The first Subaru Impreza to score points in the World Rally Championship is set to cross the block at Artcurial’s Automobiles Sur Les Champs sale on 24 October, with a pre-sale estimate of €450-650,000.
That is c£380-550,000 which is not cheap, but then online auction house Collecting Cars set a new world record on 30 May 2021 when it sold a Richard Burns and Robert Reid Impreza, albeit a later example, for £610,000.
That car was the 2000 Rally GB-winning Impreza S6. But the car for sale here is certainly not lacking in pedigree – and it led the way for the success of Subaru’s later models.
Going under the hammer with Artcurial is chassis 93.004, which helped propel the model to motorsport stardom in the first place when it finished second in the 1993 1000 Lakes Rally wearing the famous L555 BAT registration.