Buy This Rare Subaru Impreza And Brag About How Long Your Car’s Name Is

When it comes to cars with the greatest number of special editions, there are a few obvious contenders. The Mazda MX-5. The Abarth 500. The Lotus Elise. And of course, the Subaru WRX.

The WRX has been around for over 30 years now, both as a hot derivative of the Impreza and a standalone model. During that time, Subaru has tacked on all manner of complex strings of letters and numbers to its name. What we have here, though, might just take the title of the longest. This is your chance to own an incredibly rare (deep breath) Subaru Impreza WRX STI tS Type RA NBR Challenge. Blimey.

The car that, which for everyone’s sake we’ll henceforth refer to as the NBR Challenge, was an even more limited-run version of an already limited-run version of the base car. It began life as the WRX STI tS Type RA (already a pretty clunky name), a special edition of the third-generation Impreza WRX STI.

Unveiled in 2013, it was only sold in the Japanese market, and limited to 300 units. It used the basic car’s 2.0-litre turbocharged flat-four, making 302bhp. Naturally, it was four-wheel drive, and had a six-speed manual. Compared to the base car, it had a quicker steering rack, bigger Brembo brakes and uprated suspension (although oddly, the ad for this one seems to suggest it’s been retrofitted with the standard STI suspension). 0-62 came up in around 4.5 seconds, and top speed was 155mph.

200 of those 300 cars were equipped with the NBR Challenge pack, which celebrated the Impreza’s class wins at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2011 and 2012 (hence the NBR bit). That further enhanced the car with some brilliantly chunky Recaro bucket seats, a carbon fibre rear wing, and 18-inch aluminium BBS wheels shod in a set of Bridgestone Potenzas (although this example is now wearing Michelin PS5s).

Despite being Japan-exclusive, these cars were immediately sought after for their rarity and performance enhancements, and a quick Google reveals a fair few that have found their way over to Britain. The ad for this one calls it one of 84 cars, which we assume means 84 in white - orange and, of course, blue were also available. Freshly imported and sitting at only 22,697 miles, it’s been upgraded with an HKS air filter and Fujitsubo exhaust.

The price for this slice of desirable flat-four rarity, which is being sold through a classified ad on Collecting Cars? £35,995. It still sounds like a lot for an Impreza, but in the era of the £60k P1 and six-figure 22B, it strikes us as an absolute bargain for one of the rarest and most focused Imprezas of all time. And hey, it’s only four grand per word in its name.