It’s As Close As You Can Get To A Road-Legal WRC Car
When the Prodrive P25 debuted in 2022, its combination of iconic World Rally Championship (WRC) looks and up-to-date mechanical upgrades ensured that it sold out quickly even with a price tag of about $500,000. But now there’s an opportunity to own one of these resto-modded Subaru Imprezas, albeit at an even higher price.
Race Cars For You is listing one of the 25 cars for sale in the Untied Kingdom with an asking price of 700,000 British pounds. That’s about $928,000 at current exchange rates, but it still buys a thoroughly engineered tribute to the championship-winning WRC97 from the company that built and raced the original rally cars.
Thorough Mechanical Upgrades
The P25 is powered by a Prodrive-developed turbocharged 2.5-liter boxer-four based on the Subaru EJ25 engine. While the period rally cars and the Japanese-market Subaru WRX STI models that homologated them used the smaller EJ20, Prodrive used the EJ25 (found in U.S. and European-market STI models) as a base because of greater parts availability.
The modified engine produces 400 horsepower and 433 pound-feet of torque, which only needs to accelerate about 2,600 pounds of car. Power is distributed to all four wheels through a sequential six-speed transmission with a rally-style launch-control system that automatically runs through the first three gears.
The P25 also features front and rear limited-slip differentials, but interestingly Prodrive retained the stock Subaru center differential, which regulates the front/rear power split. Some software changes were applied, but the component itself is stock Subaru.
Throwback Styling
The styling hews closely to the 1990s rally cars that inspired by the P25. The bumpers were designed to look like those used on the WRC97, and the P25 is identical in width to that car, at 69.7 inches. The large rear spoiler comes from the 2000-season rally car, which was based on the same generation of Impreza.
The interior is all business, with lightweight seats, racing harnesses, a roll cage, and floor-hinged pedals. The stripped-down interior, along with the used of carbon fiber for much of the bodywork, helps keep the P25’s weight down.
While production was limited to 25 units, that’s not why this restomod is called the P25. That’s a reference to the 25th anniversary of Subaru’s trio of consecutive WRC titles from 1995-1997. Those were the only WRC constructor’s titles for Subaru, but it did win additional driver’s titles in 2001 and 2003 with Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, respectively.