Subaru Impreza WRX STI RA Part 1

The first president of the FHI Kenji Kita chose the SUBARU trade-name for P-1 in 1954. It means in Japanese the group of the bull’s constellation. In the west culture it has the name pleiades, which is in Hungarian „fiastyúk”. In Japan this is general known like the synonym of the union and of the good reign.
So after that the P-1 came to the market with the name SUBARU 500. The followers are the SUBARU 360 little car and the SUBARU Sambar pick-up truck and the SUBARU 2 which is the revised version of the SUBARU 360. The SUBARU 100 which was produced in 1966, was of capital importance for the brand. This was the first SUBARU with boxer motor.
The Leone Combi brought a revolutionary innovation in 1972. Until then the four-wheel drive was the privilege of the bantam. This time the SUBARU realized the huge advantages of this conception. The collective application with the boxer motor gives unsurpassable travel-safety up to this day. All the ideas to develop the car after that rest on this all-wheel drive system.
The Compact Impreza, which comes to the market from 1992 and the Forester, which is the founder of the SUV sport- and utility vehicle, are the three Legacyi generations from 1989. Still the Domingo from 1983, the forefather of the Microvens and the Justy minicar has all-wheel drive consistent, too.
1985, the SUBARU is the popular firm which uses the new technical solutions consciously. Such new technical solutions are taken up by it which would like to reach the optimal and not the common. This consciousness is much recognizable in the case of the XT1500 which made a stir in Germany from 1985. Its appearance was already revolutionary, too. The coefficient value of the 0,29 drag is just superlative up to this day. The turbo boxer motor, the all-wheel drive and several technician innovations which were built into the car in the factory, make this model to the wanted pipedream of the collectors.
The SUBARU SVX from 1991 has the same situation. This luxurious coupe with the consumption of 3,3 litre, with 6 rolls and with boxer motor is the good example of the high-tech consistent adaptation.
The Legacy Outback is the last car of this run so far which the SUBARU defined the estate cars of the bantams in 1997 with. Still the concurrency tries the basic concept, the SUBARU already produced the third generation.

After this little historical review let’s get to know our test car which is not else like the SUBARU Impreza WRX STI RA. Our dear lookers-on are fully entitled to ask what do these many letters mean. The Subaru Impreza is obvious, the WRX is similar to the GTI by the Volkswagen, the STI is the internal motor tuning division of the Subaru and the RA signs that this is the basic of a racing car. We can also say if there were be built pipes in this car we could take part in the group ‘N’ of the rally because it doesn’t differs in anything from those cars.

The Subaru Impreza GC come to the world in 1993 like the first compact categorized Subaru. In the beginning it was the Sedan with 4 doors after that from 1995 it was reachable with the version with 2 doors. The form wasn’t really revolutionary but the doors without frames made this car unique under the Japanese the dozen of cars. The motor selection consist of boxer motors with the piston displacement of a 1.6, 1.8 and 2 litre. It has still the extra turbo potting with 2 litre and the intercooler.
The legendary EJ20 is the basic of the motors with turbo potting. The performance depends on the setting and it changed because of it between 211-245 and 286. There was 3 levels: LX, GL and the and the sport. The LX design was the car with motor of 1.6, with first-wheel drive, with 4 doors and with the back like stair. The legendary symmetrical all-wheel drive was reachable from the motor of 1.8 and from its 110 horsepower. The special designs were inspirated by the winnings of the rally; McRae, 555, Katalunja, Terzo, RB5, P1 and 22B. In time the sport wagon so the sport kombi design became reachable, too. The outside of the Impreza was refreshed in 1997 and in 1998 its interior was renewed, too. The size of the front brakes with 4 pistons grew from "15 to "16 of the models from 1999 and 2000 which are available in Europe. It was available with its suction, 2,2 litres and 2500 cubic centimetre Legacy motor on the American market. In 2001 the renewed second run changed the legendary first generation.

We can see that it is not the common bumper. There are huge STI air gate on it. We can see here the beautiful pink sign. Here above there is the engine hood which is made from aluminium and there is the air gate on the motor’s engine hood which leads to the intercooler. It gives from inside the really feeling of the rally car during the driving.
Let’s have a look at the place where the motor is. We can experience interesting vision. The biggest place is for the intercooler which we can see here. Here if we see it carefully we can realize that this car has water injection. This has the meaning that it blows the water at the intercooler to distract much more warmth by the evaporation. This way the motor can imbibe still colder air. We can find here the turbo temp behind the plate against the warmth. Of course there is the air filter and here above we can find the tower stiffener which is made of carbon and produced by the telling Fuji Heavy Industries Aerospace Division. I hope that my English knowledge is good enough to formulate this as a bit difficult name of the firm.
What we have to know about this car that it has originally 320 horsepower and we can reach also the 400 horsepower with a potmeter which can be regulated from inside.
What else is interesting, we can find on this plaquette that this car has GC8 car-body design, there are the number of the under-body and we can see here that it is a really racing car because the number of the under-body has only sic characters.
The EJ20 motor code number is interesting, too because the Subaru used this motor type in the rally sport last years in the WRX cars last years.
If we cower we can see the 17 col, Technomagnesio light alloy wheels. Behind these there is another curiosity; a Brembo racing brake-system with 6 pistons. If we see it more carefully we can realize that the calliper is only some millimetres far from the alloy wheels. It is so big that the worth of a new one is 3000$. If we would like to by only the brake lining then one piece costs 350$ and the brake dial costs 600$. We get a huge brake performance for this amount which is able to stop the car almost in any situations by any speed.
Our lookers can realize some Japanese signs on this car. We have to say about the RAs that the bad Japanese people :) like to keep these really special racing cars for themselves. That is why they are sold on the Japanese internal market. Only a very few cars are exceptions to this but there is such a exception car here. The steering-wheel is on the right side in the Japanese cars. This steering-wheel in this car was also on the right side but in 1998 was it changed to the left side in the English Prodrive tuning firm.

But what is exactly the Prodrive?
The Prodrive is a Great British tuning firm which was founded by Dave Richards and by Ian Perry in 1984. Its seat can be found in Banbury from 1986.
Dave Richards was the earlier leader of the formula 1 Bar Honda team.
The Prodrive prepares Ford, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Subaru cars for rally-, tour car- and Le Mans racings. They won three times the famous 24 hours Le Mans round in the last 25 years and five times the British tour car championship. Further there are 1 North-American rally, 2 Belgian, 2 French, 2 British, 4 Asia league-cups and 5 rally world league-cups on the shelf of the Prodrive.
They got married in 1990 with the Subaru. In the beginning they took part in the different rally rounds with Legacy RS, after that with Impreza from 1993. Such big names like Ari Vatanen, Richard Burns, Carlos Saints, Colin Mcrae and Petter Solberg gave reputation to the Subaru and to the Prodrive. Unfortunately the Subaru filed out of the rally world championship from 2009.
Of course the race technology comes also to the street by and by and it is typical for the quality that the guarantee of the factory doesn’t fail, too.