Is Prodrive About to Restomod a Subaru Impreza WRC 97 Rally Car?
Image: Prodrive
Prodrive currently fields 400-horsepower off-road prototypes in cross-country rallies and finished second in this year’s edition of the Dakar Rally. Though, the British car maker is best known for operating the Subaru factory team in the FIA World Rally Championship in the 1990s and 2000s. Now it seems Prodrive is about to reveal an homage to its rally successes of the late ‘90s.
Prodrive posted a cryptic teaser on Twitter earlier this week. The tweet features an image of a silhouette drawn to resemble the two-door Subaru Impreza fielded by the organization in the late ‘90s. The silhouette’s outline is a distinctive shade of blue that both matches Prodrive’s current corporate branding and the color of the Subaru World Rally Cars. P25 was written within the silhouette, and the only text that accompanied the tweet was, “An icon redefined, this is P25.” with the date May 25th.
Colin McRae driving a Subaru Impreza WRC 97 to victory in the 1997 Rally AustraliaPhoto: Greg Wood/AFP (Getty Images)
Twenty-five years ago, Colin McRae won five rallies with the team over the 1997 WRC season, more victories than any other driver that season. McRae, the 1995 World Rally Champion, lost the 1997 championship by a single point to Mitsubishi Ralliart’s Tommi Mäkinen. Though, Subaru was able to secure its third consecutive manufacturers’ championship. It was arguably the zenith year of both Prodrive’s and Subaru’s tenure in the World Rally Championship.
While I’m excited to find out what the P25 could be, I don’t expect to see a one-to-one replica of the turbocharged EJ20-powered compact that terrorized rally stages in the late ‘90s. With electrification and hybridization projects done by Prodrive in recent years, it wouldn’t be surprising if the car builder was about to unveil an ultra low volume high-performance electric or hybrid compact in the style of the 1997 Impreza. This assumed P25 would be a similar low volume endeavor to the 2000 Impreza Prodrive P1. We’ll have to wait until later this week to be sure.
