Club history · Subaru & Impreza
The Subaru Impreza story
From an aircraft maker named after six stars, to a small saloon that was nearly built with the wrong engine, to three world titles in a row in blue and yellow. This is the story of the car that brought most of us to Subaru, and the people who made it.
At a glance
Six stars
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades. The six stars stand for the companies that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries.
The car that nearly wasn’t
The Impreza was planned with an inline four and a CVT. A cash crisis forced the boxer engine on it, and that saved the brand.
1995, 1996, 1997
Three manufacturers’ titles in a row, plus drivers’ titles for McRae, Burns and Solberg.
Stars and aircraft
Subaru’s roots are in the sky. In 1915 Chikuhei Nakajima set up an aircraft research laboratory that became the Nakajima Aircraft Company in 1932, one of Japan’s biggest aircraft builders.
After the war the business was broken up. Between 1953 and 1955, five of those companies and one new one merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries. Its chief executive, Kenji Kita, wanted to build cars, and he gave the first one, code-named P-1, the name Subaru: the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. Six companies, six stars. They are still on the badge on your bonnet.
The P-1 became the Subaru 1500 in 1954, but supply problems meant only around twenty were built. Its designer, Shinroku Momose, a former Nakajima aero-engine engineer, was moved onto something smaller. The result was the Subaru 360 of 1958, the tiny car that put Japan on wheels and put Subaru on the map.
The boxer and four-wheel drive
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1965–66 | The Subaru 1000, another Momose design, is unveiled and goes on sale with a horizontally opposed (boxer) engine and front-wheel drive. Subaru has built boxers ever since. |
| 1971 | The Leone arrives. A near-production Subaru 1300G four-wheel-drive prototype is shown the same year. |
| 1972 | The Leone four-wheel-drive estate goes on sale: one of the first mass-produced road cars with switchable four-wheel drive. |
| 1988 | Subaru Tecnica International (STI) is founded on 2 April 1988 by Ryuichiro Kuze and Noriyuki Koseki. |
| 1989 | The Legacy launches. In January, three Legacy RS saloons run 100,000 km in Arizona at an average of about 223 km/h, a world endurance record. |
| 1989 | In September, STI and Prodrive agree to run Subaru’s rally programme from Banbury, England. |
The car that nearly wasn’t
Work on a new small Subaru began in 1987. The plan, led by project manager Hideshige Gomi, was a conventional one: a transverse inline four with a CVT, built on an enlarged Justy chassis. By 1988 a 1.6-litre prototype was running.
Then the money ran out. A soaring yen hit Subaru’s American sales hard, Subaru of America lost around $30 million in 1987, and the funding for the new car went into building the Subaru-Isuzu factory in Indiana. Fuji’s president, Toshihiro Tajima, effectively asked for the project to be dropped.
What saved it was a compromise nobody on the team wanted: abandon the inline four and use the boxer engine and the Legacy’s platform instead. The team pushed back hard. Takeshi Ito, later called the father of the Impreza, took over and won them round. Shinroku Momose, by then retired, came back to advise.
The design team gave it the rounded, flowing shape we know. Designer Hidefumi Kato drew the profile after colleague Mamoru Konida asked for no wasted space inside. The body ended up lighter than the Legacy’s.
Alongside the family car, a hot version was developed in secret for about six months so it would not distract from the main car. Internally it was WRX. Prodrive and STI shaped its details: bigger grille and brake ducts, a larger turbo, the intercooler layout and the bonnet scoop. Ari Vatanen tested it at the Nürburgring, and the first prototype was driven by a young Colin McRae.
Years later, Kyoji Takenaka, who went on to become Fuji’s president, said that if the inline-four plan had gone ahead, the Subaru brand might have disappeared. The engine Subaru could not afford to replace became the thing that defined it.
The Impreza was announced on 22 October 1992 and went on sale in Japan in November, with the 240 PS WRX in the range from the start. The name comes from impresa, an old word for an emblem or motto, chosen to suggest something young and sporty that leaves a fresh impression.
