Subaru Impreza 2008 News

They relegating Neal Bates, who'd won all three national rounds so far this year to the bottom step of the podium.Bates and co-driver Coral Taylor in their TRD Corolla still lead the Australian Rally Championship on 283 points but Eli Evans-Chris Murphy have closed the gap to be on 226 points and defending champions Simon Evans with wife Sue as co-driver have jumped into third place on 187 points.It was not only a 1-2 in the SA round for Simon and Eli respectively - Simon's much needed first-round win of the year after crashing out of the Queensland round last month - but also 1-2 in yesterday's Heat 2 led by Eli over Simon.Conditions on the dirt tracks in the Barossa Valley and Hills yesterday were even more tricky than in Saturday's Heat 1. At one stage dust was coming from wheels on the dirt then it rained a number of times and eventually hail came.Eli Evans as a privateer in a Subaru Impreza WRX took a stangehold on heat 2 with a blitzing Stage 18, called Floodways. The 23.3km stage was the longest of the rally with fast flowing roads, dips, crests and crossing many floodways. He was a full 15sec quicker that his brother on the stage alone.“It was tough today,” Simon Evans said of the conditions. “Eli did a fantastic job. He's nuts!”Heat 1 on Saturday was won by Simon Evans by 40.9 sec from TRD team-mate Bates with Eli Evans third another 40.2sec back and Spencer Lowndes-Chris Randell fourth in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. "The weather nade it extremely tricky,” Simon Evans said. “All I could do was drive smart.”Michael Guest - David Green (Subaru) had a heavy crash into a tree on stage 5 on Saturday but were uninjured. 

Pulling on a race suit is a transmogrifying experience, much as one imagines peeling on the blue lycra and red gumboots and underpants is for Superman.

The fully-pimped STi is revealed today exactly as it will look when it carries Subaru's new competition colours into the World Rally Championship at the end of the month.And Aussie Chris Atkinson will be at the wheel.The World Rally Car version of the regular roadgoing STi has been under development for more than a year at Subaru's competition skunkworks, Prodrive, in Britain and is being rushed into action at the Acropolis Rally in Greece from May 29-June 1.If the pumped-up shape looks familiar, it's because the latest Impreza WRC was used as inspiration for the regular showroom car.But that's about where the similarities end.The WRC competition car has a fully-tweaked turbo boxer with 225 kiloWatts of power, a figure choked down for safety, but a stonking 500 Newton-metres of torque.The body panels are carbon fibre, there is a massive safety rollcage and the fully-active all-wheel drive system and competition dampers are all unique and created just for the WRC attack.The first appearance of the new Impreza has been brought forward several months after a disastrous two-year run with the old car, which was seriously outpaced by both the Citroen C4 and Ford Focus in the world title fight.Subaru's rally boss, David Richards - who also controls Ford Performance Vehicles and the Ford Performance Racing in Australia - has promised the car will be ready to fight at the front from its first start in Greece, which is good news for Atkinson and his team-mate, former world champion Petter Solberg. 

The Australian ace had his first test in Subaru's new Impreza WRC2008 recently in Italy.It is due to make its rally debut this year and will hold the key to Atkinson's world title hopes.Despite sitting third in the championship, seven points behind leader Mikko Hirvonen, Atkinson is worried about his chances.The team's current Impreza WRC2007 is outdated and off the pace of the Ford Focus and Citroen C4, meaning the new car needs a big step forward in performance.Speaking after finishing a distant third in Rally Jordan, Atkinson admitted his concerns.“OK, we're third and that's great, but I'm not sure how this has happened,” he says. “We're five minutes behind the winner. We still have work to do.”Atkinson was joined by teammate Petter Solberg in Italy to take over from test driver Markko Martin in the new car, Subaru's first WRC hatchback.The pair had two days running on the gravel roads of Sardinia, but details of the test are limited.“It was always in the plan that they (Solberg and Atkinson) would drive the car for the first time this week,” team manager Richard Taylor says. “The test was part of the development process. I have no comment to make on the technical aspect of the test, but we are pleased with this stage of the program.”Subaru has not won a WRC round since 2005. Team boss David Richards said earlier this year that the new car would be a clean sheet design, to get the team back into winning contention.The team still hasn't revealed a date for the car's debut, saying only that it will be mid-season.Atkinson will be hoping it is sooner rather than later. 

1233 Foresters, Imprezas, WRX, WRX STi, Liberty GT sedans and wagons locally are potentially affected, Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley says.The cars were manufactured between January 8 and April 5.Rowley says there have been no reported incidents with the turbo engines in Australia. However, Fuji Heavy Industries, the manufacturer of Subaru vehicles, has temporarily suspended the production and sale of all 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engines built between the notified dates.Cars affected are the Forester XT, chassis number 002070 onwards; Impreza WRX and WRX STI, chassis number 015006 onwards; Liberty GT sedan, chassis number 038385 onwards; and Liberty GT wagon, chassis number 068148 onwards. Cars fitted with any other engines are not affected.Concerned customers can contact Subaru customer relations immediately on 1800226643. 

