Last hurrah for current Subaru WRX
BY MIKE COSTELLO | 31st Jul 2013
Announced today and due in Subaru Australia showrooms by the end of August, the 195kW/343Nm WRX RS40 harkens to the car’s World Rally Championship glory days with its signature blue paint and gold-coloured 17-inch wheel combination.
The back-to-basics aesthetic is reminiscent of the car that has won six WRC titles, as well as 10 consecutive Australian Rally Championships. It’s now 20 years since the first WRX premiered in Japan.
Subaru says 300 examples will come here, all priced from $44,490 plus on-road costs. This makes the special version $3500 more than the base Rex and $500 more than the WRX Premium.
The company claims all 300 come with more than $7000 worth of extras, including partial-suede Recaro seats, STI front and rear spoilers, a short-shifter, flexible ‘tower’ strut brace, special decals and numbered badges.
“This feature-packed special edition makes a direct visual link to the original World Rally Blue WRXs that did so much to grow Subaru’s performance credentials globally,” says Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior.
“WR Blue remains a customer favourite colour in the WRX palette, so it’s entirely fitting that this last-in-line special edition of the current car carries the famous blue and gold combination.
“WRX has always been a winner for customers in the retained value stakes and the special editions in particular give it even more cache, so with only 300 of these available, we anticipate high demand.”The replacement for the current six-year-old WRX was previewed in concept form at the New York Motor show in March this year, and featured in a travelling dealer roadshow Down Under last month.
Expect to see the production version appear in full at either the Tokyo or Los Angeles motorshow in November this year, although there is an outside chance this could be pushed back to the Detroit show in early January.
