25 years ago, Prodrive - the UK-based rally and racing specialists, which at the time was running Subaru's World Rally team - created one of the greatest road cars of all time. The P1.
Blue paintwork, gold wheels
Based on the 22B two-door version of Subaru's original Impreza WRX rally car, the P1 was stiffer, lighter, and more focused than even the rapid WRX of the time, and was packing a 280hp version of that grumbling flat-four turbo engine. And, of course, it had blue paintwork and gold wheels, for the maximum McRae effect...
Well, to celebrate the P1's 25th birthday, Prodrive is getting into the restomod business, offering a limited run of 25 P1 recreations, badged as Prodrive P25.
Prodrive says that the 25 cars will "recapture the essence of that very Impreza, while taking inspiration from the 22B arguably the most iconic Impreza."
Carbon-fibre chassis
Modern tech, we are told, allows the P25s to be lighter, and with handling that's better than that of the original (which we don't recall being especially un-better, but OK...). Some of the lightness will come from a chassis that switches from steel and aluminium to carbon-fibre.
Up front will be a` 2.5-litre turbo 'Boxer' flat-four engine, but this time it will be developing a whopping 400hp, driving all four wheels (of course...) through a six-speed sequential transmission.
Legendary car designer Peter Stevens (who penned the original P1, as well as such icons as the second-generation Lotus Esprit and the McLaren F1) has been brought in to work up the car's exterior styling for the 21st century, while the car's engineering is being overseen by none other than Prodrive technical director, David Lapworth, who was responsible for the original Impreza WRC.
Enhance everything
Creating the P25 is the idea of Prodrive chairman (and one-time co-driver to the great Ari Vatanen), David Richards. He said: "The original 22B Impreza is considered the most iconic of Subarus and highly sought after. We wanted to enhance everything that made that car so special by applying the very latest technology to create our own modern interpretation of a car that's established a place in motoring history."
The P25 will make its global debut at the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed. Prodrive isn't talking about price tags just yet, but we can pretty safely take a guess at 'not cheap.'