Boost pressure needs a little while to build at lower revs, but once it has the engine pulls with visceral vigor. The P25 isn't quite as playful or adjustable as the original car was, largely because it has substantially more grip and a more disciplined chassis. Trust builds quickly, as do memories of driving this generation of Impreza when it was new. But once moving, both upshifts and downshifts can be performed without the clutch. The clutch feels oddly light it turns out to be actually controlling the clutch electronically, as Prodrive decided a two-pedal system would be too brutal for road use. The sequential transmission engages first with a clunk, and there's the novelty of having to negotiate a clutch pedal to get moving. The P25 is loud but much less raucous than a real WRC challenger would be-conversations are possible without an intercom. The engine fires up to a busy, mechanical idle. This is how Prodrive built all of the paddle-shift WRC cars for Subaru: Pull for up, push for down. There's a sizable carbon-fiber shift paddle on the right of the steering wheel, but none on the left. Even the switchgear has been redesigned: There's a panel of miniature rockers on the center console, an engine start/stop button (the first-gen Imprezas just used a key), and an infotainment touchscreen, plus a digital instrument cluster. Not a high bar given the low-rent plastics of the original car, but now pretty much every surface in the P25 is covered in either carbon fiber or microfiber. It's mated to a six-speed sequential gearbox, plus an active electronically controlled center differential that varies the amount of torque sent to each axle.Ĭlimbing in to the P25 reveals what may be the finest quality cabin ever fitted to an Impreza. And the engine exhales through a bespoke Akrapovič exhaust system. It also features a popping-and-banging anti-lag mode to keep the turbo spinning when the car is in what is meant to be a track-only Sport Plus mode. It has been given forged pistons, stronger connecting rods, ported cylinder heads, and a new Garrett turbo. The engine is a heavily reworked version of Subaru's long-serving EJ25 turbocharged 2.5-liter flat-four. Last year Prodrive promised the P25 would make at least 400 horsepower, but that has now been increased to 450 horsepower, along with what we're told will be more than the original promise of 442 pound-feet of torque. Much has changed since Prodrive first announced the project last year, with the finished P25 getting new bumpers and lights, a redesigned rear-wing element, a different interior-and also a power boost. It's been a year since we first told you about the British motorsports engineering company's plans to create the P25-what it claimed would be the ultimate street-legal first-generation Impreza-and now we've had the chance to drive the car on a test track in England. '98 Subaru Impreza 22B STi Is a Rare Auction Pick.From the C/D Archives: Subaru Impreza 22B STi.
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