Some early observations on the torque curves over at rexnet from the penrith launch.

"The MY05's torque curve was lagging slightly behind that of the MY06 but once it reached it's peak torque it levelled off and held that peak torque for alot longer, the MY06 peaked alittle earlier and higher (for obvious reasons) but it dropped off sooner falling below the peak torque of the MY05 high in the rev range. Going by what I saw in these graphs I believe the reason the performance specs are so similar between the MY05 and MY06 is because whilst the MY06 has better pull down low and in the mid range, the MY05 pulls more consistantly and for longer in the mid to high rev range where it possibly makes up for lost time.

So the MY06 has more bottom end grunt but runs out up top, where the MY05 has less grunt down low (and slightly less up top) but holds it for longer. It would certainly be interesting to see the MY06 with a bigger turbo to help sustain it's peak torque for longer, it would be one of the first things on my mod list if I owned one .

The STi's torque curve comparisons were very similar in shape but the MY06 STi had a fair bit more difference in torque then the MY05 STi across the range. Basically there is more of a difference between the MY05-06 STi then there is between the MY05-06 WRX ."

The thread is worth a look as well, some nice pics of the new engine bay

The new Rex pics