Prior to introducing the Impreza into World Rally Championship racing in 1993, the Subaru World Rally Team had fielded the larger mid-size Legacy. As competition increasingly shifted toward smaller and lighter chassis, Subaru introduced the smaller Impreza. To develop it into a competitive rally car, Subaru teamed with British motorsports company Prodrive from 1989.
The Impreza achieved a podium on its debut at the 1993 1000 Lakes Rally. Immediately following the first overall WRC event win for the Subaru team — Colin McRae aboard a Group A Legacy on the 1993 Rally New Zealand — McRae's teammate Ari Vatanen finished second on the debut rally of the first factory Impreza. New recruit Carlos Sainz, the 1990 and 1992 World Champion, brought the Impreza its inaugural victory on the 1994 Acropolis Rally.
The Impreza delivered Subaru three consecutive WRC constructors' titles from 1995 to 1997, the latter season being the first for the newly introduced World Rally Car class. Driver championships followed for McRae in 1995, Richard Burns in 2001, and Petter Solberg in 2003.
A new evolution of the Impreza WRC debuted at the 2007 Corona Rally Mexico, but the car experienced mechanical difficulties in almost every rally from its first race. Subaru debuted an Impreza WRC in hatchback form from the 2008 Acropolis Rally onwards, on which event Solberg scored a second-place finish. On 16 December 2008 Subaru announced withdrawal from the World Rally Championship due to economic problems.
To support WRC competition, Subaru produced several limited-run homologation and performance variants. In June 1995, Subaru UK released 200 limited edition "Series McRae" Turbo 2000s prepared by Prodrive in Rally Blue with gold 16-inch alloy wheels and individual numbered badging from 1 to 201 (car 13 was never built). In March 1997, a further 200 UK-market "Catalunya" cars were produced in black with red flecks on gold alloy wheels to celebrate Subaru's second WRC manufacturers' title at the Rally of Spain.
In 1998, Subaru of Japan produced 400 units of the widebody coupe WRX STi "22B STi" to commemorate both Subaru's 40th anniversary and the third consecutive WRC manufacturers' title. All 400 Japanese units sold out within 30 minutes to 48 hours. A further 24 were produced for export — 16 for the UK (modified by Prodrive) and 5 for Australia. The 22B carried fender flares taken from the Peter Stevens-designed WRC car, widening the body by 80 mm, and was powered by the EJ22G engine displacing 2.2 litres with an IHI RHF 5HB turbocharger, officially rated at 280 PS.
In 1999, 444 limited-edition "RB5" Turbo 2000 models were produced in grey for the UK market to celebrate the return of Richard Burns to the rally team.
In April 2010, a modified third generation WRX STI driven by Tommi Mäkinen set a lap time of 7:55 on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, a record for a 4-door car. In 2011 Mark Higgins used a stock Impreza to set a lap record at the Isle of Man TT course; in 2016 Higgins broke the record again in a modified WRX STI.
The Impreza has won the Targa New Zealand three times, the Targa Newfoundland four times and the Targa Tasmania three times. Possum Bourne won the Silverstone Race to the Sky in 2001. David Higgins won the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race in 2011 and 2014.
From 2005 to 2008, the Cusco team entered the Super GT championship using an Impreza — the only team to do so with a 4WD car. Nobushige Kumakubo won the 2006 D1 Grand Prix season using a rear-wheel drive Impreza GDB.
The car has achieved class wins in endurance racing at the 2011 24 Hours of Nürburgring, the 1995 Eastern Creek 12 Hour, and the Bathurst 12 Hour in 1994, 2007 and 2009.
The Subaru Rally Team USA continued competing in the Rally America National Championship after the WRC withdrawal. In May 2012 Subaru announced the Subaru Puma Rallycross Team USA for the 2012 Global RallyCross Championship with Dave Mirra, Bucky Lasek, and Sverre Isachsen; the team also competed in the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship. Roger Ledoux won the Canadian Touring Car Championship for Lachute Performance in 2014 and 2015 using an Impreza.
An Impreza WRC Group R4 was entered in the 2012 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally. The Subaru Road Racing Team competed in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge with the Impreza WRX STI, switching from hatchback to sedan in 2011.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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