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Street-Legal Prodrive Subaru Impreza 22B STI World Rally Car Looks, Sounds Epic

Even though the Italians are no longer participating in the World Rally Championship, Lancia still leads the WRC in terms of constructors with 10 titles. But at the beginning of the 1990s, another manufacturer stood out thanks to the legendary Colin McRae and a blue car with gold wheels.
Street-Legal Prodrive Subaru Impreza 22B STI World Rally Car 19 photos
Photo: JDM Masters on YouTube
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Subaru's 555 sponsorship is the culprit, and the cars the Japanese were fielding were prepared by British motorsport and engineering group Prodrive. The relationship with Subaru began in 1990, but the first title came in 1995 after a lot of experimenting with the Legacy. The Impreza 22B STI is probably the most celebrated Scooby of that era, produced in limited numbers to celebrate an anniversary and three WRC titles.

Now take a look at the car in the following video. A 22B is a rare breed, alright, but a Prodrive-built rally car with the internals of the S204 STI and road-legal status is like a unicorn. Detailed inside and out by JDM Masters, the car started life as a test vehicle that was then converted to left- and right-hand drive on a number of occasions. And yes, McRae drove this bad boy!

Acquired by the current owner without any running gear, the car features a six-speed manual transmission rather than a sequential because driving on public roads is a little different from a rally stage at full opposite lock. The gold wheels, suspension, and braking system are original, the rear wing comes from another Prodrive Impreza that was rallied by Richard Burns, and the interior can only be described as a hodgepodge with a roll cage.

Opening the hood, the engine bay reveals the car’s desirable origin by means of a plaque that reads “Type: Impreza” and “Number: PRO/WRC/98.031.” The originality, therefore, can’t be contested. Towards the end of the video uploaded by JDM Masters, the owner says that he “would like to bring the car to higher levels of completeness” while keeping it road-legal.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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