But I prefer to have a very difficult car to drive that gets the driver to push to get a result out of himself rather than to just having a car that under-steers around the corners and that gives you a very low heart rate.
The Cabriolet is also, clearly, more prone to under-steer in turns.
On the other side, set for smacking an under-steer slide, was an angry wall of rock.
There's a tad of under-steer, but it's so mild and predictable it only adds to the sparkling performance.
And as long as you don't lift off the throttle in a bend, the car will stay put and, at worst, under-steer slightly right near the edge of sane driving speeds.
We drove it hard on some unpaved (but relatively smooth) roads in the area and the tendency to under-steer can be used to an advantage; lock the differential and with power sent equally to all four wheels the driver can use more throttle to set the car up sideways and arc through a bend the way a rally car driver would.
Even when we couldn't drive as well as our professional racing instructors on loan from the Skip Barber Racing School, the 2.5-liter Altimas (especially in five-speed-manual form rather than four-speed automatic) proved very well balanced, especially for front-wheel-drive cars, which tend to get yanked around by the powered wheels and under-steer at the limit.
The system does correct itself predictably and quickly, and you can "catch" the car in almost any under-steer situation and correct the course midway through a turn, but if the goal of a driver on pavement is to make it through a turn faster than the next guy then the WRX STi is not the instrument he'd want to use to achieve that goal.
However, in December 1981 Car magazine judged the car (2.2 GLS model) to be prone to "untidy" handling, tending to under-steer first followed by excessive over-steer.
If your car under-steers when you enter the turn (just after you let off the brakes), try staying on the brakes a little longer, or releasing them a little earlier.
Any more will cause under-steer and you'll side into the obstacle.
