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SUBARU IMPREZA

SUBARU IMPREZA

Impreza World Rallying Scene

Subaru entered the world rallying scene with the Legacy saloon in both group N (show room) and group A (modified) classes. Although it was relatively quite a large car they had a lot of success on both the national and international scene.

Group A Impreza

In 1993 the Impreza made its debut in group A with a similarly powerful 2 litre engine and 4 wheel drive but packaged in a relatively small body, the car looked a winner. The Subaru Impreza was first seen on a competitive rally stage on the 1000 Lakes, two cars being driven by Ari Vatanen and Markku Alen. Mixed fortunes beset the car on its inaugural event when Alen flew off the road, ripped a wheel off, and slammed into a rock. Conversely Vatanen lead the rally early on, set some fastest times and came in overall second!

In 1994 a certain British driver Colin McRae and his co-driver Derek Ringer won the RAC rally in an Impreza and the car suddenly gained cult status being voted Rally Car of the Year by Autosport readers! They repeated the feat in 1995 to take the World Rally Championship for both drivers and manufacturers, and amazingly the rally finished with an Impreza 1-2-3!

In 1996 McRae won three of the World Championship rounds but unfortunately lost the drivers title, but Subaru retained the 1996 manufacturers title. Again Autosport readers voted the car Rally Car of the year for the third succesive season....and waiting lists for road going cars grew

Although the group A class is not used today by Prodrive/Subaru in the WRC, the works team moved on in 1997, there are Imprezas entered into National and International events under these regulations. The late Bertie Fisher used to great success a group A Impreza in Irish tarmac events during 1999 and here it can be seen during pre rally preparation. Note the size of the disc brakes!

1997-World Rally Car specification Impreza

1997 saw the launch of a new breed of rally cars, returning almost to the days of the Group B. The requirements to produce 2500 homologated specials was dropped, allowing manufacturers to use an existing model from the range, and develop it for competition. The WRC rules can be applied to any car which has sold more than 25,000, engines can be transplanted from another car in the range and a 2 wheel drive car can be extensively modified to 4.

The new regulations have relaxed the number of actual modified cars which must be sold to the general public, and have increased the modifications allowed over the standard vehicle it is based. Ultimate restriction on power output of around 300bhp come from a maximum permitted turbo inlet and the speed and cornering abilities are kept under check by a maximum width on tires.

Subaru were the first manufacturer and team to take advantage of the new rules and the new car has been built to the new World Rally Car specifications entirely at Prodrive. This is a first for Subaru who normally supply the cars pre-built ready for preparation. Designed by Peter Stevens and engineered by Prodrives David Lapworth, the basis of the car is an Impreza Coupe (also known as the Impreza Retna) but it is heavily modified and is vastly different from the road going car.

Richard Burns Subaru Impreza WRC99 in preparation for the Acropolis Rally

The cars are built from a bare production shell in-house with over 400 man hours to bring it up to WRC specification. It is much wider than the standard car with steel panels, aluminium bonnet and fibre glass used for the bumpers and spoilers. The sculptured body work along with the huge wing give aerodynamic benefits in terms of down force thus gaining grip and cornering speed. Carbon fibre is used extensively inside making up the dashboard, door panels and any other item where a weight saving can be made.

Extensive modifications to the engine are allowed, with larger turbo chargers, water injection and engine parts changed for much lighter items.

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Seen here in preparation for the Acropolis Rally is Juha Kankkunens Impreza WRC99. Note the size of the front mounted intercooler! Also the traditional bonnet intercooler air scoop is now blanked off on the WRC99 cars.

Of course the go faster bits are suplemented by some very nice go slower bits, such as increased brake discs and huge calipers. The suspension is hand built for each event and far bigger and stranger than normal.

WRC2001 - Prodrive 44S

The Impreza has under gone a number of changes through the years. The body had a face lift at the end of 1996 which co-incided wih the introduction of the WRC. Now at the end of 2000 the New Age Impreza has been introduced with a totally different body, running gear and engine and the World Rally Car Impreza follows suit.

Although the car upon which it is based is all new, the WRC2001 utilises nearly 80% of the WRC2000. Of the old model, the body, electrics and interior are the only things not carried over.

The new road going Impreza is heavier than the older model but this extra weight comes from extra refinement in items such as air conditioning, in car entertainment, sound deadening material, trim etc. which get thrown out at the preparation stage anyway. In fact Prodrive claim the new 44S could be a few kilos lighter than the WRC2000 and the stiffer bodyshell introduced because of changing crash test requirements is a big advantage to the rally car.

The car has significantly better aerodynamics than the out going model which will help on the high speed tarmac rallies. The wider track and bigger wheel arches allows the Prodrive team to further push the envelope on the suspension front whilst keeping inside the required FIA WRC rulebook.

WRC2003

Tommi Mäkinen revealed a prototype of Subaru Impreza World Rally Car - the WRC2003 at the September 2002 Paris Motor Show.

"The WRC is now more competitive than ever before and winning rallies demands the very best at every stage. As far as I'm concerned this prototype represents another significant step forward in the development of the Impreza - it is absolutely on the cutting edge," explained 555 Subaru Team Principal David Lapworth. "We've been working on the project for around a year now, and have been involved with our colleagues at Subaru in Japan more closely than ever before. The design of the new road and rally car has been a two way process, with ideas passing backwards and forwards between our design teams. The result of this tandem approach is that changes have been made to the road car which in turn will help us win WRC events."

"The prototype features a number of improvements over the current model, for instance the bodyshell is lighter and stiffer, the aero package uses the air in a far more efficient way and the reduced frontal area makes the whole package more aerodynamic. There are many more improvements under the skin, but until the design is finalised we're remaining tight-lipped."

http://subaru.com

here r some pics of subaru displayin skills and posses!!!

Here is a cool winamp skin (sorry but cant download it!!!)

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