Since I recently shown the Mitsubishi Evo III, it’s only fair to show another rally contender.
*Disclaimer, I’ve shown this car before but never did a full write-up on it.*
Another well known car brand in the community of rallying for bringing AWD from the street to rally stage after Audi’s Quattro is Subaru’s Symmetrical AWD. Although, Subaru brought AWD to world rally around the same as time as Audi in the 1980, Subaru wasn’t fully convinced and only ran a few events in Group A while Audi was dominating in the major league Group B. After the demise of Group B, Subaru put more effort in their rally program and in the early 90's with the system proven to be efficient and reliable with them winning their first WRC Champion in 1993 with rally legend Colin Mcrae behind the wheel of a rally spec Subaru Legacy.
With the taste of victory in rally encourage Subaru on the AWD system, It begin the era of STi tuned road cars, the company that is in charge of the rally program. The first road-going model getting the STi recognition is the Impreza that Subaru replaced the outdated Legacy with for rally duty. In 1995, with Mcrae back in the driver seat for Subaru, they won the championship and repeated for three more consecutive years. This cement Subaru’s reputation along with the fighting color combination of blue and gold that is known as: “World Rally Blue.” To commemorate this outstanding achievement, Subaru built the special 22B. Used the same shorter, lighter 2 door model as the rally car as base. It got uprated engine that was bored from the regular 2.0L to 2.2L with new pistons and rally spec turbo where the “B” designation originated. Water injection system that is activated with a switch is also present that sprays water onto the intercooler to cool down incoming air. Which all add up to help create the 22B as powerful as its racing counterpart of 300hp. The exterior also mirrors the rally champion with fenders that are 3 inches wider to cover the wider tracks to improve handling, to improve chassis rigidity, carbon fiber strut bar mounted to the shock towers in the engine bay made by Fuji Industry that shows Subaru’s history of being once known for aviation before cars to reduce any chassis flex.
For being the closest rally car for the road, the monumental reason it was built, and with only 424 units produced. Its no surprise its consider the holy grail of Subaru.
Another Tomica Premium that I geeked over when it was first announced, Tomica left no details behind, down to the little silver Titanium STi emblems on the front fenders. The only part that get docked points are the wheels, they’re great effort but feels a bit flat with the openings all in gold. I still love it regardless and is one of the first cars I immediately recognize ever since I was a kid thanks to a comic series that was featured in every issue of a Taiwanese car magazine.
A little teaser of the next car I’ll be reviewing.
