My love affair with the Subaru Impreza 22B began back in 1999 (the year of its UK launch, bizarrely enough). That might sound understandable, but it is not always the case that a car can worm its way into your affections straight away. Some cars are slow burners; others garner your respect but fail to make any lasting impression.
The Impreza 22B was not one of those cars. My first sighting of one was not in real life, parked up outside Sainsbury’s whilst walking home from primary school. No, it was the small screen, and BBC’s Top Gear, which brought this rally replica to my attention. A yellow jumper-wearing Tiff Needell was comparing those arch rivals of the day, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V and the JDM-spec Subaru Impreza WRX STi (the regular UK Impreza was the Turbo 2000 which, with ‘only’ 208bhp, didn’t have the firepower to stick it to the Mitsubishi). After an extensive evaluation both on road and track of the Lancer, Needell then proceeded to acknowledge that the Subaru also followed the ‘rally car for the road’ ethos, and could be bought for roughly the same cash.
That was not the end of the Subaru’s appearance in the test, however; far from it. Parked beside the standard two-door STi, this incredible, jaw-dropping Impreza, also two-door but resplendent in the classic blue/gold colour scheme, grabbed my attention like Brian Blessed with a megaphone in a library.
In a way, it wasn’t particularly unlike anything we’d seen before. Beneath that paintwork, the lowered, widened stance and the bigger rear wing was the same, face-lifted Series One Subaru Impreza I already loved.
And yet it was something else again, an impression underlined by the fact that, back then, the 22B carried a price premium of some fifteen grand over stock. In 1999, that was considerable (M3 money). But then again, only 400 22Bs were to be produced, and of those just 16 were earmarked for the UK.
The car’s hardcore character was plain to see as Tiff literally arm-wrestled the car around a wet-but-picturesque Mallory Park, noting that the transition to oversteer on the limit was very ‘snappy’ and lacked progression, and that for all its blood-pumping adrenaline factor, it lacked the balance and playful fluidity of the Lancer Evolution. The ride, too, was bone-shakingly hard, proclaimed Tiff.
All that said, though, the combination of looks, performance, individuality and excitement sold the car to me, and I spent the following week/s daydreaming about driving my very own 22B. Its place in my 'lottery-win garage' is safe.
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