Sonic Blue Mica
The British racing specialists Prodrive had been working well with Subaru for many years; they had already won the World Rally Championship together for the first time in 1991. When Prodrive boss Dave Richards saw the new two-door Type-R coupé for the first time, he asked the Japanese if he could build a special model refined by Prodrive. He was allowed to. 500 units of the very simple Subaru Impreza P1 (for Prodrive One) were planned, only for England, at the price of a whopping £31,495. But demand was so high that Prodrive was able to sell more than 1000 copies of the P1, which was painted only in Sonic Blue Mica. But it was also a fine piece that Prodrive put on the Pirelli P Zero (mounted on 17-inch OZ rims).
However, there were a few obstacles to overcome before it got that far. In order for the 2-litre boxer to be officially sold in England with 280 hp, various changes to the mapping were necessary. Almost all of the electronics were rewritten, the engine was adapted from Japanese 100-octane petrol to European 97-octane fuel, and there was one large STi catalytic converter instead of two small ones. Eibach springs brought the body 20 millimetres closer to the ground, and the steering ratio was also changed for better handling. Nevertheless, the P1 was criticised by the British press for its nervousness. However, customers loved it, even though many a Prodrive Subaru fell victim to cold deformation. Today, the P1 is of course highly sought after, even though it is only available in right-hand drive. We have more interesting Japanese cars in our archive.
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