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The Lucid Air has managed to truly impress as a premium EV that combines luxury appointments and blistering performance in an elegant package. The company promises to carry over that aesthetic to its next offering, an SUV called the Lucid Gravity. Lucid’s latest teaser provides a glimpse of how that translation might look.
Like the Air, the Gravity will be about maximizing efficiency, Lucid says. That manifests itself in areas like the company’s compact electric motors, which allow for better packaging and more interior space. Engineers and designers have also prioritized aerodynamics; the Air sedan boasts a very slippery 0.197 drag coefficient. Lucid isn’t revealing numbers for the Gravity yet, but lead designer Derek Jenkins promises that it’ll be “by far the most aerodynamic SUV, ever.”
Head on, the Gravity offers a taller version of the Air’s face. With an illuminated horizontal bar that stretches headlight to headlight and vertical DRLs, it remains on-brand alongside its sedan sibling’s distinctive light signature. Out back, a taillight bar mirrors that of the Air as well, and we can see a commonality with its C-pillar shape.
A massive roof spoiler overhangs the rear window, giving the Gravity very boxy proportions. An extremely short front overhang gives the vehicle a long cabin area. It almost looks minivan-esque, but a cool one like the Kia Carnival. A massive roof wing overhangs the rear window, and the cut lines for the hatch look like they’ll make for an interesting rear aperture.
The Gravity will offer three seating configurations: two rows, a six-seater option with captain’s chairs in the second row, and a 7-seater layout with a 3-person bench in the second row. “Cargo space is going to be off the charts,” Jenkins told us. “We’re taking packaging to a new level.” A panoramic glass roof looks to be one of the largest in the biz.
No performance specifics were given, but the folks at Lucid say that, like the Air, the Gravity will have a very long range. It’ll be quick, too. “I dare to call it a hypercar, except it’s not a car,” Jenkins said. Lucid has stated that the 1,200-horsepower Air Sapphire, which costs $249,000 and goes from 0-60 mph in under 1.9 seconds, will not be the only model to wear the Sapphire moniker. So it’s implied that there’ll be a Gravity Sapphire at some point, especially since Lucid reps say the Air and Gravity together will complete the company’s flagship lineup.
Specifics will likely be revealed next year. Reservations are scheduled to open in early 2023, while the Gravity itself is planned for a 2024 arrival.
SAO PAULO — Kevin Magnussen shocked Formula One in Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying by earning pole position for the sprint race at Interlagos on Friday.
It was the first pole after 142 races for the Danish driver, who celebrated by making faces at the cameras before the third qualifying session was over. Then he jumped on his car and punched the air in the drizzle. He gave his Haas team boss Guenther Steiner an emotional hug.
“The team put me out on track exactly at the right moment,” an exultant Magnussen said.
Asked whether he expected to earn pole, he replied: “Not even close. It is incredible.”
Magnussen started in F1 in 2014 and returned to the series this year after a one-year absence as the replacement for Russian driver Nikita Mazepin.
On team radio, Magnussen was even more excited: “I never felt like this in my life,” he said. Minutes before, when he was told he was in first position, he replied: “You’re kidding.”
Meanwhile, Haas teammate Mick Schumacher, who is still seeking a seat for the next season, finished not surprisingly in 20th and last place.
Steiner said on Thursday he has yet to decide whether Schumacher will race for the team next year, adding he hopes a decision will be made next week. Schumacher has earned only 12 points this season. Magnussen has a paltry 24.
Magnussen was almost five seconds faster than Schumacher. World champion Max Verstappen was second by almost two-tenths of a second. Mercedes’ George Russell was third.
Qualifying was delayed by rain, which helped Magnussen. The last five minutes of the session were severely affected by the wet track.
Haas spoke about Magnussen’s pole position with a touch of disbelief: “What did we just do?” the team posed on Twitter. “That was a Viking performance!”
Friday’s results set the grid for Saturday’s sprint race, which will determine the starting positions for Sunday’s race at Interlagos.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who will start the sprint in fifth position, will have a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race. The Spaniard has added a new internal combustion engine for the weekend, a penalty-inducing sixth of the season.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who is still fighting to secure the runner-up position in the drivers’ championship, was first during free practice earlier on Friday. He had a design on his helmet in collaboration with Disney.
“It is for the Black Panther movie, a movie that represents a lot of my country,” the Mexican driver said. “The helmet itself is unique and I really like it.”
