McRae's incredible Subaru Impreza WRC: 'It's up there with anything'

The Subaru Impreza 555 swept all before it in the WRC, and became an icon in the hands of Colin McRae – its design team leader remembers the epic tale

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Subaru Impreza Carlos Sainz 1994

Impreza 555 represented take off for Subaru, Prodrive and McRae in WRC

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Hours spent waiting and shivering in the freezing forest, first to hear the howl of the turbo echo through the trees, then witness just a thrilling split second as a flash of blue rushes by – off-road poetry in motion.

This was the kind of devotion that the legendary Colin McRae inspired in fans while at the wheel of his Subaru Impreza 555 – a instantly recognisable machine which soon became as much of a rallying icon as its famous driver.

30 years since its debut season, the figures still stand out – 11 wins out of the 26 rallies it entered, a drivers’ championship and a pair of constructors’ titles is evidence of the engineering brilliance of the Impreza, a formidable tool once in the hands of McRae, Carlos Sainz and Ari Vatanen.

David Lapworth, technical director of the Prodrive team which masterminded the Impreza, told Motor Sport the car and its achievements are “up there with anything” the massively successful squad has ever taken on.

Colin Mcrae 1993 Rally new Zealand

McRae saved the day for all concerned with ’93 New Zealand win in Legacy

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The hurried development on the Impreza WRC began in late 1992, as Subaru’s had the potential to fade with the ageing Legacy. The team had yet to win a rally, while the Impreza began to take shape in the hands of Prodrive behind the scenes. The team couldn’t get the car quickly enough but Subaru bosses wanted the Legacy to bow out at the top.

“The Impreza was strategically very important to Japan,” says Lapworth. “You can imagine, they hadn’t produced the car like it before. But they were very concerned at the time that it shouldn’t look like we were giving up on the Legacy and transferring all our hopes to the Impreza.

“We were pretty committed to introducing the car mid-’93 [it had been in the works since late ’92] but Japan said to us you’re not switching to the Impreza until you’ve won a rally with the Legacy.”

“We were going to have a very painful discussion with Subaru”

In keeping with the dramatic landscape of Rally New Zealand, which was round eight and the Legacy’s last scheduled event, storm clouds were brewing between Prodrive and Subaru – until a certain young Scotsman saved the day.

“We went there keeping our fingers crossed that we would get a good result, because otherwise we were going to have a very painful discussion with Subaru about how we would carry on with the Legacy,” says Lapworth.

Colin McRae had impressed on his ’93 debut for the Subaru WRC team, scoring a podium in Sweden, and just five rallies later he took a brilliant first win at the wheel of a Legacy – somewhat smoothing over a potential diplomatic incident between Prodrive and the car manufacturer.

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“It happened just at the right time, and made it look like a brilliant plan!” laughs Lapworth. “Everyone was happy.”

The stage was now set for the Impreza – looking somewhat the more imposing, bespoke rallying machine than its Legacy predecessor.

A slightly shorter car (160mm) with a 60mm shorter wheel-base, the more lighter and more nimble Impreza made the Legacy look ungainly by comparison.

A car which could run at 360bhp on full boost was the first in the WRC to have active differential, with Prodrive pushing the limit on all fronts.

The highly promising new Impreza almost delivered on its debut, but as Lapworth emphasises, the team knew it had something special as soon as it was was rolled out.

“The legacy was always a very nice car to drive, but it just didn’t have the agility that an Impreza had,” he says.

“It was clear from the very first test in the Impreza that we had hit a sweet spot – we hadn’t gone from something that was stable and easy to drive to something which was nervous and twitchy.

“When Ari did the first test in Finland, it was miles faster than the Legacy, and he had no reservations about it.

“I drove the car quite a bit myself, just doing the systems checks, and I remember thinking ‘We’re going in the right direction here.’ You could just tell straight away.”

“At one point, we thought we were going to win our first rally”

Vatanen would get behind the wheel for the 1000 Lakes event – now Rally Finland – and was indeed within touching distance of an incredible win on the Impreza’s debut.

“At one point, we thought we were going to win our first rally,” says Lapworth “We were absolutely on the pace.

“We were leading until the end of the penultimate day, when we lost about 20 seconds in foggy, wet conditions, when the screen misted up.

“It was something that we’ve never seen in testing, a result of water spray going on to the intercooler.

“The next day we could match [Juha] Kankkunen’s Toyota, but we couldn’t pull the time back – we were so close to a maiden victory.”

Even so, the incredible result still vindicated Prodrive’s Impreza push.

“We came away very happy,” he says. “The car was everything that we were hoping for, pretty much even beyond that expected. The win would have been beyond our wildest dreams!”

From here the only way was up for Subaru, Prodrive and the Impreza. Finishing third in the ’93 constructors’ title race, the next year would bring second in the championship courtesy of a first win delivered by Carlos Sainz and two more from McRae.

In 1995, the team would claim all the spoils. For that year the FIA ruled that a 34mm intake restrictor to reduce power was to be introduced in a bid to slow the cars down, giving Lapworth and his team another technical challenge to claw back some of the lost horses.

Carlos Sainz Subaru Impreza 1995 Acropolis Rally

Sainz en route to first Impreza win in Greece ’94

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“You couldn’t get it all back, but we worked a lot on torque response, made quite good steps with anti-lag plus optimising various other bits and pieces so that the power curve that we had was as usable as possible,” he says.

“We lost about 50bhp, but did a pretty good job of improving the driveability to compensate to some extent.”

The ’95 WRC started well with two wins out of the first three rallies for Sainz in what was shaping up to be a titanic battle with Toyota, until the fellow Japanese rival was suddenly discounted from the fight mid-season.

Carlos Sainz Subaru Impreza 1995 Monte Carlo Rally

Sainz sliding his way to winning 1995 Monte Carlo Rally

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The formidable manufacturer squad had Kankunnen leading the title race in its Celica ST05, before a Super Special stage in Australia revealed all was not what it seemed.

“It started off with a drag race in Langley Park,” remembers Lapworth. “And you couldn’t disguise the fact that in that situation the drivability didn’t make any difference – it was all about horsepower, in that moment you realised there wasn’t the power reduction [in the Toyota] that you were supposed to have.”

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“I remember David Richards giving me a hard time saying ‘How can our engine be that rubbish?’,” he also told Top Gear in 2020. “I said ‘There’s got to be another explanation.’”

The burning Celica pace raised suspicions, and it soon came to light that Toyota had been using a sliding turbo restrictor which allowed for more power when tightened – increasing horsepower by around 50bhp – roughly the amount which had been lost in the new regulations.

Toyota were then disqualified, leaving the well-engineered Impreza cars to fight between themselves.

An epic championship scrap with Sainz would be won by the charismatic McRae at Rally GB, and Subaru claimed the constructors’ title too – the first of three in a row.

The blue Impreza was already an icon by ’95 though, and is one which stands out to Lapworth to this day.

Carlos Sainz COlin McRae Subaru Impreza 1995 Rally GB

’95 eventually turned into an all-Subaru showdown

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“I think there was a lot of satisfaction in achieving what we set out to do,” he says.

“We won the championship fair and square competing against works operations and better funded teams – we didn’t have a massive drawing office full of designers, we didn’t have the resources of Toyota.

“It’s difficult not to measure your technical achievements by the standards that you’ve learned since. But I think in terms of what we achieved, with the resource and the experience that we had, it has to stand right up there, comparable with anything we’ve ever done.”

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