England-based Prodrive has been building race-winning Subarus (and other race cars) for decades, so the enthusiast community sat up and took notice when it announced a continuation of the first-generation Impreza called P25. The coupe sold out quickly despite a base price pegged in the vicinity of $600,000, and Prodrive hasn’t announced a follow-up. If you want one, your best bet is to bid on this like-new P25 being auctioned by Bonhams.
Prodrive enlisted the help of Peter Stevens, who designed the original Impreza WRC in 1997, to create the P25. The project’s goal was to make the P25 lighter, more powerful, and sharper to drive than the original. That’s no small feat considering we’re talking about a rally car. Unveiled at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the P25 landed with carbon-composite body panels, lightweight seats, carbon door panels, and a lithium-ion battery to keep weight in check. Stevens made several styling updates such as a new-look front splitter and a WRC-style trunk-mounted wing.
The example listed by Bonhams is number 10 of just 25 units built. That alone makes it rarer than most “rare” supercars out there. It’s one of 14 right-hand-drive cars made, and it’s the only one finished in Solar Silver. It looks like it’s led a pretty easy life: its odometer displays roughly 200 miles, it wears clear paint protection film, and it’s in like-new condition—in photos, at least. Inside, it features Alcantara upholstery, lots of carbon fiber, and a fully digital instrument cluster. The floor-hinged AP Racing pedals should make you feel like a rally driver. If you want the full rally-car experience, the sale includes a factory roll cage.
Power for the P25 comes from a turbocharged, 2.5-liter flat-four re-engineered by Prodrive to develop 440 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 457 pound-feet of torque at 3,000 rpm. Those figures put the coupe within striking distance of the BMW M2, whose turbocharged straight-six makes 435 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. But while the M2 tips the scale at 3,800 pounds, the P25 weighs approximately 2,600 pounds.
Prodrive quotes a zero-to-60-mph time of 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph, but numbers rarely tell the whole story. Jerry Perez, The Drive‘s deputy editor, drove a P25 in 2023 and concluded that it’s “a barely street-legal race car that’ll scare the living crap out of you.”
Dialing in more power and calling it a day would have been far too easy, so Prodrive also added a WRC-style launch control system, an Akrapovič racing exhaust system, and an anti-lag system that keeps turbo lag in check. The flat-four spins the four wheels via a six-speed sequential transmission with helical gears, an adjustable electronic center differential, and limited-slip differentials on both ends.
Bidding currently stands at £260,000 (around $327,000) with four days left in the auction, and the reserve hasn’t been met yet. The reserve hasn’t been revealed, disclosing it can stall bidding, but Bonhams estimates that the P25 will sell for anywhere between £475,000 and £575,000 (about $598,000 and $724,000, respectively), and the winning bidder will need to fork over 7% of the selling price as an auction premium.
This isn’t a bargain-priced old Suby; that’s Big Ferrari money. But it’s not really an old Suby, either. Is it worth it?
Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com