I believe that Subaru will probably drop the Impreza as the rally car in future in favour of something smaller. If you have heard the automotive news lately, Subaru have been considering reshuffling their car fleet and adding a smaller model underneath the Impreza in the US, thus moving the remaining cars upmarket. I have the feeling that this smaller car will form the basis of their future WRC efforts.

 

if i recall its the 22b rally car
****ing great car

 

the gc8 style wrc cars began their life as sti type ra's. the 22b was a limited production run in 98 based off the rally car.

 

I think the companies involved with WRC are also customer minded... let's look at it this way... a 4 door car is more marketable to a wider customer base than a coupe. Coupes really only sell to single guys or rich family guys who want a toy car.

With the success of the 98-00 rally coupe, the impreza proved itself as solid engineering, so subaru built the 01 bugeyed neon look alike. From what I've seen on the roads here in canada, There are WAY more MY01+ than MY01- imprezas on the road. The impreza has turned into a marketable small family vehicle and increased it's sales because of it.

I can only imagine peugeot wants to do the same thing by going to the larger car next year. I'll leave the focus out of this because we all know what the focus can do on the street... other than break down. There are really only 2 cars on the market that offer anything close to rally like performance, and that's the EVO and WRX/STI both of which are doing really well, I doubt their sales would be as high as they are now if they were offered in 2door or 3door hatch, just because they turn into a pure sports car rather than a sports car with practicality in mind.


Besides, as a student, I'd rather have the 4door sedan or the 4door wagon as my first new car because it's got room to move stuff around, and I can keep it longer because it can hold a family should the car last a good 10 years.