Friday 19th December 2008

Life of the Impreza at the PH Show

Six generations of a rally legend will be rolled out for the PH Show

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McRae helped make the Impreza famous

The Subaru Impreza is celebrating its fifteenth birthday this year and to celebrate six generations of this iconic car will be on display at the PistonHeads Show. You probably know your ‘Bugeye’ from your ‘Blobeye’ but if you don’t this might well help, as it shows the complete evolution of this rally legend.

Ever since Colin McRae drove a bright blue Subaru Impreza to the 1995 World Rally Championship title, the Japanese sporting saloon has held a place in performance motoring folklore.

It completely re-invented the Subaru brand in the UK and worldwide, from cars more normally associated with the farming community into desirable machinery revered by the Playstation generation. Each iconic Impreza shape will be at the show, from the original, pre-facelift GC8 WRX that started it all, to the current-shape hatchback introduced last year.

‘The Impreza is a modern classic; in thirty years it may well be revered in the same way that the Ford Escort RS1600 or MGB are now, as an affordable take on performance and style,’ said PistonHeads Show Manager David Ryan.

‘The latest hatchback shape has taken the Impreza in a new direction, more refined and family-friendly than before, whilst retaining its performance edge. It’s amazing to see how far they have come in fifteen years, whilst still retaining that essential driving fun-factor.’

The PistonHeads Show takes place between the 8th and 11th of January 2009 at the NEC, Birmingham. To buy tickets check out the show site: www.pistonheadsshow.com

[VladD]

‘The Impreza is a modern classic; in thirty years it may well be revered in the same way that the Ford Escort RS1600 or MGB are now, as an affordable take on performance and style,’ said PistonHeads Show Manager David Ryan.'

That's why I'm keeping mine.

[Lytham Stag]

That's why I bought mine.

[Ravell]

"Ever since Colin McRae drove a bright blue Subaru Impreza to the 1995 World Rally Championship title, the Japanese sporting saloon has held a place in performance motoring folklore."

Until now that is, with Subaru ending their comitment to WRC.

Still, on a positive note, it will be nice to see the whole evolution in a row.

Edited by Ravell on Friday 19th December 15:29

[tim2100]

shame this line will now end, and the main Sales for Subaru will dry up.

[Glosphil]

Sounds an interesting show so I thought I and my brother would go. Went to site to book tickets - £29 each, bit expensive but continued to book. Got to 'choose method of receiving ticket', chose 'print own ticket' and then a £2 booking fee is added. For what? I'm booking myself on-line and printing my own tickets! So the tickets are really £31 each. Cancelled my booking, I'm fed up of rip-off booking fees.

[S3 Alex]

tim2100 said:

shame this line will now end, and the main Sales for Subaru will dry up.

Elaborate.

[DucatiGary]

Glosphil said:

So the tickets are really £31 each.

then theres your £8 parking

[threespires]

DucatiGary said:

Glosphil said:

So the tickets are really £31 each.

then theres your £8 parking

I see that the Autosport / Pistonheads show is priced at the old VAT rate.

I'll not be there because of ...............

The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Ticket
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Booking Fee
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Parking Fee

I'm told that there is a Rally Show on the same day at Gaydon.

Entry FOC.

I will be there.

[threespires]

Glosphil said:

Sounds an interesting show so I thought I and my brother would go. Went to site to book tickets - £29 each, bit expensive but continued to book. Got to 'choose method of receiving ticket', chose 'print own ticket' and then a £2 booking fee is added. For what? I'm booking myself on-line and printing my own tickets! So the tickets are really £31 each. Cancelled my booking, I'm fed up of rip-off booking fees.

Good For You

So did I.

[CypherP]

threespires said:

DucatiGary said:

Glosphil said:

So the tickets are really £31 each.

then theres your £8 parking

I see that the Autosport / Pistonheads show is priced at the old VAT rate.

I'll not be there because of ...............

The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Ticket
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Booking Fee
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Parking Fee

I'm told that there is a Rally Show on the same day at Gaydon.

Entry FOC.

I will be there.

