Subaru Motorsports Rudely Teases Us With Street-Legal WRX Rally Car Mockup

The Drive

2 days ago

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These days, there is no shortage of talented artists dreaming up cars that don't exist, but should, and sharing them online. That's to say nothing of the folks who will punch fake vehicle names into AI image generators for predictably horrible results. But these renders of a Subaru WRX rally car in street clothes hit differently, because they came from Subaru Motorsports itself.
Earlier in the week, Subaru's U.S. rally team, which is operated by the fine folks at Vermont SportsCar, shared images of its WRX ARA25 rally car in stark white and blue with no liveries and gold rims and the caption 'What if the Subaru WRX ARA25 was sold as road car?' The resulting comments were predictable, from some people offering to donate their kidneys for the cause, to others predictably begging for a new STI. But this thought exercise is so much more extreme than just about any Impreza or WRX the company's ever sold, including the vaunted 22B.
The era of homologation specials—race cars that had to be sold as road cars, to be eligible for competition—has long since passed. Three or four decades ago, we might've gotten something like these images. The 22B STI, though it shared many visual similarities to Subaru's WRC car of the late '90s, was really a Type R chassis with flared fenders and many mechanical changes. Subaru built it because it chose to, to celebrate its rallying success—not because it had to. Classic WR Blue Pearl or simple white? Subaru Motorsports USA via Facebook
Similarly, anything like this pie-in-the-sky ARA25 road car would have to come about because Subaru wanted to build it. Like everyone else, we wish it did. The VB WRX's design has warmed up on me since its initial unveiling, but I still don't love it. There's just too much cladding, and the rear end design is very narrow and cinched in an unflattering way. But flare those fenders, tuck in the body just behind the front wheels, bolt on a big-ass wing, and swap all that black plastic out for genuine carbon fiber and, suddenly, you've systematically dismantled every possible criticism I though I had with the current-gen sport sedan. Race cars just have a knack for doing that.
As much as I avoid getting caught up in daydreaming like this, it's a different story when it's the OEM itself (or, its racing team) inviting us to do it. The STI may have gone on a hiatus, but it's clear that there is still an appetite for a true giant-killing WRX to battle the likes of the Civic Type R, GR Corolla, and Golf R. Commercially, Subaru is killing it these days thanks to its SUVs, and the optimist in me is hopeful that increases the chances the automaker simply decides to blow a whole lot of money on a flagship performance car again. That's the glass-half-full take, anyway; the pessimist in me is wondering why the Subaru rally team chose violence with such a cruel tease.
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