Forester SUV of the year 2014

Gidday Tempo

Nice find, mate.

Nice to see, too.

But isn't it just a bit early for 2014?

:biggrin: :lol:
 
Someone gets a 2.5 litre manual.... Bloody Subaru Australia. Doesn't matter now anyway. Without dual range, the car will never be what it was.
 
^ Quite right.

Doesn't matter how much people rubbish the 1.196:1 LR in the SG, I find it very bloody useful. Quite different from having just a sixth gear ...
 
Doesn't matter how much people rubbish the 1.196:1 LR in the SG, I find it very bloody useful. Quite different from having just a sixth gear ...

You wouldnt believe the difference if you had the SF LR. 1.447:1 is like a whole new gearbox, not just a new gear :iconwink:
 
^ Gidday NL

I really, really don't need, or want, that.

My '68 LC had 1.995:1 LR (IIRC), so I appreciate the benefits of having lower range gearboxes than the one I have. Have also driven plenty of other vehicles and tractors that had similar.

However, with the 1.196:1 LR, one has the benefits accruing from having a different gear set, without the downside of having a really LR gear set.

The low end torque of the > MY 2005 (i.e. MY06) Forester engines makes up for the change in LR ratio from the SF to the first generation SG models.

It appears that Subaru made two engines for the SG, one with variable valve lift technology from the MY06 onwards (includes the EJ25 in SWMBO's MY10 SH). The later models of the SH series had the FB engine in them (> MY 2010, i.e. MY11 onwards). I don't know anything about that engine.

The VVLT in the N/A EJ25 engines is different from the VVTT in the turbo Foresters. It is explained somewhat poorly in the Haynes Manual. Of the two inlet valves, one is fixed on one cam lobe, with one rocker arm. The other has two rocker arms that are locked together up to about 4000 rpm. Above 4000 rpm, they disconnect with the low rev one free-wheeling and the other following a high lift, long duration lobe. It seems to me that this is what gives the later Forester EJ25 engine from MY06 onwards such a wide, flat torque curve. Someone please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this ...

What the upshot of it is is that the VVLT gives the later EJ25 a flatter torque curve, with fairly close to maximum torque starting lower at about 1800 rpm and finishing at the red line.
Roo2 pulls pretty roughly from about 750 rpm in third HR, fairly well from about 1000 rpm and moderately strongly from about 1500 rpm (under normal driving conditions). From 1500 rpm and up in any gear, I just don't have any feeling at all that the engine is under load, or struggling. Of course, if I flatten it at 1500 rpm, it is hardly quick off the mark, but it doesn't object, either.

Getting back to the gear ratio in LR. The very significant advantage of this (to me) over the 1.447:1 gear set is that I can drive all day in LR towing a trailer with Subaru's blessing (per the Owner's Manual), as long as I don't exceed 188 km/h in 5th LR ...
Since my model is speed limited to 190 km/h in 5th HR (@ 5000 rpm; roughly 6000 rpm in 5th LR), I am not losing all that much, but gaining a huge amount of flexibility for what I want. With the SF LR gear set, I reckon I would be doing about 4200 rpm at 110 km/h in 5th LR, instead of around 3450 rpm at present.

People's needs and wants differ. What I have suits me fine.
 
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