Why the 22B is probably the greatest Subaru Impreza of all time

You wouldn’t be in this community if you weren’t a big fan of the first-generation Impreza, so I don’t need to preach to you about why it’s awesome. In case you’re not yet a convert, you really need to experience the way Subaru made an all-wheel drive rally car feel so light and nimble - it’s got AWD grip but with a RWD personality.

So let’s take a moment to honour one of the greatest Imprezas ever made, the 22B. Only 424 were made to celebrate Subaru’s 40th anniversary, as well as its third consecutive year of winning the WRC championship.

It was kind of like the Type R STI, but improved in all the important areas. The original car used the 2.0-litre Boxer engine like that in the rally car, but for the 22B it was bored out to 2.2-litres. It also got other improvements, such as nozzles to spray water into the intercooler when driving hard. The result was an official 276bhp - bear in mind this was when Japan had that gentlemen’s agreement about advertised power; according to those testing it at the time, the real figure was in the region of 300bhp.

The exterior styling is one of the most obvious ways that the car is upgraded, as it comes with wider arches - it’s more than three inches wider than the standard WRX - to make it look like the rally car. To further mimic the rally car, it got blue ‘555’ inspired paint, and gold BBS wheels, which became the iconic Impreza colour combination. Furthermore, that massive wing at the back is actually adjustable.

Its performance humbled much more expensive and supposedly ‘better’ performance cars, helped by the fact it was even lighter than before, and the bored out engine now came with a better mid-range, giving decent torque from about 3500rpm up to the red line at 8000rpm. To help the car feel more agile in tight turns, the manually operated centre differential could divert 65 per cent of the engine’s torque to the rear wheels, giving it a rear-driven personality.

To be honest, the 22B’s looks alone are enough to make it an Impreza legend. The fact it also performs like a true hero just adds to its awesome nature.