A SINGLE LOUD report from a big-bore titanium exhaust announced the Prodrive P25’s arrival. We had started hearing the growl of an approaching car a little earlier, definitely something with a decent helping of horsepower, but perhaps, we thought, it was some other potent machine, just passing by. However, properly bred rally cars generally produce a characteristic crack, when the engine ignition is cut to facilitate their near-instant gearchanges, and that sound was unmistakable.
Within a minute, front and centre, its exhaust ticking from the heat, stood the final prototype of the P25, a restomod of Subaru’s ultra-rare 1997 Impreza 22B STi. It had been driven on shakedown by Prodrive’s founder and chairman, David Richards, who will soon start delivering cars to customers in earnest. We had arranged to meet for lunch at a welcoming Cotswolds, UK, pub called The Fox at Oddington and then take the P25 for a shakedown drive of our own.
About 18 months ago, Banbury-based Prodrive came up with a plan to reprise and progress the 22B, itself a