Perez will start the sprint, which is expected to go under rain again, in ninth position.
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Four Flavors Of GT-R Tuning At R’s Meeting – Speedhunters
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As always, there were countless amazing GT-Rs at this year’s R’s Meeting, and as a follow-up to my main event post, I thought I’d take a look at four personal standouts.
Where to start? With the GT-R that had everyone talking – the Built By Legends R33.
Like BBL’s R32 Skyline GT-R demo car, this build, a client commission, was a three-way collaboration between Garage Yoshida for the chassis prep and paint, Mine’s for the engine and mechanicals, and Built By Legends for the direction and fine details. But there was also input from the car’s US-based owner when it came to specifying some personal touches.
I’ll be diving into all that in the full feature we have planned once the car’s BNR34 Getrag 6-speed transmission has been fitted and matching propshaft made up, but I couldn’t wait to share some of the details.
For a start, the engine proudly displays the ‘MB7′ logo, which represents the Mine’s/BBL partnership and 7, the highest spec offered (there are three specifications to choose from – 3, 5 and 7). That means it runs HKS’s Step 3 Stroker Kit that increases capacity to 2.8L, a cylinder head processed at NAPREC to Mine’s specification, and a host of other upgrades that together see the engine perform with high response. The green finish on the valve cover and intake is another classic Mine’s touch.
The latter is carried through to the exterior, with a deep green tinge to the carbon fiber front lip spoiler and rear wing assembly.
You’ll also find the green touch applied to the interior, which has been upholstered in Alcantara across all the trim and dash.
The Recaro seats really pop in this fabric finish. It’s a modern look, but executed in an almost period-correct way.
The Mine’s flat-bottom steering wheel is a great finisher, but the thing that really hits home is the Mine’s cluster with an odometer that reads zero. It’s a visual reminder that this really is no longer a 25-year-old car; it’s been refreshed to such an extent that it’s better than how brand new R33 Skyline GT-Rs rolled off Nissan’s production line in 1997.
I also really like the custom-refinished RAYS Volk Racing 21As, which have a similar feel to the multi-spoke/mesh BBS wheels that Mine’s used back in the day. Behind the forged wheels sit AP Racing brakes to ensure the 600 or so ponies being generated under the hood can be reined in efficiently once they’re fully deployed.
This build is exactly what you expect it to be – a restomodded R33 GT-R put together by true legends in the game. What do you think?
Next up, we’re off to the Garage Mak booth for something quite different – an R32 GT-R packing almost twice the horsepower of the Built By Legends R33.
It’s doesn’t take much time looking under the hood to substantiate the power claim. Joining the fully-built motor is a jumbo HKS T51R and HKS’s V-Cam system, the latter a must-have for drivability and boost pickup when you’re running such a big turbo on the street.
Deleting the exhaust cam position sensor is slowly something I’m seeing more Japanese GT-R tuners do, even though Australian GT-R tuners have been doing it for well over a decade now. That sort of shows Japan’s reluctance to do things differently, but with companies like HKS offering their versions of proven modifications, things are changing.
Look a little closer and you’ll see that the T51R does have some extra help to wake up the mid-range a little quicker.
Move around the back and you can see where the nitrous oxide is stored, along with something else. Seeing the compressor, you might be forgiven for assuming that the car is running air suspension, but that’s not the case.
It all makes sense once you take a look in the cabin and see that the gear stick is missing.
The latest R35 GT-R steering wheel replaces the R32 unit, not so that Garage Mak could utilise the buttons, but rather because of the two shift paddles behind the spokes.
These control the air-shifted actuation of the OS Giken OS-88 6-speed sequential gearbox, which happens through a rather rudimentary rose-jointed rod that pops out from under the center console armrest.
It’s definitely a unique solution to using an old school sequential transmission with a modern style of shifting. And to be honest, it probably functions better than hand-actuating the OS box on up-shifts, as they’ve always required a solid pull on the lever to properly engage the next gear.
Another GT-R that caught my attention was one inspired by perhaps the most legendary Skyline race car of them all – the Taisan R32 that Keiichi Tsuchiya drove in the Japanese Gr.A championship when the model was new.
What you’re looking at is basically a road-going version of the race car, a way to bring the raw Group A feel, sound and performance to the street. The R32 is privately owned, but was pieced together by people who have worked with the GT-R platform for decades.
For example, the BNR34-based engine was built by an experienced mechanic at Reinik. It uses forged components within, but the capacity remains close to 2.6L.
