[ Road Test ]

Subaru Impreza 22B

It's hard to be objective about the Impreza 22B. Even when you approach it knowing that it offers little more than its cheaper STi stablemates in terms of outright speed and yet costs you a cool £10,000 more.

The Sonic Blue. wide-arched, be-winged 22B still represents the ultimate homage to Cohn Mc Rae's World Rally heroics. When we road tested one of the many grey 22Bs that yumped through the SVA loophole (evo November1998) we were rather taken by surprise.

For one thing we were saddened to discover that this ultimate' Impreza was in fact a flawed gem. The gearing was ridiculously short, even by sprint-geared STi standards, and the suspension was too jittery over the sort of roads where you'd expect it to excel. To cap it all, it felt nervous in the wet. But the most surprising development of all came from Subaru UK. Fed up with the numerous grey import companies bringing in boat-loads of unofficial, un-warranted 22Bs, Subaru UK decided to bring in a very small number of official UK-spec cars, complete with Subaru dealer back-up, three-year, 60,000 mile warranty and an improved technical specification at a price to make many of the grey importers wince.

This is one such car. Badged the 22B STi Type UK, it is the rarest of all the WRC replicas. Only 16 UK-spec cars have been built, from a total 22B build run of 424 cars. Visually the UK car is almost identical. The gloriously aggressive, blistered wheelarches remain, along with the high-rise boot-mounted wing and classic blue and gold livery.

Only the new, multi-reflector headlamps and the fitment of front driving lamps distinguish it from the imports. However; it's the unseen changes that make the Type UK worthy of closer inspection.

In addition to the cosmetic tweaks, Subaru UK has employed Prodrive to change the final drive ratio from 4.44 to 3.9 to calm the 22B's frantic nature, and this turns out to be the most significant mod on the whole car.

It's the transmission the 22B should have had all along, for the brawny 2.2-litre flat-four is more than capable of pulling the taller gearing. True, with its longer gears the UK 22B can't deliver quite the same neck-snapping bursts of acceleration, but against the clock we're sure the time you save by not having to change gear so frequently more than compensates for any fractional reductIon In go.

We wonder how many owners of Import cars wIll be knocking on Prodrive's door for the same work.

With the new final drive ratio, the 22B makes an even more formidable cross-country tool.Each gear delivers a head-pinning punch of acceleration. It simply explodes out of tight corners, charging with undiminished vigour through to 7OOOrpm. But low-rev response is strong, too, so you can surf along In a high gear; letting the torque do the work, and still maintain a rapid pace.

The big Brembo brakes are tireless and hugely powerful, and they also offer enough feel for your right foot (left too If your name's Colin) to sense precisely how much braking effort you can put through to the Tarmac. Just as well, because there's no ABS - another surprise and, frankly, a disappointment in a car built for maximum-attack driving. If the gearing is a vast improvement, the suspension is still something of a weakness. Although it works better the faster you go, it does feel too stiff at lower speeds.

And while there's more than enough grip and traction in the dry to compensate, and steering with sensational weighting and feedback, use all the power in the wet and the 22B will bite you like no other Impreza. It has a knack of serving-up a tricky blend of understeer and oversteer in the same corner; scrubbing wide on the way in and wagging its tall sharply on the way out. If you're completely on the ball you can cope, but there's always the worry you'll get caught out, at which point the 22B is unlikely to forgive you quite so readily as the standard Iimpreza or even the STi Version V. In many ways the 22B is an enigma.

You want it so badly for its looks, image and blistering performance but at the same time you know it's not as polished or complete a driving machine as the 'lesser' STi Version V. What is certain, though, is that the Type UK is the best incarnation of the 22B, and one of the most desirable cars you can buy. Shame, then, that all 16 of the UK cars have already found owners.
Richard Meaden