Who'd have thought the 22B would be toppled as the used market's priciest Subaru Impreza? Since Prodrive released its P25 ‘restomod’ a couple of years ago, examples of the WRC-grade WRX have been listed for well over half a million quid. In fact, this 30-mile car (apparently the only P25 in silver) will set you back £574,999, which is (surprise, surprise) even more than what they originally cost straight from Prodrive.
While the 22B no longer sits at the very top of the Impreza tree on value alone, for those with of-its-time rally heritage on the brain, it’s surely still the end goal. The 22B, from the outside at least, is Japan’s version of the Delta Integrale Evo. Beefy arches, chunky bumpers and a massive rear wing were all a match for Prodrive machines Colin McRae and Richard Burns were chasing the all-conquering Mitsubishi Evos in on the World Rally stage. Then there was the bigger, 2.2-litre turbo boxer engine, its first and only appearance in an Impreza STI, inverted Bilstein dampers paired with bespoke Eibach springs, a faster steering rack and so much more.
Still, the 22B wasn’t the homologation special some consider it to be. While it bore a strong resemblance to the rally car, the WR ruleset that spawned those iconic Imprezas wasn’t nearly as production-focused as the previous Group A regs. That’s something Prodrive was keen to point out when we first got a glimpse of the P25 at Goodwood back in 2022, claiming that its creation is in fact the only genuine road-going version of the WRC car. And while it may have a point, it took them the best part of 25 years to get around to building it. So when the 22B arrived in 1998, it definitely was the ultimate Impreza.
So much so that it effectively kickstarted STI’s presence in the UK. Although the deep burble of a Turbo 2000 is as synonymous with the '90s as Liam Gallagher’s singing, Subaru held back its full-fat STI models until the arrival of the ‘bug eye’ in 2000. Apart from that is the run of 16 22Bs that were imported by Prodrive in 1998, which were almost identical to the JDM siblings bar slightly longer final drive, sacrificing a bit of punch off the line to make it less shouty and thirst while cruising, plus the move to UK-specific headlights. Nothing major, sure, but STI’s British roots can all be traced back to the 22B.
This, admittedly, isn’t one of them, but that doesn’t make it any less special. So few in number were UK cars that a fair amount of the original 400 Japanese production run have made their way over as grey imports. This must have been one of the first, having been registered here back in 2001 and being only the 29th in the production run. It’s clocked a good amount more in the following 23 years (now reading 49,011 miles), though the ad claims that it was taken off the road between 2015 and earlier this year. Still, it’s recently been treated to new belts and filters, as well as a fresh set of original-spec dampers.
All the oily bits should be in as good condition as the paintwork, and crucially it looks to be original throughout. Even the Pirelli tyres are the same spec (but not age!) as the stock 22B, which just shows how well this rally icon has been cared for. As it should be for £190,000, frankly. Not as loopy as some low-mileage cars (quarter of a million isn’t unheard of), and McRae’s old 22B prototype sold for P25 money last year - but a far cry from the days when they were changing hands for the sort of cash that’d get you a well-specced Golf. On an unrelated note, has anybody cracked time travel yet? Preferably backwards.
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