Hi there!
WRX is a great car. I test drove manual and auto version in our local dealership. Great for everyday driving!
As for racing - overblown commercials. Last Saturday eat it up on my stock CRX Si 1990 (240 Kmiles) up to 35 MpH, and then lost about 20 yards up to 70 MpH.
As for Rally World Championship - Subaru on the third place among Manufacturer :-((( The car there has nothing to do with cars sold in dealerships. It has 300Hp engine with 5 speed sequential semi-automatic gearbox and totally different suspension, stripped interior and it's totally re-designed for Rally specific task. Here is technical data of 200 WRC Subaru WRX:
http://www.subaru-global.com/motorsports/wrcar/5.html

Last time we went to Subaru dealer, we went on Audi S4 and gave a ride to the salesman who took us for a spin in Subaru. You had to see his face after we came back!!! He admitted - he's selling the wrong sport cars!!! Hi was smashed completely by Audi performance!
But hey! Subaru is $25K car and Audi is $43+ and I personally think Subaru has greater bang for a buck! It won't win any races as is but it's fun to drive!
As for eating Porsche - it'll eat S4 for breakfast.
Regards.
Mark.

I have a stock gen 2 3000gt vr4 and I've now
killed 3 Subaru Wrxs with butterlike-ease. The
drivers were all good, and one was extremely
aggressive outlaunching me smoking his clutch
a little (hey he wanted to win but he didn't).

Not even the intake is on my car yet. Two
scoobies were manual bpu with catbacks, and
boost controllers. The third was a stock
manual.

The WRX is nice but it's not a supercar. The STi
however is more of a match for me. With some
bpu in my vr4 I'll be happy to race one.