June 17, 2001, Sunday

Taking a Spin With a Pro
By CHERYL JENSEN

PROUD of its heritage in world rally racing, Subaru is marketing its Impreza WRX to a select group of enthusiasts, though few of them will take a car to its limits. Tim O'Neil will.

O'Neil, a professional rally driver, runs the Team O'Neil Rally School here in the woods of northern New Hampshire. He imparts to students -- including would-be race drivers, security personnel and bodyguards -- techniques derived from rally racing.

A rally driver's idea of fun is speeding over gravel, mud or snow-covered roads in state forests, often at night, with a navigator screaming out orders like, ''Hard left at the crest in three-tenths!'' to keep the team from sailing over a cliff. (For further education on time-speed-distance rallying, watch World Rally Championship coverage on the Speedvision network, or rent the classic 1966 French film ''A Man and a Woman.'')

Given his background, O'Neil was asked by the editor of this section to provide a critical assessment of the WRX, which built its reputation on the European rally circuit.

I am sitting beside O'Neil, 41, as he warms up. He is in second gear on a 20-foot-wide section of his school's training course; ahead are uphill and downhill stretches that form increasing- and decreasing-radius turns.

''I want to see how it goes on each type of corner,'' he says, attacking the series of blind corners as the WRX slides sideways, wheels spinning. ''Some cars do really well in some areas, but not in others.''

We cut through a short forest road as he runs up and down the gears. He likes the short throws of the Subaru's five-speed shifter, which he describes as stiff and firm, ''not like a stick in a bucket of grease.''

We move into the slalom, about 80 feet at its widest, weaving around three orange traffic cones. His hands make the wheel spin right, then left.

Clunk. Thunk. Bang! We hit a major bump at speed.

''The chassis, the body, is very strong,'' he says. ''It's staying perfectly flat instead of flexing.''

Now O'Neil is swinging the WRX, explaining a pendulum turn, a technique in which a driver swings the car's tail out abruptly to make a 90-degree turn at speeds over 40 m.p.h. He performs tricks your driver's ed instructor never recommended, like using the brake and accelerator simultaneously to help turn the car.

The idea is to avoid slowing down, O'Neil says, because it takes time to regain speed, and in a race every tenth of a second is crucial. ''I get the car swinging one way, right,'' he says. ''I lift and release the throttle, swing the tail left and then swing it right to make the right turn. It's like I'm taking the back of the car, holding it here and flicking it.''

In the passenger seat, I, too, am flicked one way and then the other.

Crack! Owwwww!

My head smacks the door pillar, a sharp reminder that I should wear my helmet, not store it on the floor.

The sun is out, and the late-winter temperature has risen to around 35 degrees. Instead of driving on somewhat grippy snow, we are sliding on water molecules as slick as oil.

''I don't care about horsepower,'' O'Neil says, throughly serene as the WRX swings lengthwise through the slalom cones at 40 m.p.h. ''I care more about when I throw it sideways, can I bring it back the other way? How quickly does it recover?''

He lifts off the gas pedal, turns the wheel, brakes and accelerates.

Again: Lift. Turn. Brake. Accelerate. Countersteer.

''The brakes feel great, very tight,'' he says. Snow spatters the windshield. Plumes spray behind us.

''The engine is very responsive,'' he says. ''It has a nice, wide power band, probably between 2,500 and 6,000. I'm very impressed with how little turbo lag there is. At lower r.p.m.'s, if you drop it below 3,000, it's flat, but that's normal if you're putting along in fourth gear and step on it with the revs low.''

He says he is raising his speed to 50. ''I have to make sure that a car quickly changes direction,'' he says. ''You see how quickly the car goes from this way to this way; that's very important because -- ''

There is a pause, and in the time-honored tradition of winter rallies, the car ''kisses'' a wall of snow. ''Oops, that was a harder snowbank than I thought,'' he says.

Over all, he is very pleased with the WRX, including its predictability. That is important in rallying; when the road is unknown, it's good to know just how the car will perform.

''I'm very imprezzed with the WRX,'' says O'Neil, who is not easily impressed, alighting from the Impreza. So am I, but I feel the need for a couple of aspirins.