The meanest car in Subaru's lineup having a slush box? Some of you may be having a laugh, but to the masses it seems like a plan.

Photos: Joel Tam

To the purists, having an automatic transmission mated to a World Rally Championship derived production car like the Subaru WRX STI is an anomaly, a laughing stock. In fact when the concept of having such a car was first mooted, derisive comments were passed about how pointless such a car would be without a manual gearbox, and I'm sure you would have heard a fair bit in your time. But in all honestly, purists are often nothing more than a minority, more so in Singapore whose populace enjoy having something that possesses the best of qualities in all aspects.

In recent times, the automatic gearbox seems to have enjoyed an increase in popularity, even with the performance makes and in this case an automatic STI. In fact they now come in all sorts of guises these days, with the likes of the double clutches and CVTs. Having one pedal less may be a boon to driving a performance car too, with the driver having one less motion to go through.

Subaru has jumped onto the bandwagon of introducing an automatic version of their high performance STI, a road legal pseudo-rally car that is the top of the range in the Impreza lineup. The introduction of an automatic version to Subaru's highly sought after Impreza dubbed the A-Line helps widen its appeal a fair bit as it reaches out to a more generic target segment.

Like the manual STI, the A-Line is equipped with Subaru’s SI-Drive system that allows the driver to select his or her preferred mode of driving, a trend that is commonly found in most performance cars these days. With the SI-Drive, three modes are available. Push the knob downwards to select 'Intelligent' for eco-friendly driving, twist the knob left for the normal 'Sport' and right for 'Sport Sharp' if you need sharpened throttle response for spirited driving. Naturally, we had it in 'Sport Sharp' for the most part.

With the A-Line's 2.5 litre turbocharged boxer churning out 300bhp and 350Nm worth of pulling power coupled to an All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) drive train, the car was no slouch as it performed ably through a series of bends. Though turbo lag was present at lower revs, the car soon had us pinned to our seats as it picked up pace on boost when the tacho's needle made its gradual ascent. However, the automatic gearbox, though responsive, needed some time to react to the throttle inputs as the A-Line uses an automatic torque converter with a '+/-' manual selection mode as compared to other cars with the modern double clutch technology.

Exterior wise, the A-Line is typical STI fare with its bonnet scoop, flared wheels arches and STI badge on the grille amongst others. What separates it from its manual transmission sibling is the lack of Brembo brakes, which doesn't make much sense as the A-Line is still clearly a bona fide STI, so why does it have to settle for less stopping power?

Inside, the A-Line is equipped with the bells and whistles of most modern automatic performance cars. These include a stylish looking engine start-stop button, sporty paddle shifters on the steering wheel and an eight-way electrically adjustable driver seat, apart from these, the rest of the interior is pretty much what you get in a manual STI.

In summary, though the A-Line misses out in some aspects, such as the cool Brembo brakes and Driver Controlled Centre Differential (DCCD) found in the manual STI, it compensates with other amenities such as keyless operation and an electrically adjustable driver's seat amongst others. And with performance that is close to that of a manual STI, with the ease of driving it as an automatic, it is a definite winner that would appeal to those who are in the market for a performance ride that is easy to drive. Purists need not apply though.