This was a bare-chassis rebuild and runs a full bolt-in roll cage, not quite as extensively braced as the welded cage in the race car, but sure to provide some extra chassis rigidity.
To keep things period correct, analogue gauges are used throughout – a cool touch.
The ride height and combination of Nismo LMGT4 wheels wrapped in sticky Yokohama Advans keep the Group A vibes flowing.
Tsuchiya-san actually bumped into the GT-R’s owner while testing cars at Sodegaura earlier this year, and got a chance to do a few laps around the track. Have a look at the video above; Tsuchiya was seriously impressed at how authentic it felt and called the engine the “ultimate RB.”
To finish off, I think it’s only fitting that we give a little space to those shops out there that prefer to focus on aesthetics, like Rush Motor Sports from Gifu.
With so many shops out there now doing full wide-body carbon versions of older GT-Rs, it was only a matter of time before the same thinking was applied to the R35.
Sitting on 20-inch Yokohama GT wheels, this build certainly received its fair share of attention in Fuji Speedway’s top paddock.
I love the color choice, a subtle tip of the hat to the Midnight Purple III used on the BNR34, albeit applied in a way that the underlying carbon fiber weave remains visible.
There’s still more from R’s Meeting to come, and in my final story I’ll be nerding out on some of the new GT-R tuning parts on display at the event. Stay tuned for that!
How To Solve The 2nd-Gen 4Runner’s Biggest Problem – Speedhunters
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The second-gen Toyota 4Runner is one of my favorite trucks. Its simple, utilitarian design is paired with bulletproof reliability and quality materials that last for decades.
This is why I picked up a Hilux pickup — or Toyota Truck as it was creatively called here in the US — for myself a couple years back. They are great vehicles, but one glaring shortcoming is their extreme lack of power. Going up steep grades I will sometimes find myself buried in third gear; they really are that gutless.
Scott Kanemura has a reasonable solution for this problem, which he’s implemented on his ‘5150Lux’ 4Runner: 1,200 horsepower.
In V6 spec this truck would have produced 150hp when new, and the four-banger version even less. Multiplying the power output of a vehicle by a full order of magnitude necessitates far more than just a simple engine swap, of course. Scott says that essentially just the shell of the Toyota remains, with a full chromoly tube frame taking the newfound chassis loads.
The power plant is an obvious one, and family-correct, too. The 2JZ-GTE has been fully built and stroked to 3.4L and features a beautiful fabricated exhaust that terminates through the passenger-side fender. It even has a muffler, but something tells me it’s still going to be a fair bit louder than the truck’s original engine. I love that someone has gone this far with a chassis like this, which the engineers at Toyota could have never imagined when this body style was originally designed in the late 1980s.
Then there are the wheels – 3-piece Volk Racing Gr.Cs, which left the RAYS factory in 17×7-inch sizing, most likely in the late-’80s/early-’90s, so period correct for the truck. In Scott’s possession they’ve been stepped up to 18-inch and are now much wider at the rear. How do these fit, you might ask? We’ll get to that in a moment.
Another cool exterior detail is the 3D-printed air inlet that’s integrated into the grille, through which turbocharger is able to suck cool, fresh air. The number of parts made from additive materials seemed to have increased exponentially at this year’s SEMA Show, and I would expect this trend to continue.
Inside, a set of custom-fabricated fixed-back bucket seats have been installed along with a composite dash and a polished aluminum console that houses a ratcheting shifter. The seats have minimal padding, and I feel like I might be terrified to be parked in one at speed. There is an Alpine stereo in the dash, though, so it appears that Scott can still jam out on his next grocery run.
If you thought the front of the cabin was barebones, the rear has been completely stripped and tubbed to accommodate the widened wheels and seriously meaty rubber. One of the things I really like about this build, though, is that it still looks nice back here. There are brushed aluminum panels, a bit of carbon fiber trim, and the cage is aesthetic. Often drag cars — and even show cars — will neglect to really finish off details like this, where as Scott’s truck feels intentional throughout.
You’ll also notice that the truck has a fabric soft top, à la Volkswagen Bus. Best of all, it took me a while to realize that this JZ 4Runner was parked up right next to an ultra-pearlescent McLaren P1. At the SEMA Show, builds like Scott’s take the cake.
As a builder, Scott has come a long way from his 1972 Hilux that Keith Charvonia featured in a Speedhunters spotlight from 2015.
