AWD hot shots

The acronym, AWD, stands for one thing in automobiles – All-Wheel Drive. That is, all four wheels being driven at the same time, all the time. Mostly used in passenger vehicles it was until recently the sole domain of the Subaru brand.

However with the automobile market being in the continual state of flux it is, more and more new rivals with this manner of drive are appearing. Not as with Subaru - the marque that did most to popularise the system - most other AWD brands are the exceptions rather than the rule to he AWD system. So when the latest of these AWDs hit the South African shores we were quick on the draw and feverishly arranged a shootout among three of the latest models.

Luckily the dice fell in our favour and we managed to line up the recently launched, turbocharged Subaru Legacy 2.5GT-B SportShift against two other newly landed European rivals - the Alfa Romeo 159 3.2 Q4 6-speed manual and the Volkswagen Passat 3.2 Sportline 4Motion DSG. The Alfa Q4 was of great interest in that finally we could pilot an Alfa without the scourge known as front-wheel drive they’re all roped with in this country.

On paper, at least, it seemed that the Q4 with its sportive history would in performance terms rule the roost. Being an old Alfista, I competed in Alfas manufactured by engineers who had racing genes in their blood and not a legacy of Fiat cloned Alfas. What’s more, it seemed it was going to be an Alfa versus Subaru affair, with the Passat more there because it was a new arrival. I was wrong - very wrong!

In fact it was the rather staid looking Passat that stole the show, and in so doing also proved to be one of the surprises of the year. A VW giving carrots to cars with heritages and race pedigrees as long as the smalls pages of the Sunday Times is as unheard of as Santa Claus landing a VW Polo-hauled sleigh in the street in front of my house. What’s more the Alfa was outperformed it in most disciplines too.

When I glanced at the readout on the test equipment I made doubly sure I was not smoking my socks. How can a Passat with a power to weight ratio of 113kW per tonne be more competitive than the more illustrious duo of Q4 with 115 and 119 for the Legacy 2.5GT respectively?

On top of it all, I was sure the manual 6-speed Q4 had a natural advantage over the auto ‘box of a Passat with its 5-speed DSG, or even the clever SureShift 5-speed in the Legacy. I never thought I’d see the day a fine manual 6-speed would be outgunned by two automatics. But that’s what happened. In fact the Subaru’s transmission went even further with its three choices of gearbox settings - ‘Intelligent’ for improved fuel consumption, ‘Sports’ for the best of intermediate performance . . .and ‘Sports Sharp’, the one I chose for best performance results.

But there is also a downside to the auto ‘box, especially the one in the Legacy 2.5GT. You see, when the turbo lag is added to the already inherent automatic gearbox lag in our rarefied Reef altitudes, you loose around three quarters of a second during the 0-100km/h-sprint. The Passat proved better, its combined turbo/automatic-‘box lag was minimal, proving smoother and quicker through the gears and an indicator to the positive future automatic transmissions are heading for in the future.

In the engine bays of the contestants are three great engines that rank as jewels in the mid-exec segment. The two European V6 motors are recognised masterpieces and in the case of the lovely sounding Alfa, its motor has been around through its various developmental stages for almost two decades.

The Passat’s V6 is in fact Audi’s own wonderful V6, which also has been around for just under a decade and one of the reasons why the Passat performs the way it does.

But the Subaru’s award winning 2.5-litre turbocharged mill is just as captivating, and perhaps lesser well known among buffs. Equally advanced as its two European rivals and around for some time, it also went through various developmental stages. What is of particular interest is due to it being force-fed by a turbocharger, you end up with an engine that is both smaller and lighter than its rivals here – and to boot has similar engine outputs. This in turn assists weight reduction over the front wheels and better weight distribution, and therefore refined road holding.

In road holding terms the Alfa seemed the more positive with its quick response to steering inputs. The Legacy was a trite less positive, but perhaps as nimble. The surprise was the Passat’s able handling manners for what basically is a VW suspension layout, but just not up to that of its elite rivals. However it proved good enough to be a surprise.

All three are fitted with the permanent all wheel drive layouts, but the Subaru’s is tops with its 4-cylinder horizontally opposed front to rear engine layout that results in a low centre of gravity and symmetrical set-up, which has been Subaru’s battle-cry for years now. The system offers equal length side-shaft that offset torque-steer while accelerating.

The transversely mounted engines in the Q7 and Passat instead add more weight to the front of the cars and preventing the more even weight distribution of the Legacy. And due to the engines being mounted sideways with the gearbox attached to one side, have unequal length sideshafts that create toque steer situations under power.