Japanese Domestic Market usually enjoys the best of what Japanese car makers have to offer, which isn’t surprising of course. What is surprising is that they refrain from offering those models in the global market where they can sell tons more. Subaru WRX is the latest model to get a beefed up version in JDM.

Local customers can now choose the Subaru WRX S4 which comes with an extra 28 hp and 37 lb-ft of torque over the global version, for a total of 296 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. That’s nearly 300 horsepower in the base WRX.

What’s more, the S4 comes with revised steering and a stiffer chassis, in addition to a nice body kit consisting of side sills, trunk lid spoiler, and a rear diffuser. Custom tailpipes and 18-inch wheels are also included in the package, and so are leather, piano black and carbon fiber trims. On the downside, this model is only available with the CVT transmission.

The Japanese Subaru WRX STI model is close to its non-STI sibling in terms of power output, but even so it’s 20 horsepower more powerful than the American-spec version. This one does come with a manual gearbox.

Via Autoguide