The entry edition of this renowned performance sedan provides the best opportunity to get a full taste of this old-school recipe.

Price: $59,990
Powertrain and economy: 2.4-litre turbocharged petrol horizontally-opposed four-cylinder, 202kW/350Nm, six-speed manual transmission, AWD, combined economy  L/100km, CO2 192g/km.
Vital statistics: 4755mm long, 1795mm wide, 1500mm high, 2570mm wheelbase, luggage capacity  litres, 18-inch alloy wheels.
We like: High-level driver interaction, new platform, has best tyres.
Not so much: It can be thirsty work, spartan interior, hasn’t quite the edge any more.

OF all versions of the latest Subaru WRX, the one least visible to public scrutiny stands chance of properly keeping the flame of its rally-infused, fast and furious history burning.

Flat four turbo petrol engine married to a six-speed manual gearbox: It’s a core commonality tying every performance version in the 30 years since Japan gave birth to a spirited all-wheel-drive sedan that would become a cult car.

Now there is just one three-pedal model left; the base offer, overshadowed by the swank tS spec, Lineartronic-wed editions for tech spec, yet streets – or should that be special stages? – ahead in respect to purity of driving involvement. Because of that old-school gearbox.

 Enjoy it while you can. The new boy Toyota GR and Hyundai N efforts notwithstanding, rally-inspired sports performance models are overall a reducing genre. On top of that, it’s been an open secret for ages that this is assuredly the last generation of the WRX as we’ve always known it.

Like every other car brand, Subaru is weaning off dinosaur juice; quite probably for electric, though with Toyota as a partner hydrogen also cannot be dismissed. Either way, it’s going to powertrains that at the moment don’t require multiple gears, let alone a hand-involved transmission.

There seems no strong rationale for Subaru retaining a manual WRX. A sad but true fact is – ahem – most buyers now prefer Lineartronic. Yup, they’re taking the soft option with a constantly variable transmission. From where I sit, it’s hard to imagine how they can call themselves WRX enthusiasts. Lineartronic is good by CVT standards … but it’s still a CVT.

CVTs have been tried in motorsport, but never with success and, certainly, Subaru and Prodrive never bothered with it in world championship rallying. You have to ask yourself what that means. All I’d say is that the spirits of Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Possum Bourne must be very restless indeed.

In as much as manual option is the path best taken by those keen to wring the best out of this car, Subaru has hardly made it the easy option. For one, you have to put up with a rather workmanlike cabin environment. For another, it continues some historic nuances.  

Achieving clean gearshifts and even managing to get it moving without stalling is a bit of a trick with this car. The clutch has a long pedal, with sudden bite just before it releases, and the gears are stacked so tightly it’s easily possible to find third rather than first.

At conclusion of my time, I hitched a ride to another part of town with the local sales manager taking over the driving. The car’s nuances caught him out. We stalled twice during a five-minute drive. It’s not a fault, just a foible, one Subaru has never addressed. If it’s any consolation, the STi cars could be worse. They had about a hair’s-width of clutch play. 

The STis were more brutal, too, and had more dynamic talent, but there’s no point going on about that. They were different weapons, for a different phwoar.

With a base WRX, while you’re not getting the same level of talent, but neither are you paying for it. When STi called the performance shots, you were always spending top dollar. Nothing with the pink badge of courage ever came cheap.

With the WRX manual, the buck stops $10 short of $60k. Whether that’s truly the budget end is open to debate, but it IS the least expensive version of the latest line.

About that. As much as you’re buying brand new – including an engine and platform fresh to the type - you’re also buying inherent WRX-ness. The new shape isn’t that much different, design-wise, to outgoing car’s. Anyone will past familiarity will consider the engine’s uneven idle, the stubbornly firm ride, the gear shift action’s notchy-rubbery feel as carry-over elements.

The cabin feels the same thematic. It is clearly much modernised by that smart central tablet screen, which work extremely well. Retaining physical controls for the climate system and stereo lessens the likelihood of those functions requiring touch inputs causing unnecessary distraction when driving.

The cabin is roomy and also feels more contemporary.  There's a thick-rimmed, flat-bottomed steering wheel as well as a set of analogue gauges.  

The Premium assignation doesn’t adhere with absolute firmness. Cloth seat facings replace leather, which I’ve no problem with, but the carbon-fibre-like accents and contrast stitching doesn’t draw the eye from some rather robust trim elements. In the past, Subaru left impression it did this because of expectation of everything being torn out in conversion to competition readiness. That’s true, but also much less likely now. Everything promises to be durable but you could argue it’s an interior that’s not quite in keeping with the car’s relatively high price tag.

