Subaru teases return of a legend
An iconic Japanese performance car could return, but fans are ready to be disappointed.
It was once the brand beloved by rally fans and performance car buyers on a budget, but these days Subaru is better known for its sensible SUVs and wagons.
Unfortunately for the company, it has seemingly also earned a reputation for over promising and under delivering on recent concept car teases.
So the news this week that the brand will reveal not one, but two new concept cars from its STI performance division should have fired up its fans.
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Instead, it seems that Subaru supporters are too burnt by the brand’s history of presenting jaw-dropping concept cars only to launch conservative production versions to get too excited.
The most infamous example of this came with the latest generation Subaru WRX, the car born on the rally stages, made notorious by ram raiders and still loved by anyone who craves a turbocharged pocket rocket.
Subaru spent years teasing the current generation with showstopping concepts like the 2017 Subaru Viziv Performance, which hinted at a dramatic departure away from the brand’s roots of simply converting its Impreza small car into a heroic machine with a turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive.
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Instead the 2022 production version bore an uncanny resemblance to the Impreza sedan and was nowhere near as dramatic as the Viziv concept.
It’s this type of thing that has left Subaru fans feeling suspicious.
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“Time to be disappointed …” wrote one poster on Reddit.
Another made it clear that their expectations are low that Subaru will be able to deliver something truly exciting.
“Ah yes STI concepts … the most accurate close to production items in the industry. Also, [the] Pope is Presbyterian.”
What Subaru has teased are the Performance -E STI concept and Performance-B STI concept, with only limited details and shadowy images to try and get fans excited.
The former is an electric performance car, which the company says will be “spearheading Subaru’s new generation” of performance cars. It claims the concept “combines thrilling aesthetic proportions with outstanding aerodynamics and practicality” which leaves it open to be anything from a sports coupe to a station wagon.
The second concept, Performance-B STI, appears to be based on the WRX, with the headlight matching the current on-sale model.
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Subaru says this concept is powered by an internal combustion engine and achieves a balance of advanced performance and power with practicality.” That suggests a possible return of the WRX STI hatch.
But if history has taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t get our hopes up too soon with Subaru. Even if these two new creations turn out to be jaw-dropping as concept cars, Subaru will still need to take them into production or run the risk of further alienating fans.
As another Reddit commenter said: “Subaru and concept cars. A tale as old as time. When have they ever released anything remotely similar to their concepts? This will be no different.”
Originally published as Subaru teases return of a legend
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