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A contemporary reimagining of Subaru's iconic Impreza STI 22B, the £500,000 Prodrive P25 filters decades of motorsport expertise into one magnificent road car. Dickie Meaden puts it through its paces.
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0:00
few sites stir the soul like Colin Lecrae flinging a pro-drive Impreza WRC car
0:19
flat out down a world rally stage sadly we said farewell to both Lecrae and the Impreza long ago
0:25
but memories of their iconic partnership are as powerful as ever. Thanks to a unique commemorative Restoma project
0:32
those glory days have made a welcome return in the evocative and unmistakable shape of the ProDrive P25
0:41
So around about 25 years ago, the very first issue of Bevo was published
0:47
and one of the star cars of that issue was a Japanese import Impreza 22B
0:54
25 years later, we're in the P25, which is pro drives, celebration of a quarter of a century of history
1:05
and that incredible success that their rally team enjoyed in the late 90s when blue Subarus literally ruled the world
1:14
i hate the term resto mod because it's quite ugly and it doesn't really do the cars
1:23
justice but pro drive have entered the resto mod market with this car and it's really something
1:31
special for a for a company like pro drive to put all their efforts and all their knowledge
1:37
into reimagining and recreating an already iconic car what have they done well it's a
1:43
top to toe reworking of the Impreza. They start with a two-door Impreza shell or two-door Impreza car
1:50
and then they'll basically strip it back to the bare bones. Every panel on the car is carbon fibre
1:57
in that classic kind of wide body look that was pioneered by the 22B
2:01
and the World Rally car. The engine is built around a late model
2:07
so 2018 2.5 litre boxer engine, heavily reworked so pretty much the only thing that remains standard is the is the block all
2:17
the internals are different management systems different the rewards to airing to cooling system
2:21
is different the full shebang likewise the transmission that's possibly the most exciting
2:29
part of the car because it's a competition spec six-speed sequential box dog box but with helical
2:37
gears to try and give a little bit of refinement which it does actually surprisingly well you can
2:42
obviously you can hear the gearbox and the dips working but it's quite a civilized combination
2:48
there's an electronically controlled center dip which is also sort of 2018 era but what you're
2:57
getting is a truly authentic pro-drive, work Subaru, rally car experience, but it's
3:07
civilised but not sanitised so it's got that edge it's got that occasion
3:12
it wakes you up when you get it in and it everything you would want this kind of car to be We talk about our love of ogue cars but I think we actually lost touch with what an ogue car is until you get in this
3:34
And apart from the paddle shift gearbox, everything is moderated and modulated by the driver
3:41
So the brakes are massive, again, rally inspired AP racing brakes, no servo assistance, no ABS
3:51
So that's highly unusual in 2023. Likewise, there's no electronic stability control, no traction control
3:59
It's all down to the diffs and the way that centre diff manages the torque
4:06
but it's a totally pure driving experience and to be honest it takes a little bit of getting used to to start with
4:15
Particularly if you've never driven a car with non-serbo assisted brakes before
4:20
then the pedal will feel quite hard and you'll be surprised at how hard you have to push it
4:26
to get the braking effort you want. But give yourself a chance to get dialed in
4:32
and it's such a brilliantly responsive car and pure in the way it does what you ask it and only what you ask it
4:41
I think we've got so used to cars managing the torque delivery
4:46
and managing the traction and managing the gear shifts and managing the amount of braking power you get
4:54
Nothing is linear, nothing is exactly... The output doesn't match the input to the pedals and the steering in this car
5:02
It absolutely does. and that is one of the best aspects, I would say, of this car
5:09
Yes, brilliant being a bright blue ProDrive built in Prezza, but the driving experience really is on another level
5:17
to anything else you can buy today that's a newly built car
5:22
In terms of what you might recognise in a contemporary high-performance car
5:29
there is a choice of dynamic driving modes. we're in road at the moment um quick push on the button with a pro drive logo and that puts us into
5:39
sport um that gives you more power more torque so torque goes up from 400 450 newton meters to 600
5:50
newton meters uh power goes up from around 380 horsepower to close on 450 so it's a big step
5:58
And a particularly big step when you think the car comfortably weighs less than 1,200 kilos
6:04
even fully trimmed with these nice seats of hi-fi and aircon. It's between 1150 and 1180 kilos
6:11
So it's very much a throwback to the 90s in terms of its kerb weight
6:22
Road is very civilised in terms of the way the powertrain responds and the throttle response
6:27
sport immediately lights a fire under the car and that I think is unless you do happen to find
6:34
yourself driving through town I think you would always be in sport and if you feeling particularly anti you then go into the most aggressive mode which is sport plus which gives you anti which is so cool
