PRODRIVE P25
TESTED 6.10.23, ANGLESEY ON SALE NOW
Our minds were blown by the legendary motorsport engineering firm’s road-going rally car. Now to unleash it fully at Trac Môn
Before we get started, let’s get one thing straight: the car you’re looking at here isn’t a restomod. Sure, at a glance, the Prodrive P25 is a doppelganger of the 1998 Subaru Impreza 22B, a Japanese icon of near-mythical status of which just 424 examples were built, only 16 of them coming to the UK. Yet despite the same bulging wheel arches, high-rise rear spoiler and metallic blue paint, the similarities between this dynamic duo are almost coincidental.
You see, the P25 is neither restored nor modified – it’s virtually an all-new offering. Yes, it’s built on the bare bones of an Impreza, but almost everything else is bespoke, from the top of its carbonfibre body to the sump of its turbocharged 2.5-litre flat-four engine.
It has been designed not as an update of a classic but to mark the 25th birthday of the Prodriveprepared Impreza WRC97, Subaru’s most successful single-season rally car. Notching up eight victories across the 1997 campaign (one for Piero Liatti, two for Kenneth Eriksson and five for Colin McRae), it was also the machine that sealed the brand’s third and final WRC constructors’ crown. So, something worth celebrating then.