Atkinson, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, has second and third places from the three rallies so far in the 2008 world championship.Yet he is not expecting a podium this time.“Argentina is probably one of the most difficult rallies for me,” Atkinson said yesterday.“It's a rally I've still to come to grips with speed wise.”He claimed that much more experience than his three events in Argentina was needed to do well there.Day one will be on very fast roads, said to be similar to those in Mexico where Atkinson finished second four weeks ago. Day two is run on a hard base of sand. Day three climbs the twisty mountain roads.So a new set up is needed for the car each day, according to Atkinson's engineers at the Subaru World Rally Team.Atkinson sits fourth on points in the championship with his 14.Leader is Ford's Mikko Hirvonen who again will be first car away and so act as “road sweeper” for following cars, which cost him heaps of time in Mexico. 

Australian World Rally Championship driver Chris Atkinson will win a rally this year — and it could be this weekend in Mexico.That's the view of Subaru rally team boss David Richards, who revealed his faith in Atkinson during his visit to the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide last weekend.Atkinson has been quick but erratic during his WRC career, but Richards believes he will have his breakthrough win this year.“I'd be so bold as to say the next round in Mexico could suit him well,” Richards says.“The current car is not so far off the pace that if things favour us and everything goes as hoped, it could fall into his hands.”Subaru's WRC team has struggled to match the pace of Citroen and Ford with its Impreza.The disappointing performances have led to Richards taking a hands-on role with the team again after several years concentrating of Formula One.“We've had a difficult couple of years and I've now taken back the reins of the team this year to get it on track again,” he says.“We have a lot of work to do with the new car coming on in the middle of the year. We hope it will be the break we need."“The car we're running today is effectively five years old in its design."“It's had evolutions, but it is still a long way behind our competitors.”The sedan-based Impreza WRC will be replaced with the company's new hatch this year.Richards says a decision on when to debut the car will be taken in April after more testing.He has promised it will be an all-new design from the team.“It's a completely ground-up design,” he says. “To give you an idea, the gearbox in the current car was designed 18 years ago."“We did evolutions to it but the basic gearbox casing, the fundamental design, is 18 years old."“Obviously, in that time the suspension geometry has changed, driveshaft angles . . . there is a whole raft of issues that are not ideal. It's a credit to the engineers that they've managed to make it competitive.”Testing of the car has gone well so far. Test driver Markko Martin has handled most of the work. Atkinson and team mate Petter Solberg have concentrated on the championship events.“So far everything is on stream,” Richards says. “We've had no major setbacks.“We've had some teething problems but we have no fundamental issue that we're concerned about.” 

Of course with Mitsubishi’s cease-fire on local manufacturing, there ‘is’ a 380 on its Melbourne Motor Show stand, but it’s painted black and tucked away in the back corner.

While Mitsubishi's Evo X and Subaru's STi have a limited-edition snarl-off, the Ralliart will do battle in the high-volume arena.It is a class the brand has ignored since the '09s, when it had a Lancer GSR, but the newcomer, revealed at the Detroit Motor Show, is a serious contender.Like the Evo X, the Ralliart carries a 2-litre intercooled and turbocharged MIVEC engine, but detuned to produce 175kW — 31kW less than the Evo.Power is delivered to the full-time all-wheel drive through the Evo X's twin-clutch, auto-manual transmission with paddles on the steering wheel.It doesn't score the Super All Wheel Control drive system from the X, but has an active centre differential with an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch that splits torque to the front and rear depending on different driving conditions and surfaces.The styling is tamer than the X, but there is aggression in the body lines, twin outlet muffler and ducted aluminium bonnet that feeds air to the turbocharger.The Ralliart should arrive here in the last quarter of 2008.Meanwhile, Mitsubishi will debut its Prototype-S concept of the Lancer line at the 78th Geneva International Motor Show in March.It is powered by a 2-litre 4-cylinder DOHC MIVEC1 intercooler/turbocharger engine developing 177kW of power and 343Nm of torque, mated to Mitsubishi's high-efficiency Twin Clutch SST automated manual transmission.The full-time 4WD driveline features Mitsubishi's Active Centre Differential, which uses an electronically controlled multi-plate hydraulic clutch to tailor front/rear drive torque split to different driving conditions; delivering the best balance between steering response and traction. 

There's nothing like leaving it to the last minute to maintain suspense. From the moment Subaru announced the new Impreza WRX STI last year we've been on the edge of our seats