It is a strange feeling to be driving what seems to be a venerated icon that you are old enough to have experienced when it was brand new. This is a first for me as I’m too young to have piloted any of the classics of the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s when they were launched. But now the Subaru Impreza seems to have made the leap, I can join the club of ‘there I was’ buffers. It’s certainly hard to argue the Prodrive P25 isn’t a premier league restomod given a price of over half a million quid. Or that it has found a target given the company says it has already sold the full run of 25 cars.

Back when I had more hair, and music was good, I drove both the cars that inspired this one extensively. The first was one of the first Impreza STI 22Bs to reach the country as a grey import – that being the wide-bodied rally rep that Subaru had created itself. Then, in 2000, came Prodrive’s similar take on the same theme, the P1. This combined the WRC-alike two-door shell otherwise not officially imported to the UK along with power and chassis mods plus full European homologation. It was one of the highlight performance cars of that era.

Nostalgia has already pushed the values of both variants much higher than they were when new. The priciest P1 currently in the Classifieds is a 15,000-miler for £65,000; the only 22B is being offered for £213,000. Meaning you could have both for scarcely more than half of the £552,000 starting price of the P25. These are the strange economics of limited production runs of special cars.

My drive in the P25 was a limited one, and conducted entirely on the Millbrook Proving Ground’s dinky little 0.8-mile Outer Handling Circuit. Which, appropriately enough, was designed to replicate the challenge of a demanding British B-road. The experience was enough to get a good sense of the P25’s specialness, as well as what is both familiar and different compared to my memories of those original hot Imprezas. But definitely not a chance to confirm Prodrive’s claims that it can deliver more performance than one of its original rally cars.

The eagle-eyed will have spotted that a fair amount has changed since the P25 prototype was first shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year. The most obvious difference is at the front; the prototype having what was apparently a carbon version of the original STI bumper, the new demonstrator having a new one, still in carbon, but with much bigger apertures. The finished car has also gained new headlights with projectors within them – probably wise given the famed inadequacies of original Impreza lights – with new LED units at the rear as well. It keeps the minimal WRC-style door mirrors and the proto’s bespoke 12-spoke 19-inch alloys with XL brake discs gripped by six-pot AP calipers up front.

The P25 is a restomod rather than a new-built continuation model, meaning that each one will be based on an original two-door STI shell that has been fully rebuilt. Running the MOT history of the demonstrator suggests that it was first imported from Japan in 2014, and also that it had covered 158,817 km when it was tested in June 2020. Since then it has been fully disassembled and lovingly rebuilt, with carbonfibre used for the roof, bootlid, rear wing, wings, bonnets and bumpers. Prodrive claims a weight of just 1,200kg, which looks very svelte by modern standards – although the original 22B was officially only 70kg heavier.

More substantial changes have been made on the other side of the power-to-weight scale. The P25 uses a heavily reworked version of Subaru’s 2.5-litre EJ25, with this having been treated to pretty much a full set of high-end parts – forged pistons, steel connecting rods, carefully ported cylinder heads and a puffy new Garrett turbocharger. This also boasts anti-lag to keep the turbine spinning when off-throttle, although this is only available in what is meant to be the track-only Sport Plus mode. 

Drive goes through a six-speed sequential gearbox and an active electronically controlled centre differential. There is also an Akrapovi? exhaust system with titanium-finish tailpipe tips. Last year Prodrive promised the engine would make at least 400hp, but that has now been upgraded to an even more serious 450hp, this accompanied by ‘at least’ 442lb-ft of torque.

Getting into the cabin is where the P25 starts to seriously diverge from my memories of the original Impreza. Even the fastest first-gen versions had the same low-rent plasticy interior as the rest of the clan, but now almost every surface is covered by either high-grade carbon fibre or Alcantara trim. Prodrive has done some serious work to reorganise components, with a panel of miniature rocker switches on the centre console – this freed up by the lack of a gear lever. There is also a central touchscreen for a Pioneer infotainment system, plus a more impressive reconfigurable digital instrument pack. One detail feels incongruous – there is only one gearchange paddle, this to the right of the steering wheel. It turns out this is how all of the sequential Subaru WRC cars were built.

The P25 starts with a loud, mechanical idle and the sequential transmission’s first gear engages with a big, motorsport-like clunk. Yet from that point onwards it starts to feel much more refined than first impressions suggested. Engine noise is always present, but it doesn’t overwhelm all other sensation as it would in a pure competition car – it’s possible to have a conversation with a passenger when driving without the need for an intercom. Despite the lack of a manual gear lever there is still a clutch pedal, but this is only used to get the car rolling or stopped. Once moving the transmission can be shifted clutchlessly, and I soon get used to the need to pull the solo paddle back to change up, and forwards to shift down.

Dynamically the P25 isn’t quite as playful as I remember the P1 being – thanks to having considerably more more grip. But it is much, much quicker. It takes a little while for boost pressures to build, but one they have the engine pulls strongly and doesn’t need to rev to start delivering serious urge. The P25’s redline is a relatively lowly 6,500rpm; the 22B went to 7750rpm. But there is so much mid-range torque this doesn’t feel like a limiting factor, especially not on a tight circuit. The gearbox delivers lightning changes and – on the faster stuff – fourth gear seems to pull as strongly as third. The brakes bit hard and there was no hint of fade.

Chassis discipline proved very impressive over Millbrook’s bumps and crests, with the combination of what feel like softish springs with no-nonsense Bilstein dampers. Compressions and dips are handled imperiously, body control over bumps and hard direction changes was brilliant. The P25’s enthusiasm to turn feels entirely original, thanks in large part to the lowness of the boxer engine’s centre of gravity. 

Steering is the big difference. Original Imprezas always had a slow patch around the straight ahead, but this has been entirely engineered out in the P25. It feels properly dialled-in, with direct responses and crisp feedback. Traction was impressive across the board, but the the demonstrator was picking up understeer in heavily loaded turns, with a limited ability to neutralise through the old Impreza trick of lifting the throttle to move the handling balance rearwards. To be fair, my turn came at the end of a group of journalists and the demonstrator’s front Bridgestone Potenzas were definitely starting to wilt. Even a quicker passenger ride with pro driver and rally veteran David Higgins had him fighting to get the front end biting.

Is it as quick as an original rally car? Without a WRC99 for back-to-back comparison that’s an impossible question to answer, although one I’d love the chance to return to referee that contest. But it certainly delivers more visceral thrills than any of its famous road-going antecedents. 

Is it worth the huge pricetag? That’s a tougher one, but also a subjective call that Prodrive has effectively answered by selling out the full allocation. In a world where high-end restomods seem able to command equally high-end money it makes at least as much sense as a brand-new lightweight E-Type or DB4. 

Engine: 2457cc flat-four, turbocharged
Gearbox: Six-speed sequential, all-wheel drive
Power: 450hp @ TBCrpm
Torque: >442 lb-ft @ TBCrpm
0-60mph: >3.0-sec (claimed)
Kerbweight: 1200kg
Top speed: TBC
MPG: TBC
CO2: TBC
Price: £552,000