Posted Sunday, April 20, 2025 at 9:44pm
The magical world of rallying has turned so many humdrum family cars into generation-defining performance heroes. On their own, the names Delta, Escort and Lancer offer little to get enthusiasts excited, but tag Integrale, Cosworth and Evolution onto them, and you get the sort of late 20th century legend that gets a certain type of person bidding their life savings away on online auctions.
Then there was the Subaru Impreza, another small, run of the mill family saloon. Unless, of course, you stick three extra letters on its name: WRX. Another three still elevate it even further: STI.
This is the story of a car that turned boring into brilliant, getting involved headfirst in one of the greatest, longest-lived automotive rivalries there ever was in the process, and making the rumble of a turbocharged flat-four a sound that catches the attention of an entire generation of enthusiasts to this day.
