Quote Originally Posted by SkiRideDrive View Post
That great rumble sound is one of the strongest things drawing me towards the 818. Does anyone know if there is a significant difference between the sound from a 2.0 liter to a 2.5 liter subaru motor? I've heard quite a few STI's with aftermarket exhausts that really sound great, but I was curious if the WRX sounds just as deep since it has a smaller displacement (at least the 2.0 model years).

Also, on the topic of this thread, I think an exotic elise like body would really be improved by the boxxer rumble. The swarming bees sound of an inline has been a turn off for me with the elise or atom.
I've had both in my car with the same exact exhaust. They are very very similar, basically the 2.5 just seems louder, especially at highway speeds lol. It is a tiny bit deeper but if you just put an exhaust with a bigger muffler on the 2.0 and perhaps a big resonator, the resulting 'volume' in the exhaust chambers will drop the tone down a bit and make a 2.0 sound nearly exactly like a 2.5 with less resonance in terms of tone. Essentially, if I had bought a nicer exhaust with a larger canister on my 2.0, it would have potentially sounded deeper and beefier (but more quiet overall) than my 2.5 on my 3'' exhaust and on 4''x9''x14'' muffler canister which is quite small compared to a Cobb or a Borla.

Here's perhaps the only 100% side by side comparison video out there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqrEr8zVqyA

There still isn't a video of anyone comparing a 2.5 and a 2.0 with the exact same exhaust on both cars on the same video camera. This video has a 06 wagon with a much nicer exhaust with a few resonators and mid-pipe glasspacks in it, the 02 wrx sedan just has a 3'' 'ebay' turboback exhaust, possibly catless and only one small resonator. You can tell a difference between them here, the 02 just sounds a bit more open, the 06 a bit more smooth but the overall 'depth' of the noises sound pretty close.

After I got my engine swapped, the only comments I got from my buds about the difference in sound is "wait, I thought you said you got a bigger engine"