Subaru Impreza News

Subaru’s iconic WRX is back with more power, better fuel efficiency and upgraded suspension. And now a boot.

More power, firmer suspension and a new boot for Subaru’s WRX.

Following the recent introduction of Impreza R, RX and RS sedans, the WRX will go on sale around December.Making its Australian motor show debut, the sedan Impreza WRX variant is expected to draw huge interest among Subaru turbocharged fans.Nick Senior, Managing Director, Subaru Australia, said: “Impreza WRX sedan will feature a wide variety of mechanical changes.It will, of course, maintain our standard of five-star crashworthiness ratings for occupant safety and standard electronic stability control.”Mr Senior said Model Year 2009 Impreza WRX sedan and hatch would offer the same specification levels, making the choice easier for customers.“New generation Impreza has proved a sales winner since its introduction last year, with sales up 12.5 per cent.“This final addition to the range will expand its appeal still further.”Pricing and specification details will be released at the Show on Thursday 9 October. 

After an absence of 12 months, Subaru has added a new sedan to its Impreza line-up.The sedan is initially available only in naturally aspirated models. The WRX is due to arrive in December, but a hotter STi sedan is not on the cards, Subaru spokesman David Rowley says.Despite being out of the market for 12 months, Rowley says Subaru lost few customers.“If you look at the combined sales of the old sedan and hatch we have been selling 200 more a month of just the new hatch,” he says.“We hope the sedan will take sales to another level.“Even though the market has shifted a bit towards hatches we still think there is room for growth.”Prices of the R, RX and RS sedans are identical to the hatches, which means prices start at $24,490 for the R sedan, rising to $31,490 for the RS sedan.About 20 per cent of buyers are expected to opt for the new sedan, Rowley says.Like the hatch, the sedan has a five-star crash rating and electronic stability control is standard.So far this year Impreza sales are up 12.5 per cent, averaging more than 1000 a month, despite the lack of a sedan option until now.Subaru managing director Nick Senior says the Impreza is one of the country's fastest-growing models.“It is hugely encouraging that the sales mix of Impreza hatch has been fairly equal across the three variants, compared with the previous generation's bias towards the entry-level cars,” he says.Subaru expects the sedan to add about 200 Impreza sales a month.The Impreza sedan is 35mm higher and the wheelbase 95mm longer than the superseded version.For the first time, the sedan gets a split/fold rear seat to increase cargo-carrying capacity. 

