Estimated Price: £120,000 - £150,000

Built to celebrate both the marque's 40th anniversary and its third straight WRC manufacturers' title, the 22B-STi was billed as the production version of Subaru's already-iconic two-door World Rally Car. With its beefy front and rear arches increasing width by 80mm, a high-rise rear spoiler and the unique EJ22 engine, the 22B was as close to Colin McRae's rally car as any mortal was ever going to get. It wasn't so much a homologation special but more of a road-going replica.

Often mistaken, the '22B' in the model's name is derived from the 555 WRC car sponsorship. Five hundred and fifty-five is 22B in hexadecimal, the number base used in computer programming. At the time, the IT world was booming and the Impreza was the icon car for the successful IT contractor in both the UK and Japan alike. ‘22B’ is often incorrectly referred to the engine capacity, which was increased from 1,994cc to 2,212cc. The 'B', meanwhile, supposedly stood for Bilstein, the damper supplier. Whichever way you look at it, Subaru created a truly fabulous machine.

Only 400 22Bs were built for sale to the domestic market (another 25 were made for overseas markets) and they pre-sold almost instantly in early 1998, costing a shade under £40,000 in period. The engine wasn't simply a standard 2.0-litre bored out to 2.2-litre, the EJ22 was a separate casting. While they are exceptionally strong engines, people liked to push the boundaries a bit and often found out the hard way where the engines limit was, post-remapping. Subsequently getting hold of replacement engines was a nightmare and many owners who blew them up resorted to putting in the later EJ25 2.5-litre engine that was originally developed to get more power for the heavily emission-controlled US cars. Even Nicky Grist couldn’t get a replacement when the engine in his second one (he had an 000 and an import) let go.

The 22B is equipped with a specially-developed, 2.2-litre EJ22-engine with forged pistons, a seam-welded bodyshell (supposedly identical in shape to the WRC), special gearing, a twin-plate racing clutch, strengthened drive/prop shafts, driver-adjustable front/rear diff and bigger brakes. The suspension uses unique forged-aluminium lower links, rose-joined transverse links, inverted Bilstein dampers and Eibach springs, plus a fetching set of Gold 17" BBS alloy wheels.

Theoretically Subaru were upholding their end of the 'Gentleman’s Agreement' between all Japanese car manufacturers including the likes of Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Mitsubishi. The agreement was to limit all JDM production cars to 280bhp and 180km/h in order to reduce road fatalities. However, as so many have found since, cars such as the 22B, R34 GT-R, Evo VI and Supra all seem to produce comfortably more than the agreed 280bhp, so while the 22B is officially producing 276bhp, real world figures suggest the bhp readout comfortably starts with a 3!

The car presented here a 1998 Subaru Impreza 22B-STi, car #149 of the 400 examples, a matching-numbers example imported into the UK and sold by David Hendry Cars in Malmsbury on 16th January 1999.  After just 18 months of ownership, the first UK owner sold it to one Jason Brooks, from whom our vendor purchased the 22B in July 2002 via Dick Lovett in Cheltenham. The stamped service book confirms that David Hendry serviced the 22B four times up to June 2000, and subsequently Mills & Walker, Lydney in 2003 at 30,655 miles. MOT'd yearly up to 2011, the 22B was then put into professional storage where it has remained until 2025, with only 16 miles covered in those 14 years. Since then, the 22B has been professionally dry stored as part of a collection of rare ‘rally-inspired’ vehicles.

Significant recent recommissioning and maintenance has been carried out by Retroclassic Engineering of Gloucester, including: Comprehensive inspection of the engine including an internal borescope inspection, compression and leakdown test, providing the engine a clean bill of health; New cambelt, water pump, crankshaft/camshaft oil seals and other various gaskets; New 22B specific Bilstein shock absorber/spring kit from Ali Burrows Motorsport; Four new tyres of the correct 22B Pirelli specification from Ali Burrows Motorsport; Wheels refurbished in original colour; Refurbishment of the inlet manifold and cam covers in the original STi textured finish; New spark plugs; Braided brake hoses; New windscreen; A full fluid service has been carried out including engine oil, gearbox oil, differential oils, new engine coolant and power steering fluid; Thermostat unit and header tank gasket replaced; Wheel refurbishment; Lanoguard underbody protection carried out; MOT Test (passed, no advisories).

They fitted a new cambelt, water pump, and sourced four correct new/old stock tyres. Within the history file there is the Bill of Sale from Dick Lovett when our vendor purchased the car in 2002, at 28,500 miles, its current V5C, previous V5 copies, expired MOTs, the service book and the recent service invoice. With the ever-skyrocketing prices of the cream-of-the-crop JDM cars, this fabulously original 22B is a very reasonable way to ensure you have one of the greats.