I’m not sure what comes next after a truck like this one, but hopefully there are plenty of high-speed passes in Scott’s future before he moves on to another project.
A nest containing live rats and weeds growing from a vehicle’s bodywork were among the discoveries of a Trading Standards investigation into used car retailers.
Trading Standards officers from West Berkshire Council made the grizzly discoveries as they visited 12 car retail premises as part of checks aiming to clamp down on vehicle clocking and ensure the roadworthiness of cars being sold across West Berkshire and Wokingham.
The Reading Chronicle said that the operation resulted from a high volume of complaints related to car dealers in the region.
It reported that officers found rats had eaten the bonnet lining and chewed through a coolant tube of one car that was being offered for sale for £1,895, while a weed was also growing out of the wheel arch.
A total of 20 vehicles were examined by independent vehicle engineers to ensure their roadworthiness.
A statement issued to the Reading Chronicle by West Berkshire Council’s Public Protection Partnership said: “On the whole most vehicles and premises were found to be compliant with just a few areas where we advised the business owners of some areas they need to work on.
“These centred on their refunds policy/statutory rights and distance selling requirements.”
Geico may or may not save you a bunch of money on your car insurance, but the company’s facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly overcharging customers in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. The insurer offered credits to policyholders to compensate them for driving less, but many say the gesture didn’t go far enough.
In a San Jose, California, U.S. District courtroom, Judge Beth Labson Freeman gave the green light for a group of plaintiffs to file a class action suit against the insurance giant. Geico’s protest of the suit stated that a class action would be brutal to account for policy details and costs this long after the fact. Lawyers also noted that the suit would fail to account for differences between the lengths of time policyholders were customers and the variations in their policies.
Geico ponied up $2.5 billion in credits in 2020, with up to 15 percent on policy renewals. When COVID-19 almost completely shut the country down, nobody needed to drive, reducing the risk for insurers. Many big-name companies sent checks, gave policy credits, and offered other perks to customers in return.
Though the credits saved money and provided a bit of relief to thousands of people at a time when many had uncertain job futures, insurance companies certainly didn’t lose money on the deal. In fact, many came out of the year with record profits, which is the primary driver of the class action suit. Geico in 2020 reported $3.4 billion of pre-tax underwriting profit, up 127% over the previous year. The plaintiffs believe that Geico’s credits were not commensurate with the profit it earned at the time. The case also takes issue with the insurer’s claim that its actions gave “substantial and full relief.”
This suit is taking place in California, but others are in progress against the insurer. Geico got a similar case in New York dismissed but faces an ongoing legal situation in Chicago. USAA faces a similar suit in California, and it would not be surprising to see others across the industry.
Icon 4×4 broke out the first in its Derelict series 11 years ago, a 1952 Chevrolet Deluxe Business Coupe. It pulled into SEMA that year looking like it had been driven nonstop since 1952. But under that worn skin, Icon had tucked goods like a brand new 6.2-liter LS3 V8, six-piston antilock brakes, alligator and buffalo hides for the bench seats, Wilton wool carpets, and one-piece CNC-machined wheels. It was a winning formula then, it’s still a winner on the newest Derelict, a 1971 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL. Jonathan Ward, founder and lead designer at Icon, said, “Our specialty is preserving everything that we love about vintage cars while making them more fun and enjoyable to drive.”
As with that Business Coupe, it starts with a powder-coated Art Morrison chassis sprung with coil-overs at all four corners and an independent rear suspension. A 6.2-liter LS9 has been tucked well back in the bulkhead, putting an unknown chunk of power through a rebuilt 4L85E four-speed transmission. New rack-and-pinion steering makes maneuvering easy, and Hydratech-assisted Brembos keep a leash on the one-piece machined aluminum EVOD wheels. New wiring and plumbing throughout ensure the new bits communicate with one another clearly. The classic interior looking fresh from a showroom floor hides a modern HVAC system and heated front seats, and modern audio with four Focal two-way speakers, a sub and amp, and Bluetooth connectivity.
In Derelict fashion, the sheetmetal wears its age, accented with touches of stainless steel and chrome. The newest member of the club will be on show at SEMA in the Optima Batteries booth before being parked in its new owner’s garage. Icon is ready to take more commissions, Derelicts starting at $450,000.
Tesla is under criminal investigation in the United States over claims that the company’s electric vehiclescan drive themselves, three people familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. Department of Justice launched the previously undisclosed probe last year following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Tesla’s driver assistance system Autopilot, which was activated during the accidents, the people said.