As he straps himself into his Subaru Impreza he is preparing to race the clock over some of the toughest and most dangerous roads in the world. With zero margin for error. "What we do in rallying is like turning up to a racetrack and trying to do pole position on your very first lap," says Atkinson. "If you freeze you're going to crash. It only takes one second for things to get away if you lose concentration." The 28-year-old Queenslander proved it on the first day of the Rally of New Zealand as he was battling for a podium place in the latest round of the World Rally Championship. He got things very slightly wrong on a tight left-hander, and rolled. It was only a tiny mistake but it cost him any chance of a good result on the closest thing he has to a home event in the world series. "I know what I did. I know what I did wrong," says Atkinson "It was nothing. Today was like having a bump in the carpark. "In the back of my mind I knew I wasn't taking any risks, so I kept going. I felt I could have won that stage." This is typical from a youngster who originally planned to become a stockbroker, until his need for speed got in the way. He is sharp, intelligent and articulate. In many ways he is like Mark Webber. Except that Webber is a Formula One highwire artist and Atkinson is a forest racing lion tamer. His job is to drive as fast as he possibly can over some of the fastest, toughest and most dangerous roads in the world in a constant fight against his car and the elements in a search for precious seconds. His weapon of choice is a hand-built, $500,000 Subaru Impreza that is packed with technology so advanced that it is banned from F1. Atkinson is still on the way up after three years in the WRC and, in a sport where drivers do their best work in their mid-30s, he is still considered a potential world champion. "He is getting better all the time. I'm expecting big things from Chris," says his Subaru team boss, David Richards. He is a former world champion co-driver who has groomed a lot of rally talent, including the late Colin McRae, as well as running Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards in his Ford Performance Racing team in V8 Supercars. But no-one expects more from Atkinson than himself. He had to buy his way into the WRC, spending around $2 million despite a career which had three major titles and runner-up spot in the Australian series before his money-backed graduation to the world title in 2005. He was 12th in his first year in the big time, improved to tenth and then seventh, and is currently running fifth in this year's world series. And he earns an estimated $1 million in salary, although he has to pay his Belgian co-driver Stephane Prevot and is also repaying the Aussie backers - and his father John - for their early investment. "It's been a good season. I've had five podiums. A lot of podiums was the target for this year, and then a rally win . . ." But there has been no real sign of a win. Atkinson has been quick, usually outpacing his team mate, the former world champion Petter Solberg, but has been let down badly by the car. At first it was a previous-model Impreza but Subaru has just upgraded and is battling to make the new WRX competitive with the pace-setter Citroen C4 and Ford Focus which have dominated 2008. "I guess it is a little bit away, but the podiums have been won on merit," says Atkinson, upbeat as usual. "We probably set our expectation here in New Zealand a little high. I heard a rumour that we were meant to win." As it was, four-time world champion Sebastian Loeb did it again in his Citroen. But only after surviving a first-day mishap which was much like Atkinson's effort - except it happened at 140km/h, not 40, and he did not roll. But Loeb has the best car in the championship and Atkinson admits he has to push harder to get similar speed from his Subaru. "You can push at this level for a couple of stages, but . . .," he says. "You do take risks. It's about how many you're prepared to take. "We decided to push as hard as we could from the start in New Zealand." But what is a risk? Is it the sort of scary moment most ordinary drivers never survive, or some sort of crazy X-Games jump into the unknown? "Risk isn't about cutting a single corner. It's more about going into every corner faster than you think you can get away with, and then seeing what happens. "When you're really going for it, you keep pushing. We've found a level where I can be comfortable in the top five. "But even driving at a no-risk level you can have an accident. Thing can catch you out. You think there is no risk, but . . . "It's nice to take bigger risks and get away with it." Away from the forests Atkinson has a good life. Home base is Monaco, where he recently met Bono at a party, although he still likes to get back to the family on the Gold Coast. He spends most of the year on the road, like all the motorsport professionals, and has made friends with a group in Monaco that includes World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss and Tour de France cyclist Stuart O'Grady. "It's good fun to hang out with those guys. It hurts a bit when we go cycling, but it's worth it. You have to try to prove something." It's typical of Atkinson that he has his intercom plummed for rock between special stages, with Grinspoon often playing. "I don't want anything that's slow," he says. He also dumped two co-drivers, his brother Ben and fellow Aussie Glenn MacNeal, to try and find the right combination for the WRC big time. Now he has Prevot, a Belgian veteran, and the pair have clicked. Atkinson knows he can be a WRC winner and he is getting impatient. But he always gives 110 per cent. "It's probably not the smartest thing to do, but it's fun. There is nothing more satisfying than going fastest on a stage, against the best guys in the world. "The only reason I turn up is that I think I can be fast. No matter what, no matter where." So, is Chris Atkinson crazy? Or just crazy fast? "It's all relative. When I'm in the rally car I don't feel like I'm driving at all crazy," he says. "In other things in my life I'm actually probably quite safe. I don't like to take risks."  

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. 

Apart from losing around 40kgs in weight, it will get a special rear diffuser, lowered suspension that's been tweaked and stiffened for better straight-line and cornering performance, as well as revised gear ratios to enhance top speed, which should approach 270km/h. And the Spec C will also inherit the S402's 6-pot Brembo brake package and runflat Bridgestone rubber. But our source suggests that power and torque will stay the same.  

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 Subaru Technical Department has introduced a diagnostic test produced by the factory to identify cars with symptoms and the procedure was rolled out nationwide last week. After investigating, Subaru determined the engine noise was due to engine wear. Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley says priority is being given to vehicles already with customers and customer vehicles awaiting delivery. “Our customer relations department has proactively reacted to this issue,” he says. Subaru is this week phoning and writing to owners of the 178 vehicles potentially affected. Their cars are being booked into dealerships for a precautionary check at Subaru Australia's expense. Any customers whose vehicle produces engine-knocking noise will be offered a loan car until their vehicles can be checked and fixed where necessary.