Mid-1990s Japanese turbo cars are really going up in value as of late. We now live in a world where a Toyota Supra will cost you as much as £30,000, where an R34 GT-R can command a price of up to £60,000 and, oh, here’s a £250,000 Subaru Impreza.
In fairness, it’s not just any Subaru Impreza, it just so happens to be one of the original Impreza WRC rally cars driven by none other than Colin McRae himself, which sold for £230,000 at an auction this month.
Designated Chassis 001, this was the very first Impreza built to the then-new World Rally Car specifications, a purpose-built rally machine that was extensively tested by the legendary Scot.
Two years previously, McRae had won the World Rally Championship behind the wheel of a Group A Impreza, but this was the first of the new breed of WRC cars which continue to dominate to this day.
Based on the two-door Impreza WRX STi, the Impreza WRC was designed by Peter Stevens, the legendary designer behind the McLaren F1, and built by Banbury-based company Prodrive.
David Richards, Prodrive’s chairman and founding member of the Subaru World Rally Team, said: “Chassis 001 was the car we unveiled and used as our primary test and development car.
“It was thanks to the many hours Colin and the other drivers spent at its wheel, that when it came to the car’s debut at Rally Monte Carlo in January 1997, Piero Liatti was able to claim victory and help Subaru go on and win a third consecutive manufacturers’ title.”
Powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged boxer engine, the Impreza WRC produced 300bhp and also featured a bespoke suspension setup, four-wheel drive and a semi-automatic gearbox.
Auctioned off at H&H Classics, it fetched far and beyond its estimate, with its quarter-of-a-million price tag putting it on par with four-wheel drive performance cars like the Lamborghini Aventador. Worth it? Worth it.