As early as 2016, Tesla’s marketing materials have touted Autopilot’s capabilities. On a conference call that year, Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley automaker’s chief executive, described it as “probably better” than a human driver.
Last week, Musk said on another call Tesla would soon release an upgraded version of “Full Self-Driving” software allowing customers to travel “to your work, your friend’s house, to the grocery store without you touching the wheel.”
A video currently on the company’s website says: “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.”
However, the company also has explicitly warned drivers that they must keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of their vehicles while using Autopilot.
The Tesla technology is designed to assist with steering, braking, speed and lane changes but its features “do not make the vehicle autonomous,” the company says on its website.
Such warnings could complicate any case the Justice Department might wish to bring, the sources said.
Tesla, which disbanded its media relations department in 2020, did not respond to written questions from Reuters on Wednesday. Musk also did not respond to written questions seeking comment. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Musk said in an interview with Automotive News in 2020 that Autopilot problems stem from customers using the system in ways contrary to Tesla’s instructions.
Federal and California safety regulators are already scrutinizing whether claims about Autopilot’s capabilities and the system’s design imbue customers with a false sense of security, inducing them to treat Teslas as truly driverless cars and become complacent behind the wheel with potentially deadly consequences.
The Justice Department investigation potentially represents a more serious level of scrutiny because of the possibility of criminal charges against the company or individual executives, the people familiar with the inquiry said.
As part of the latest probe, Justice Department prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are examining whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators by making unsupported claims about its driver assistance technology’s capabilities, the sources said.
Officials conducting their inquiry could ultimately pursue criminal charges, seek civil sanctions or close the probe without taking any action, they said.
The Justice Department’s Autopilot probe is far from recommending any action partly because it is competing with two other DOJ investigations involving Tesla, one of the sources said. Investigators still have much work to do and no decision on charges is imminent, this source said.
The Justice Department may also face challenges in building its case, said the sources, because of Tesla’s warnings about overreliance on Autopilot.
For instance, after telling the investor call last week that Teslas would soon travel without customers touching controls, Musk added that the vehicles still needed someone in the driver’s seat. “Like we’re not saying that that’s quite ready to have no one behind the wheel,” he said.
The Tesla website also cautions that, before enabling Autopilot, the driver first needs to agree to “keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times” and to always “maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle.”
Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Detroit who prosecuted automotive companies and employees in fraud cases and is not involved in the current probe, said investigators likely would need to uncover evidence such as emails or other internal communications showing that Tesla and Musk made misleading statements about Autopilot’s capabilities on purpose.
In August 2021, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into a series of crashes, one of them fatal, involving Teslas equipped with Autopilot slamming into parked emergency vehicles.
NHTSA officials in June intensified their probe, which covers 830,000 Teslas with Autopilot, identifying 16 crashes involving the company’s electric cars and stationary first-responder and road maintenance vehicles. The move is a step that regulators must take before requesting a recall. The agency had no immediate comment.
In July this year, the California Department of Motor Vehicles accused Tesla of falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability as providing autonomous vehicle control. Tesla filed paperwork with the agency seeking a hearing on the allegations and indicated it intends to defend against them. The DMV said in a statement it is currently in the discovery stage of the proceeding and declined further comment.
Reporting by Mike Spector and Dan Levine; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and David Shepardson; Editing by Deepa Babington
30 years ago, on October 22nd, one of Japan’s smallest car manufacturers debuted a brand new production car destined for the World Rally Championship (WRC). Today, during its birthday month, we celebrate the legendary Subaru Impreza WRX.
You’ve all seen one, and if not you’ve most definitely heard one. The Impreza’s distinctive boxer burble is as recognisable as the famous blue and golden yellow colour palette from its WRC glory days. This is a car that really needs no introduction, but for the sake of ceremony, let’s have a quick recap…
A Star Is Born
Prior to the Impreza WRX’s development, Subaru had, since 1980, been championing their Leone RX Turbo and Legacy RS models on the World Rally Championship stage. Both of those cars used the same recipe that the Impreza would inherit and become famous for: a turbocharged boxer engine mated to a 5-speed transmission sending power to all four wheels via a symmetrical all-wheel drive system.
Subaru finally achieved WRC victory in 1991, with Colin McRae at the wheel of a Legacy.
