Just don't drift with the ebrake on gravel like this guy.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XztrcAgRxP8
Otherwise the STI and EVOs are both great cars. I personally prefer the Subaru interior though. As for coupes, the hyundai genesis definitely meets your mark for power. If you're going to tune/mod it yourself I might actually suggest the 4cyl turbo so you can easily replace the turbo & manifold/etc for easy power (vs a more involved setup of putting a turbo on the N/A I6)
The Audi A3 also has a pretty vibrant tuning community. A used Audi S4 definitely meets your power + seats criteria too.
This is a pretty interesting experiment in how social media can be used. We just posted a note on the FB pages of the manufacturers and our FB page.
http://www.facebook.com/carwoo/posts/164850626908575 http://www.facebook.com/carwoo/posts/10150255637960049 http://www.facebook.com/Nissan/posts/10150574147450375
1. Ultimately, there's a fairly finite universe of cars that meet your criteria, even if you consider the much wider used market. If you pick, say, an EVO MR, how do you pick who gets the prize when multiple people would have suggested it?
2. We ran into this a lot on our automotive board. Someone says 'I want RWD, MT, 4 doors, under $35k' and got a bunch of answers.
But cars are ultimately pretty personal - e.g. I hate VW's interiors, but many love them. Since you've got to go look at them personally, at best you're narrowing down the universe of things to go check out. Unless you're committing to buy the one that gets the most votes.
Could be interesting collect the responses, graph them, and run some analysis on how vocal each brand's fan community is.