The long-awaited 2008 Impreza WRC rally car will make its factory-backed World Rally Championship debut at the Acropolis Rally later on this month, instead of August’s Rally Finland, as originally planned. The race car, based on the third-generation Impreza WRX STI platform, has been undergoing testing since last year, with an official debut at last September’s Frankfurt auto show and official photos coming a month earlier. Replicas of it have been shown at auto shows around the world, including the Detroit show this past January.
The reason for the car’s early debut include strong early tests that encouraged Prodrive, who’s in charge of the race car’s development, to run it in Greece on May 29-June 1, according to Autocar. The same flat-four engine will power the new car, though Prodrive supposedly worked diligently on optimizing the car’s weight distribution and engineering a new transmission. The differentials used in the current car have been blamed as the cause for the car’s many retirements and poor performance in recent races.
With 2003 World Champion Petter Solber currently in eighth place in Championship standings, and teammate Chris Atkinson in third, the new car could bolster the pair’s chances, although traditionally, new cars have been problematic due to technical problems not even extensive testing could unveil.
With the new car’s launch, its success in competition would give Subaru priceless marketing for its upcoming sports coupe better, and differentiate it from Toyota ’s nearly-identical offering? The new car is the first Impreza to compete in the WRC with the hatchback body style.