Development of the new Impreza took note of all the little niggles that the Legacy RS had presented, and put all the necessary corrections into a road car destined for rally. Big air scoops built into the front bumper, a large hood scoop for the improved intercooler design, and a rear wing to help with downforce were all design cues that Subaru implemented.
From the get-go, the flagship Impreza model was called the WRX (World Rally eXperimental), a pretty big hint as to its intended purpose the following year.
Group A
Development of the Impreza was guided by Prodrive, and when I met with Akira Teshima (one of the original designers of the car) last year, he told me that rally was very much on their minds. In fact, the front air ducts of the WRX were heavily influenced by the front end of another successful rally car – the Lancia Delta Integrale.
When the Impreza first appeared on World Rally Championship special stages in 1993, it hit the ground running (after flying over a long crest of course). It would have almost certainly taken victory on its first event if the windshield hadn’t fogged up, making it impossible for driver Ari Vatanen to see where he was going.
There were quite a few works cars prepared by Prodrive, some of the famous ones recognisable by their licence plates – N555 BAT, L555 REP (pictured above) and the most coveted of them all, N1WRC.
This is the car that Colin McRae won the 1995 World Rally Championship in.
Today, this car is kept safe at Prodrive headquarters. Not only is it an important piece of rally history, but also testament to the sheer brilliance of Prodrive and the Scottish driver who took them to the top.
Group A was Subaru’s most successful period in rallying, with lessons learned from the Legacy rally program applied to the newly-released Impreza model. Group A regulations mandated a strict set of technical guidelines, but as with any high-end motorsport, a degree of interpretation followed.
Subaru pulled no punches when it came to their production model for Group A homologation – the STI (Subaru Tecnica International) Type RA. There were no concessions to comfort; no air-conditioning, ABS or electric windows inside, and a redundant 5th injector in the intake manifold, aluminium bonnet and boot lid and more aggressive differentials fitted externally. The Group A rally car then went a step further and introduced active differentials, a first in the WRC.
With McRae, Sainz and Vatanen (amongst others) in the drivers’ seats over the term, Subaru had a winning combination.
The Impreza World Rally Car
In 1997, the FIA simplified the rules, ditching Group A in favour of a new set of restrictions (or lack of). This gave way to the World Rally Car era.
Motorsport’s governing body wanted to attract more manufacturers into the sport, so changed the number of production cars required for homologation and gave a little more leash on modifications, harking back to the glory days of Group B rallying.
Subaru decided to throw all its resources into building a new Impreza to take advantage of the new regulations. This is when things started getting spicy.
Nothing says late-1990s than bold colours and rock star attitudes. The new Subaru WRC car had both in spades.
Prodrive turned to McLaren designer Peter Stephens to conceive an iconic car that would stand out from the competition. The new car was based on the two-door coupe version of the Impreza, with 80mm extra width, sculpted in clay and tested at the MIRA aerodynamic wind tunnel in the UK.
The new car was far more balanced than its predecessor; the Group A machine had more lift than downforce, so the work carried out by Peter Stephens helped immensely in this respect. The side skirts, front bumper, larger front splitter and now unmistakably Subaru rear wing all helped to quell the original car’s tendency to waft rather than stick.
That, and everything else, transformed the rally car into something other-worldly compared to the production road car.
But the new cars not only looked like rock stars, they performed like virtuosos. Working under Subaru World Rally Team technical directorDavid Lapworth, the team at Prodrive pioneered a few technical advancements on the Impreza which would later become standard fare for all WRC cars. Hydraulically-controlled paddle shift transmissions and electronically adjustable suspension were two things that gave the Impreza an edge in competition.
The Legend Lives On
After the global financial crisis in 2007/2008, Subaru reluctantly withdrew from the World Rally Championship stage. For a small company that had become the David to many Goliaths, it must have been a tough decision to make.
Luckily, the Impreza isn’t just a rally car though. It’s also a great road car, time attack car, grip car and autocross car. There are even people who drift and drag race them. Sure, the production Imprezas don’t quite live up to the durability of the works-built machines, but the peppy turbocharged flat-four engine and all-wheel drive makes them one of the most engaging affordable cars you can get your hands on.
They continue to bring joy to thousands across the globe, and 3o years is an Imprezive milestone (get it?). The loyalty is still strong in Japan, and on this anniversary weekend, I made the pilgrimage to the iconic Mt Haruna (the real-world setting of Initial D) to join Teshima-san and a few hundred other GC8 nerds to celebrate the anniversary.
More on this plus a closer look at a very special Impreza soon.
