We all know about the 86 Twins infamous torque dip. People flatten it out with aftermarket headers and tunes.
But what lots of people may not know is that Subaru’s flat engine friends from Porsche suffer from smaller 3,000-4,000 rpm torque dips in some models. The Dyno sheet above is for an almost stock 3.2 liter engine like I swapped into my car. It’s not an awful amount of torque loss but you do feel it.
I spend a lot of my time cruising at 2,800-3,000(in part because Droooonnnneee happens at 2,400-2,600) and so when I try to accelerate without downshift, it’s not very exciting.
What’s also interesting is that the little torque peak at 5,000 often tempts me into shifting.
My car is not particularly fast if I cruise along accelerating from 3,000-5,000rpm but when I let it run all the way out to about 7,000 it’s a different kind of car.