Subaru WRX STI
PRICE $32,995 (as tested)
ENGINE 2.5-liter turbo, 300 hp

Paul Wall, a big man in a bigger T-shirt, is tapping at his Sidekick when the car arrives outside his Manhattan hotel. He looks up and flashes his glittering grille, eyeing the ride with something like amusement.

"A Subaru?" says Wall, the Houston rapper whose slow-sizzle major-label debut, The Peoples Champ, was released last month and marched directly to the top of the charts. "I was thinking Bentley or Ferrari, and you brought me a Subaru?"

But it's not just any Subaru. It's the Impreza WRX STI, a factory-tuned race car that hardly differs from the version that regularly tears up the European rally circuit. The all-wheel-drive, turbocharged WRX marks the culmination of the Fast and the Furious tuner movement, in which kids took anonymous four-cylinders and modified them into high-performance machines -- only here, Subaru has already done the work for them.

Wall ambles over to the sparkling blue car -- with its massive spoiler, hood scoop and gold rims that match his teeth -- and plops down in the driver's seat, fixating on the six-speed shifter's titanium knob.

"Dude, I don't drive no stick."

And so Wall rolls over to the passenger seat. Today's test driver will be Wall's bodyguard, Chuck, a beefy guy in a red and silver tracksuit.

At home in H-town, Wall favors big, easygoing rides like Lincolns and Caddies; even his new car, a Mercedes CLS55 AMG, rarely breaks the speed limit. "I'm not in a rush," he says in his Texas drawl. "Drive slow, baby."

Instead, Chuck immediately floors it, and soon we're cruising through town at three times the legal limit. Crossing Ninth Avenue, the car catches air, flying over a coffin-size bump in the road. "This is all stock, right?" Chuck asks. "Shit is fast!"

Chuck's turn at the wheel done, he hands over the keys to his buddy Tim, another member of Wall's entourage. Tim heads toward the West Side Highway, and the boost gauge wiggles wildly as the car roars forward. "Man, that's the all-wheel drive," Tim says, referring to how the car doesn't produce burnouts at the starting line. He darts in and out of heavy midday traffic, popping into the tiniest of gaps and closing on cars with ease.

"Going down in the Subaru!" Wall yells, laughing. "How fast you going?"

"I don't know," Tim answers. "I'm just trying to watch the road!"

Safely back in front of the hotel, Tim and Chuck pop the hood and inspect the engine, an aluminum-alloy block that's one of the lightest on the market. Wall gives the car a final look.

What do you think?

"Not my style," he says. "But whatever, it's all good."