FOR THE ROAD

Subaru won multiple rally titles with the Impreza, but the P1 was developed purely for British roads by Prodrive. Matthew Hayward finds out what makes it so special

- Matthew Hayward

NOTHING MAKES YOU feel like a rally driver quite like an Impreza. Whether it's the scoop poking from the top of the bonnet, the sight of that massive wing in the rear-view mirror, or the off-beat flat-four throb, it's invigorating before you even turn a wheel. And when you do, the otherworldly way it will get you from point to point cross-country is like nothing else. Sitting here in the driver's seat of this Sonic Blue P1 arguably the ultimate UK-spec Impreza transports you back to a bygone era of performance cars.

The Impreza was a real working-class hero, too, being relatively attainable for enthusiasts who had seen McRae 'win on Sunday' and were ready to 'buy on Monday. During the height of the WRC era of the mid-to-late-1990s, Subaru UK officially offered only the basic Turbo 2000, with a few spin-off special editions. This meant that UK buyers looking for some of the more hardcore, high-performance versions from STI (Subaru Tecnica International) were forced to turn to unofficial grey-market imports.

To combat this missed sales opportunity, a new UKspecific top-of-the-range version was conceived. The wild homologation cars available elsewhere wouldn't easily be understood by UK buyers walking into the local dealership, and might have proved difficult to live with, so this car was developed specifically for British drivers in partnership with Prodrive. The legendary motorsport and engineering company had been behind Subaru's rally-winning cars since 1990, and by 2000 had three manufacturers' and one drivers' championship under its belt. Indeed, Prodrive was almost as much a household name as Impreza and McRae. Although Prodrive had offered a few road car upgrades, and had collaborated on the McRae special edition and RBS, this was something entirely more holistic.