Prodrive, the outfit behind some of Subaru’s greatest rally triumphs, looks set to bring the classic WRX STI back to life.
A social media teaser is all we have to work with on the Prodrive P25 at this stage, but there’s no mistaking the silhouette in the photo for anything but an early two-door WRX STI.
It’s been 25 years since Prodrive and Subaru won their third consecutive World Rally Championship (WRC) constructor’s title, which could offer some background on the name.
Prodrive says the P25 will be “an icon redefined”, which suggests it might be a restored take on the rally legend. Whether it’ll be offered for sale in any meaningful quantity, or whether it’ll be a one-off, isn’t clear.
It’ll sit alongside the Hunter, a road-legal version of the brand’s Dakar Rally competitor, in the evolving Prodrive stable.
Early WRX STI models were already legends, but they’ve arguably been made more significant by Subaru’s decision to kill the STI brand as we know it.
It means a nameplate dating to 1994, across four generations, goes into deep freeze.
In sad news for rally enthusiasts worldwide – quite possibly still mourning the death of the Lancer Evo – Subaru says it simply couldn’t make a new STI work in today’s context. In other words, it needs to cut its overall emissions.
“Subaru Corporation will fast-track their investment in future performance technologies, today confirming there will be no STI variant for the new generation Subaru WRX,” said Subaru Australia.