One reason for it feeling slightly denuded already is the absence of the rich suite of drive assistance tech under the Eyesight banner found in the other editions. That’s because the autonomous low-speed braking, collision detection, adaptive cruise control and so on only works with the automatic transmission.

WRX manual still has the basic safety elements, and retains a good crash test credential, but the first line of defence is its four-wheel drive, excellent grip, strong brakes, smart driving and sharp eyes.

Don’t sweat it. Just get driving. Let’s settle one matter: Yes, it now has paddles shifts, various modes, all sorts of refinements… yet as much as Lineartronic might be a better CVT than many, you’re wrong about it being the better way. If you want to reach right into a WRX’s soul, only the manual is going to get you there.  No matter how you work it, that two pedal option doesn’t even come close.

Debate might arise, though, on other matters. Dropping the 2.0-litre had to happen, because it no longer met environmental expectation. Going to the 2.4? Check out the alternates. There were none. It’s a needs-must; first used in a sports utility in North America.

Is it better than the old engine? Yes. Is it way better? Not really. You’d call it difference by degree. Outputs are up, but not much. Emissions are cleaner … but you still cop a Clean Car tax. Economy is … well, when was a WRX ever truly thrifty? This one sucked up its (preferred) premium-grade meal at an average of 10.7 litres.

Admittedly, less slurping might have occurred had it been driven more quietly. Fat chance. This is a sports sedan. Even it is does not have an emphatically sporty engine.

About that. Subaru says it has sorted lower end response, has created a broader torque curve and minimised turbo lag. That all seems to be the case. But it still feels highly flat four familiar.

Richness in character doesn’t disguise that, in aspect of utter explosiveness, there’s it’s rarely big bang in anything but lower-case letters. Again, that’s why STi existed. But, hey, you’d think they might have left an ‘insert for extra fizz’ engine management chip around for the factory to make use of.

It offers quicker acceleration than the old WRX, but the difference is not stupendous. As before, too, when entertaining high load standing starts, it has the weird trait of split-second initial hesitation, followed by tsunami-like torque, followed by another period where that tails off, followed by another punch pile-on; this all happening in the time it takes to read this.

It's most enjoyable above 3000rpm; that’s when you get full boost and the rev counter really gets a move on. You’ve got to be quick and sharp-witted with the gears to keep on that band of muscularity. Fall off and it will lug until the turbo reawakens.

It doesn’t feel strained and there’s reward from it delivering a nicely modulated warble as you close into the 6100rpm redline. Yet as much as there’s something about a boxer that draws you in, there’s no argument that there are alternate like-capacity or smaller four-cylinder engines that respond more keenly at low revs and are capable of the same, if not more performance, with better efficiency to show for it.

 Thankfully, this is a car that’s super-sorted in respect to not squandering the pace it has through bends; the inherent security of four-wheel drive in slippery conditions has always been a Subaru selling point and the system here, though less sophisticated than some, is nonetheless hugely capable, providing all the traction you need.  

On country roads, though, good body control is just as important; the old car really didn’t quite hit the mark in respect to that.

You couldn’t make that criticism of the new; there’s immediate sense that it sits more squarely and seems tangibly less affected by road surface change. Going onto gravel is great; it feels confident and accurate. It’s no longer edgy and you can drift it easily. A shout out, once again, to the prudence of giving this edition Dunlop Sport Maxx rubber; these 245/80 R18 boots are better suited to the car than the wagon’s 225/45 R18 Yokohama BlueEarth compounds; there’s maybe a touch more road roar, but plenty of compensation through superior grip and feel. They just work better. 

Light steering is another WRX thing and it initially feels a bit disconnected, but you soon realise that it’s nice and quick, getting the car’s nose into bends sharply. In wet conditions or if you are too eager, and push in a little too hard, the natural tendency is for the nose to run wide, but the car’s well balanced and pretty forgiving. 

The suspension tuning lacks the electronic adjustment that comes with the tS, which shows in urban use, where the ride is firm to occasional point of being uncomfortable. But the more obvious impediment is the gearbox requiring slow and measured gear shifting.

All in all, it’s a car that goes into its next chapter retaining a lot of familiarities, not all of which will necessarily be understood by anyone trying out an WRX for the first time. So be it.

 What you’ll never complain about is any shortage of character.