Prodrive and the blue cars
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1993 | Colin McRae and Derek Ringer win Rally New Zealand in a Legacy RS: Subaru’s first world rally win and McRae’s first. The Impreza 555 debuts in Finland that August, and Ari Vatanen finishes second. |
| 1994 | Carlos Sainz and Luis Moya give the Impreza its first world rally win on the Acropolis, after McRae is excluded while leading. McRae adds two more wins. |
| 1995 | On 22 November McRae and Ringer win the RAC Rally by 36 seconds over teammate Sainz to become champions. At 27, McRae is the youngest world rally champion and the first from Britain. Subaru takes the first of three manufacturers’ titles. |
| 1996 | Second manufacturers’ title. McRae is runner-up to Tommi Mäkinen. |
| 1997 | The new World Rally Car rules arrive. Prodrive’s Impreza WRC97, a two-door body styled by Peter Stevens with its wide arches, wins first time out in Monte Carlo with Piero Liatti. Third manufacturers’ title; McRae loses the drivers’ title by one point. |
| 1998 | STI builds the 22B road car to celebrate: 400 for Japan and 24 for export. 22B is hexadecimal for 555. |
| 2000 | The redesigned car, largely the work of Prodrive designer Christian Loriaux, wins on its debut in Portugal. |
| 2001 | Richard Burns and Robert Reid finish third on the final round in Wales to win the title by two points from McRae. |
| 2003 | Petter Solberg and Phil Mills win the final round in Wales, 43.6 seconds ahead of Sébastien Loeb, to take the title by one point. |
| 2005 | Solberg wins Rally GB: Subaru’s last world rally win. |
| 2008 | On 16 December, Subaru announces it is leaving the World Rally Championship. |
The people
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Chikuhei Nakajima | Founded the aircraft business that became Fuji Heavy Industries. |
| Kenji Kita | Fuji Heavy Industries’ chief executive who named the first car Subaru. |
| Shinroku Momose | Engineer behind the Subaru 1500, 360 and 1000. He also advised the Impreza team in retirement. |
| Takeshi Ito | Led the Impreza project after the switch to the boxer engine. Called the father of the Impreza. |
| Hidefumi Kato | Designer of the first Impreza’s rounded profile. |
| Ryuichiro Kuze and Noriyuki Koseki | Founded STI in 1988. |
| David Richards | Founder and chairman of Prodrive, and team principal of the Subaru World Rally Team. |
| David Lapworth | Prodrive technical director, and later team boss. |
| Peter Stevens | Styled the Impreza WRC97 body. |
| Christian Loriaux | Prodrive designer behind most of the 2000 Impreza WRC. |
| Colin McRae MBE (1968–2007) | 1995 world champion with co-driver Derek Ringer. Subaru’s most successful driver, with 16 wins. |
| Carlos Sainz | Gave the Impreza its first win, Acropolis 1994, with Luis Moya. |
| Richard Burns (1971–2005) | 2001 world champion with Robert Reid. |
| Petter Solberg | 2003 world champion with Phil Mills, and 13 wins for Subaru. |
| Ari Vatanen and Markku Alén | Drove the Impreza on its debut in Finland in 1993. Vatanen also tested the WRX at the Nürburgring. |
The road cars
- GC8 (1992–2000): the original. The WRX launched at 240 PS, and the first STi version followed in early 1994. Then came the lightweight Type RA, the two-door Type R coupe, and in 1998 the 2.2-litre, wide-bodied 22B.
- GD (2000–2007): wider, stiffer and more grown up. Owners know the three faces as bugeye, blobeye and hawkeye. STI’s S202, S203 and S204 and the Spec C Type RA-R are among the most collectable Imprezas ever built.
- GR (2007–2014): the STI became a wide-bodied hatchback, later joined by a saloon.
- 2014 on: the WRX and WRX STI became models in their own right, and the Impreza name went back to being Subaru’s everyday car.
Why it still matters
Most Impreza owners can tell you where they were when they first heard a flat four on full boost, or saw a blue and yellow car on a forest stage. The Impreza made a small, stubborn company from Gunma a household name across Ireland and Britain, and it did it the hard way: on gravel, in the wet, against bigger factories.
It is also why so many of us ended up in this club. The ISDC has been sharing that experience since 1999, and many of the cars that came to Ireland in those years are still on the road and still being looked after by members. Every one of them carries a bit of this story.
More guides
Subaru Impreza special editions
Impreza chassis and model codes explained
Subaru Impreza turbos explained
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