subaru it simply helped show off just what makes a car like the WRX so great. It’s a bonafide performance machine that isn’t just suited to sunny days and smooth pavement, but gravel roads and puddle splashes too.

Even still, Subaru has heard the requests for a sharper, more track-focused WRX and that’s where the new RS trim comes in ( TR in the United States). Like its BRZ tS sibling, the biggest upgrade isn’t to the powertrain, but to the brakes. The RS gets bright red, six-piston Brembo front calipers clamping down on cross-drilled rotors that have grown an inch, while the rear, 2-piston binders squeeze discs that are roughly an inch-and-a-half bigger than before.

An upside to having the manufacturer do the tuner-car upgrades is that they tend to be really well-sorted, and Subaru has taken pains to calibrate these brakes with their steroidal stopping power to be usable in a street setting too. They’ve got fantastic bite and a firm pedal feel, but they’re not grabby, being easy to modulate even when puttering around on the road.

Although it has a different name in Canada compared to the United States, the RS and TR are nearly identical. In the United States, it lists for $42,755 (all prices include destination charges). In Canada, it's a major bargain, costing just $43,990. For comparison, the WRX TR costs $3,480 less than a 2024 Toyota GR Corolla Circuit Edition in America. In Canada, the WRX RS under cuts the GR Corolla Circuit by a whopping $14,920.

To help get the most out of those Brembos, the RS also gets a set of larger wheels (19-inchers) wrapped with sticky Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires instead of the Dunlop Sport Maxx GT600As found on the other WRXes.

The first of the two-day lapping event was a warm, sunny one. My peers on the first day didn’t hold back on their abuse of the tires and brakes, making me presume Subaru would be replacing everything for a fresh start the second day for the arrival of the second group. Not so, yet despite that, the brakes were wonderfully fade-free and the tires still clung to the track just fine, reinforcing that these upgrades are a decent choice.

During our morning lapping session, the track was still mostly dry and we began in the smaller, lighter BRZ tS. Hopping out of the little coupe and into the WRX RS clarified just how different the two performance cars are in terms of feel and mission. The BRZ was already a fleet-footed and rewarding handler, but the slight upgrades to the tS made it sharper and better-suited to the track than before. The WRX’s turbocharged engine makes its significantly greater torque and horsepower felt as soon as the driver has exited the pit, and the new brakes are brilliant. But even initiating turn-in at the first corner, the bigger car’s mass, height and softer suspension became evident.

The WRX’s handling upgrades are incremental, and while they’ll surely help a skilled driver shave fractional time from his or her laps, someone looking to tune their WRX with lapping days being the top priority will still likely find it still too soft. Not wanting to sound ungrateful for the efforts Subaru has done to the RS, know that it is still tremendous fun to grab it by the scruff of the neck and drive it wildly around the track. Its all-wheel-drive system means a driver can be more ham-fisted when picking a line, and jump back on the throttle early for corner exit, just as it’s always been. It’ll even make a mediocre driver feel like an ace as it drifts into little, easily-controlled slides. Plus, that compliant suspension means if a tire or two drops on to the dirt, or over the curbing, it’s not going to upset the car like it would in something stiffer and lower.

When given the choice between the two cars for lapping, the BRZ seemed to be the more popular pick amongst our group despite its relative power deficit. Such is the joy of dancing the smaller car around the course, its steering providing scalpel-sharp reactions to subtle driver inputs. But when the rain came down harder as the day went on, the BRZ became more of a handful, while the WRX just kept confidently doing its thing.

Finally, so much water was pooling on the pavement (and the maintenance crew had become weary from rescuing a wayward BRZ stuck in the mud) that officials shut down the track, at which point, a few of us took to the secondary rural roads in the area to continue our testing of the new RS. There, on the pock-marked, partly-flooded and gravel roads, the WRX had as much fun as a four-year-old splashing in puddles. Recalling its rally car heritage, the Subie blasted around, wipers furiously whipping water from the windshield, and with me grinning ear-to-ear, all the while being hugged by the RS’s standard Recaro seats.

This is the point of the WRX. Although it’s more refined than ever before, the new RS simply makes it more of what most buyers probably want their sports sedan to be. It’s slightly more capable at ripping off quicker lap times, but now, out on the roads, the sharper steering, better braking and grip just make it more fun to fling around. Best of all, the WRX RS is still comfortable and practical enough to be used for daily, family duties, but wild enough to be tons of fun regardless of the road surface, or whether its dry, wet or even snowy. That’s what we’ve always loved about the WRX, and it continues to be one of the best choices for a real-world, every day performance car. With the RS trim, it’s just even more fun. Nice flex, Subaru.

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