2026 Subaru WRX tS Spec B review: Long-term finale – saving the best till last

I’ve been driving this Subaru WRX tS Spec B over the last four months on some of the best driving roads I can find. It’s taken me all over Victoria as I’ve tried to scope out the ultimate string of corners.

Long story short – it’s been a ball.

At Drive, we’re incredibly lucky to have access to all kinds of new cars, from SUVs to passenger sedans, to sports cars, dual-cab utes, and everything in between.

Sometimes manufacturers let us have the cars for a few months at a time, to get into the nitty gritty of the new-car ownership experience.

Most of the time it’s a family-focused SUV or a load-lugging utility – but not this time.

We’ve ‘owned’ this WRX for a four-month period in which it’s been the chariot of choice for a curated selection of road trips and back-road blasts.

I’ve loved ‘owning’ this car. But, I’ve also loved what it’s allowed me to do. I’ve been driving this thing on some of Victoria’s best roads and detailing the journey on the Drive website.

And, it all ends with this. Arguably on my favourite road of all – the Reefton Spur.

The Reefton Spur comprises several roads into one massive loop that circles the Yarra Ranges National Park, and passes by Lake Mountain, Marysville, Healesville, and Warburton.

It’s not for the feint of heart, and you wouldn’t take just any old car along for the journey.

The Subaru WRX tS Spec B is the most hardcore variant of the WRX nameplate since the WRX STI was discontinued five years ago.

As a subvariant of the Subaru WRX sports car, the tS Spec B builds upon the Club Spec variant (which had the classic STI wing, Brembo brakes, Recaro seats, among other additions) to marry up the manual transmission with adaptive suspension and drive modes for the first time.

It costs $62,490 plus on-roads, some $8000 more than the WRX RS manual on which it’s based. Both use a 2.4-litre turbocharged 'boxer' four-cylinder engine outputting 202kW and 350Nm to all four wheels, through a six-speed manual transmission.

My colleague Alex has shown us the ins and outs with this car through a full review breakdown, so you can check that out here, but this is all about this road, and what this car’s like to drive on it.

The Reefton Spur is best tackled in an uphill direction, in my opinion. It means you first travel to Warburton, before meandering east towards Reefton along the C511. This part in itself isn’t too exciting, but Warburton presents a great opportunity to stop at the local bakery for a pie and a coffee.

It’s once you hit Reefton Spur where the driving becomes more entertaining, as the road begins to narrow and houses become more sparse along the stretch.

This is the WRX STI’s natural habitat. With the windows down, you can hear its grumbly boxer engine causing a racket, and the whoosh of trees as you pass by creates a unique backdrop for a spirited drive.

The road gets tight and twisty quickly, with tall rock walls lining one side and sheer cliff drops off to the other. There’s little margin for error, which is why taking the road uphill rather than down is my preferred method.

Regardless, the Subaru’s symmetrical all-wheel-drive system puts power down to the road with devastating effect. While it’s 202kW/350Nm outputs fall shy of more expensive rivals such as the Toyota GR Corolla and Volkswagen Golf R, the Subaru is capable of putting down this power in all conditions.

No matter whether the road is wet, the surface is uneven gravel, or there’s plain old potholes marring the bitumen, the WRX’s grip has been a highlight throughout my time with the car.

Something else I’ve loved over uneven ground is the WRX’s adaptive suspension. The WRX is genuinely fitted with some of the best suspension in the sports-car game.

The car’s computer sets up in Sport mode as you switch on the ignition, but even this, with its taut nature and firm body control, is able to take speed humps and everyday road imperfections in its stride.

Meanwhile, on the Reefton Spur, the WRX controls its weight well through switchback corners and it’s able to zip through a corner nice and fast thanks to this impressive duality of composure and dynamism.

Naturally, as we were high up in the hills, inclement weather is often a reality. It’s not uncommon for the area to turn into a winter wonderland full of snowfall midway through the year, and you do have to be careful of black ice. However, the sun was beaming down on us on this day, and there was thankfully very little traffic.

The air-conditioning has surprisingly been another highlight of my time with the car, thanks to ice-cold air and strong blowers that keep the entire cabin cool in hot weather.

As it’s a bit of a road to nowhere, the Reefton Spur is only occasionally frequented by 4WDs and logging trucks – but even they were hard to come by on this clear, sunny day.

It’s some of the best driving you’ll find close to Melbourne, with incredible views out over the Yarra Ranges National Park and a challenging series of corners.

As you ascend further, the road becomes less tight and twisty, and opens up into more flowy stretches. There’s more opportunity to pull over and enjoy the view, and the Subaru WRX provides the perfect foreground in front of the open vistas.

I love the way that Subaru was able to carry forward some of the 1990s-spec highlights, such as the big wing, WR Blue colour scheme, and the gold accents on the Brembo brake calipers. It’s literally just missing the pink STI badging.

I’m not fond of the plastic wheel arches and the rest of the dark grey cladding around the car. It makes it look more ‘off-road’ than ‘rally’, and it has obviously taken stylistic pointers from the Outback wagon.

After a good 20 minutes of spirited driving, the Reefton Spur road ends in an expansive T intersection that’s quite obvious frequented with hoons – it’s littered with tyre debris and the skid marks effectively provide drag-strip grip.

We turn left at this juncture to head back into dense, thick forest on the way to Marysville. If you’re out for the whole day, you might consider the offshoot up to Lake Mountain – another fantastic driving road – but our drive took us straight past on our way to Marysville.

While I grew to love just about every other part of the WRX’s driving experience over the last few months, one aspect I couldn’t get used to was the six-speed gearbox. It wasn’t bad, but the throw between first and second, and third and fourth, gears was simply too long to be enjoyable.

Back into Marysville and then Healesville, the roads begin to populate once again with commuters and families on their way to school pick-up. It gives me time to reflect on the last few months with the car and appreciate how much fun it’s been to drive something so special every day.

But, the real highlight was being able to go out, capture some awesome photography, enjoy the mechanical nature of the WRX tS Spec B, and have a laugh with the colleagues I brought along the way to help make this series possible.

If I chose one road out of all of them to drive at speed, it’d certainly be the Reefton Spur. It’s unmatched for sheer corner-to-corner thrills, and is blissfully quiet.

However, I also can’t go past the visual drama of the Great Ocean Road – what the road may lack in high-speed action, it more than makes up for with jaw-dropping scenery.

In all, I highly recommend adding the roads I’ve detailed throughout this series to your ‘must drive’ list.

Tom started out in the automotive industry by exploiting his photographic skills but quickly learned journalists got the better end of the deal. With tenures at CarAdvice, Wheels Media, and now Drive, Tom's breadth of experience and industry knowledge informs a strong opinion on all things automotive. At Drive, Tom covers automotive news, car reviews, advice, and holds a special interest in long-form feature stories.

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