A Road-Legal, Ex-Works Subaru Impreza WRC Car Is Up For Auction

Few rally cars are as instantly recognisable as a Subaru Impreza. It doesn’t matter the year, if it’s got that gold and blue livery, it goes down as iconic. Now, there’s a very rare chance to buy a works-run Impreza for yourself.

This particular car is a bugeye Impreza S8 WRC driven in the 2002 season by the legendary Petter Solberg, with co-driver Phil Mills. Though the pairing didn’t have any memorable success with the car, finishing fifth in the Cyprus Rally and 11th in the Safari Rally that season with this chassis, it still holds significance in a season where Solberg finished as runner-up.

It’s the third chassis of seven S8 WRCs that constructor Prodrive built that year, first registered in March 2002, and boasted some serious upgrades over the preceding car used in 2001.

Among the upgrades included 15kg of weight savings thanks to modified writing and thinner glass, improvements to the drivetrain and an evolved turbocharged. The 2.0-litre flat-four pushed out 300bhp through a six-speed sequential gearbox. Being a WRC car, shifts are done via a single push/pull paddle, which will surely be amusing for a trip to Tesco.

Oh yes, it’s road-legal, in case you were unaware. Granted, it’s not exactly abundant with creature comforts – air con comes courtesy of wind being fed through the roof scoop and you’ll need to climb over the FIA-spec roll cage when you’re getting in and out. It does have Xenon headlights though, which was pretty rad for 2002.

It’s also registered in the UK, with a Welsh V5C, plus a load of other documentation including a Japanese FIA homologation booklet and an FIA technical passport signed by Solberg.

How much this will go for is anyone’s guess, but with three days left at the time of writing and three bids, it sits at €75,000 (approx. £64,000) on Collecting Cars. Expect that to rise.