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May 19, 2023

Subaru WRX STI 22B up for auction, here's a history lesson

Auction house Collecting Cars reckons this car [↗] will fetch close to $500,000

Auction house Collecting Cars reckons this car [↗] will fetch close to $500,000 – and they're probably right, since car 156 of 400, with 40,000km on the clock, sold for A$402,000 in the US back in 2021.

Of course, that was in the height of the 'COVID tax' period...

This one, car 258 privately imported from Japan (only five came here officially), has 71,000km on the odo. Will it do as well? Collecting Cars say they've sold other 22Bs for "minimum" $360,000, so it's in with a chance.

Need a catch-me-up on the 22B? Read on...

"This apparently innocent sedan, built to carry Subaru's future hopes in world championship rallying, might just be the car to define high performance 1990s-style."

In terms of rallying, I guess I was right: of the 10 WRC drivers’ championships from 1990-99, all but one were won in Japanese four-cylinder turbo 4WD cars.

Okay, the WRX accounted for just one of those (Colin McRae, 1995), punctuating the reigns of Toyota's Celica and Mitsubishi's Lancer – but in the WRC manufacturers’ title, Subaru claimed three on the trot (1995-97).

In this, Subaru was aided by its STi (Subaru Tecnica International) competition department and British-based Prodrive, with which it had collaborated in rallying since 1989 with the all-wheel-drive Legacy, and subsequently the compact Impreza WRX since 1993.

In celebration of its title hat-trick, and to better represent the new-for-’97 World Rally Car regs allowing greater freedoms than the outgoing Group A, STi took direct inspiration from the sexy coupe-bodied ‘WRC 97’ works machine and packed a road-or-rally customer version with a hand-assembled, enlarged 2.2-litre turbo flat-four, and a catalogue of trick homologation parts.

British designer Peter Stevens had penned the WRC 97 competition machine's bulging, 80mm-wider body and unique aero package that included a tall, adjustable rear wing. Starting with the production coupe shell (STi Type R, introduced in 1997), both these elements would make it to the new, limited-production model, formally known as the Impreza WRX Type R STi 22B.

The allocation had been sold out in less than 48 hours (some say in one hour). Urging from foreign quarters, not least Australia, teased out a further 25 cars: 16 for the UK, five for Australia, and three ‘000’-numbered prototypes, bound for special customers (see Fast & Factual). Production wrapped in August 1998.

All 425 cars were finished with gold-painted wheels and the familiar metallic Sonic Blue. A number of the cars were destined for competition, allowing those owners to chase their ’97 works heroes McRae, Kenneth Eriksson and Piero Liatti. And the rest – including wide-eyed journalists – got to marvel at supercar-beating point-to-point performance, and a truly iconic expression of the turbo all-paw four.

Turbo was a single IHI VF23, though a larger, laggier VF22 was optional. Official outputs were 206kW and 360Nm, via a (disappointing) five-speed ’box, twin-plate clutch and driver-variable torque split. Zero to 0-100km/h took 4.7 seconds.

Nozzles in bonnet scoop sprayed mist over the intercooler. Down under were a quicker steering rack, Eibach springs, Bilstein dampers and 17-inch BBS wheels, covering ABS-less discs with STi calipers.

The coupe cockpit is surprisingly spacious, the (unbranded) blue Alcantara-insert bucket seats supremely grippy, but subtleties like CD player, air-con and airbags were absent, in favour of toys like console-mounted DCCD (driver controlled centre differential) dial and intercooler spray switch. Each car had a numbered plaque below the ashtray.

Feature

In the blue corner, fighting out of Gunma, Japan and weighing in at an even 1270kg: Subaru's undisputed champ, the 22B

Review

Built to satisfy new world rally championship rules, the 1999 subaru STI 22B is the greatest impreza road car ever

Michael Stahl is a long-serving contributor to the Wheels and Motor brands.