Love the fact that you're quibbling over a few quid of VAT difference. To be honest, you either want to go or you don't. I dont consider the prices to be that expensive, considering what is on offer.

[tim200sx]

"Ever since Colin McRae drove a bright blue Subaru Impreza to the 1995 World Rally Championship title"

[picky mode]Wasn't it more of a navy blue at the time, the bright blue didn't come along for a couple of years from what I recall[/picky mode]

[RFSA 180]

S3 Alex said:

tim2100 said:

shame this line will now end, and the main Sales for Subaru will dry up.

Elaborate.

In 2003, Subaru sold approximately 2500 WRX and WRX STI models in the UK. Projected sales of the new shape WRX and STI this year are 795.

[Hongkongfooi]

CypherP said:

threespires said:

DucatiGary said:

Glosphil said:

So the tickets are really £31 each.

then theres your £8 parking

I see that the Autosport / Pistonheads show is priced at the old VAT rate.

I'll not be there because of ...............

The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Ticket
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Booking Fee
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Parking Fee

I'm told that there is a Rally Show on the same day at Gaydon.

Entry FOC.

I will be there.

Love the fact that you're quibbling over a few quid of VAT difference. To be honest, you either want to go or you don't. I dont consider the prices to be that expensive, considering what is on offer.

Agreed, less peeps standing in front of the cars then.

[wilson s]

Very good contender in the WRC sad to see them go !

[beano9]

CypherP said:

threespires said:

DucatiGary said:

Glosphil said:

So the tickets are really £31 each.

then theres your £8 parking

I see that the Autosport / Pistonheads show is priced at the old VAT rate.

I'll not be there because of ...............

The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Ticket
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Booking Fee
The theft of the lower VAT rate on the Parking Fee

I'm told that there is a Rally Show on the same day at Gaydon.

Entry FOC.

I will be there.

Love the fact that you're quibbling over a few quid of VAT difference. To be honest, you either want to go or you don't. I dont consider the prices to be that expensive, considering what is on offer.

very well said that man- whats the big fuss - couple o buk extra really gonna burst your budget - if you really wanted to go , you would be going!

[Venom]

I've got to say I agree with the principle objection here. Why advertise a ticket at a certain price only to then add a booking charge regardless of how you purchase and receive the ticket? This annoys me too when booking gig tickets. While the individual charges aren't that great, it soon all stacks up.

[Zumbruk]

RFSA 180 said:

S3 Alex said:

tim2100 said:

shame this line will now end, and the main Sales for Subaru will dry up.

Elaborate.

In 2003, Subaru sold approximately 2500 WRX and WRX STI models in the UK. Projected sales of the new shape WRX and STI this year are 795.

And now Subaru have pulled out of the WRC, I imagine they will stop making the WRX/STi models altogether, so sales in 2009 will be a couple of hundred and sales in 2010, zero.

[stinkysteve]

Not one mention of Prodrive or Dave Richards in that article!

How can you miss something like this? Call yourselves Petrol heads?

Without them , Colin wouldn't have had his success in Subaru's.

May I suggest you read "Prodrive and the race to win" to understand a little more about Subaru and why they went from farmers vehicle to performance legend.

[RFSA 180]

Zumbruk said:

RFSA 180 said:

S3 Alex said:

tim2100 said:

shame this line will now end, and the main Sales for Subaru will dry up.

Elaborate.

In 2003, Subaru sold approximately 2500 WRX and WRX STI models in the UK. Projected sales of the new shape WRX and STI this year are 795.

And now Subaru have pulled out of the WRC, I imagine they will stop making the WRX/STi models altogether, so sales in 2009 will be a couple of hundred and sales in 2010, zero.

And now they have canned the coupe with Toyota, a car likely to of boosted sales massively.

When will they learn, we want aggressively ugly, bonnet hole covered, horrid burbling, rally inspired saloons which do not pretend to be anything they are not. Cars the none believers think 'ewwwww', as the driver screams his car past their 'audi a4 diesel piece of ste' screaming....'Mum, I am a racing driver!'

[mark seeker]

Still love mine with no plans to sell....