6:51
Again, it's a real throwback to 90 rallying. You get the pop and bang, the turbo is there all the time and awake
6:59
and it brings a marked improvement in the throttle response and just the aggression in the car
7:06
there have been other developments and other improvements so again on the on the turbo
7:14
charging side the turbo is always spooling so not as aggressively as it does in anti-lag
7:21
but it's always there waiting to build boost pressure so that improves the response and and
7:28
i mean it works like an a civilized anti-lag system in a way so the step between anti-lag
7:35
the non-anti-lag isn't as dramatic as it would have been before that fine management of the
7:42
turbocharger was there but still it gives you a real punch of adrenaline when you hit the throttle
7:49
so other hardware highlights for the p25 well suspension obviously is another
7:58
another key part of the package and instead of going to an off-the-shelf part pro drive like
8:05
they've done with everything else in the car they've gone to bilstein and bilstein have produced
8:10
them a bespoke suspension package for this car um you could probably tell at low speed
8:16
it's pretty firm but it's all in keeping with with the car and how it delivers its performance
8:24
actually you know okay it crashes and bangs a bit on on the worst surfaces but once you get up to
8:30
speed it is sensationally good uh you know you throw it down the gnarliest road you can possibly
8:38
find and you'll be pulling all sorts of places thinking the car's going to bottom out or leave
8:43
the road and it just smashes down the road like a mobile skier you can imagine the wheels going up
8:49
in the arches but it feels fabulous and it encourages you to drive well probably encourages
8:57
You used to drive too quickly, actually, because every road becomes tarmac rally stage
9:02
But that's the joy of this car. That's what we all imagined in our youth when we were driving Imprezas
9:08
And now this car is here and we can live those dreams in far more detail and authenticity
9:21
Obviously, we need to talk about the price tag. I think half a million pounds for an Impreza is, yeah, you have to occupy a totally different headspace, I think, to understand that
9:34
But the customer that this car is aimed at, they will have a collection of fantastic cars
9:40
And this car will definitely occupy a new space in their collection
9:45
There's nothing really out there that will give you the driving experience and give you
9:50
the ability to attack a really difficult road with the aggression that this car has So the P25 isn just about the exterior changes it had a comprehensive makeover inside impresses were always by definition very basic quite plasticky things i think if you charging
10:12
half a million pounds for something it probably needs a bit more than basic plastics but it needs
10:17
to be appropriate and and just sitting in this car it puts you in the right frame of mind it's
10:22
simple it's pure but it's really really nicely done the whole interior has actually been handled
10:27
by Callum so they've done the design and the manufacturing of the interior so you can see all
10:34
the Alcantara and the stitching which just lifts it a little bit and gives it some tactility
10:38
there's the full LCD dash with a diagnostic page and it also gives you the usual shift lights
10:47
different sport modes what else have we got this is quite cool a little bit of rally pedigree so
10:52
this is just a regular rally hydraulic handbrake but we also have an electronic park brake so as
11:00
you can imagine when you're trying to balance uh this this gearbox and clutch and doing hill starts
11:06
the electric brake is a real godsend and it switches off or disengages automatically
11:11
so that makes it really interesting um other highlights the cage in the back uh the sort of
11:18
delete rear seat and the cage is an option that again it's really appropriate for the car and it
11:23
gives you a little bit of extra peace of mind the paddle shift system again is very very rally so
11:30
when I've been driving my left hand has been trying to reach for a downshift paddle
11:34
but once you get used to it this single paddle push pull so pull back for upshifts push forward
11:40
for downshifts becomes very natural and I think my favorite part of the interior
11:46
is this steering wheel because it feels perfect in your hand and there's no buttons so it's all
11:53
business which is yeah what this car is all about. ProDrive might be newcomers when it comes to
11:59
building road cars but they certainly know Impreza's inside out so if anyone has the right
12:04
to build a resto mod around an Impreza it's them. As a driving experience it is just like
12:11
and nothing else out there, certainly in the Resto Mod market. And actually, I can't think of another car that's ever really come close
12:19
to replicating the driving experience that this car delivered. Half a million pounds is an extraordinary amount of money for a Subaru Impreza
12:27
But like all great cars, when you get in and drive the P25, that money really becomes immaterial
12:33
I think ProDrive have taken the Resto Mod scene in a fascinating direction with this car
12:38
but more importantly they breathe new life into a fantastic icon
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