Colin McRae Archives - Brochureshub

Recently, cars have been fetching high numbers at auctions, especially when it comes to examples owned by famous people. Such was the case with this 1998 Subaru Impreza 22B sold for £480,500.

Subaru Impreza 22B was owned by British driver and World Rally Championship Drivers’ title winner, Colin McRae. Colin died in 2007, and in his career he achieved 25 victories and 42 podiums.

Subaru delivered this Impreza 22B to McRae in November 1998, one of three prototypes of the rally-inspired limited edition model. After that, 399 cars were produced for the Japanese market alone, 16 for the UK market and five for the Australian market.

The car is powered by a 2.2-liter EJ22 turbocharged four-cylinder engine with a factory 276 hp (206 kW). The reason for the small number of horsepower is the Gentleman’s Agreement between all Japanese car manufacturers including Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Mitsubishi to limit all JDM production cars to 280bhp and 180kmh in order to reduce road fatalities. Subaru modified the gearbox, clutch, drive shaft, brakes and suspension to make the car as close as possible to the WRC model. It has only 11,802 km on the odometer.

The 22B was very successful for Subaru’s WRC team, winning three constructors’ titles in 1995, 1996 and 1997. This most desirable Subarus in the world comes with an aftermarket exhaust system, and the buyer got the original exhaust system as well as the original tires.

Source: Iconic Auctioneers

Gallery:

1998 Subaru Impreza 22B sold for £480,500 GBP

A Subaru driven by Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae was found in Australia. It is an original Subaru Impreza WRC car that has been covered in dust for a long time.

Although the car did not look like the famous racer, an additional inspection determined that it was an original. The car was originally estimated to be worth $ 15k to $ 20k, but given its originality and being driven by perhaps the two biggest drivers of the WRC, it reached a value of $ 360,000. Interestingly, Subaru was paid in bitcoins, and that’s the highest price achieved for a single Subaru WRC car.

The car did not have the classic WRC look, but under the hood is still a turbocharged 2.0-liter six-cylinder engine with 300 hp (224 kW) and 347 lb-ft (470 Nm) of torque. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmission that transmits power to all wheels.

Prodrive was in charge of producing Subaru’s rally cars, and only 63 units were produced. After it was found, the car was restored and offered for sale at the end of September.

This is not the only Subaru WRC car to be sold recently, as the Subaru Impreza S10 was sold in May this year.

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