Subaru stopped building the WRX STI in 2021, bringing a 27-year production run to an end. The car had changed considerably since the first version appeared in Japan in 1994, but the basic ingredients remained familiar: a turbocharged boxer engine, a manual gearbox and all-wheel drive.
Its history is closely tied to Subaru’s World Rally Championship programme, but that is only part of the story. For much of its life, the STI was measured against the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. By the late 1990s, Gran Turismo had introduced both cars to an audience far beyond the world of rallying.
Subaru Tecnica International, better known as STI, was established in April 1988 to oversee the company’s motorsport activities and performance-car development. The Impreza arrived four years later, replacing the larger Legacy as the basis of Subaru’s rally programme.
The WRX went on sale in Japan in November 1992. Less than a year later, the Impreza made its World Rally Championship debut at the 1993 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland, where Ari Vatanen finished second.
Subaru’s first win with the Impreza came at the 1994 Acropolis Rally. Carlos Sainz and Luis Moya took victory in Greece, establishing the car as a genuine contender during its first full season in the championship.
By then, the first Impreza WRX STI had already reached Japanese showrooms. Introduced in January 1994, it used a more powerful version of the WRX’s 2.0l turbocharged boxer engine, producing 184kW. STI also fitted uprated suspension and strengthened the five-speed manual gearbox.
Those early cars were relatively simple by later STI standards. The WRX provided the starting point, after which STI added power, revised the chassis and strengthened the components most likely to suffer during hard use. The same process would be repeated throughout the car’s life.
Three championships in three years
The Impreza’s defining period in rallying came almost immediately. Subaru won the WRC manufacturers’ championship in 1995, 1996 and 1997, becoming the first Japanese manufacturer to take the title three years in succession.
Colin McRae won the drivers’ championship in 1995 after a fractious season with teammate Carlos Sainz. Richard Burns secured Subaru’s next drivers’ title in 2001, followed by Petter Solberg in 2003.
Subaru’s success in the WRC changed the standing of the road car. Blue paint and gold wheels became familiar well beyond the usual rally audience, while the bonnet scoop and rear wing made even the showroom version easy to identify.
It also arrived at much the same time as its closest rival. Mitsubishi released the first Lancer Evolution in 1992, beginning a contest that would follow the two manufacturers for the next two decades.
The similarities were obvious. The STI and Evolution were both Japanese four-door cars with turbocharged four-cylinder engines, manual gearboxes and all-wheel drive. Both had their roots in rallying, and neither made much effort to disguise the fact.
They did not go about the job in quite the same way. Subaru used a flat-four engine and its Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive layout. Mitsubishi chose an inline-four and gradually introduced systems such as Active Yaw Control as the Evolution became more technically advanced.
Their WRC records gave supporters on both sides plenty of ammunition. McRae won the 1995 drivers’ title for Subaru, only for Mitsubishi’s Tommi Mäkinen to claim the championship in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. Mitsubishi also won the manufacturers’ championship in 1998, the year after Subaru completed its run of three.
Away from the rally stages, Subaru continued developing the first-generation STI through a succession of updated versions. Power increased, the suspension was revised and changes were made to the gearbox and all-wheel-drive system, sometimes from one year to the next.
The best-known result was the 22B STI. Introduced in 1998, the two-door model marked Subaru’s 40th anniversary and its three consecutive WRC manufacturers’ titles.
Its swollen wheelarches covered a wider track, while power came from a 2.2l turbocharged engine. Bilstein dampers and a twin-plate ceramic-metal clutch were also fitted. Subaru initially produced 400 examples for Japan, followed by a small number for export markets.
The 22B has since become the most valuable member of the Impreza family. Surviving cars seldom appear for sale and, when they do, command prices far removed from those of an ordinary WRX STI.
It was not the only rare STI produced during this period. The S-series, Spec C and Type RA models allowed STI to experiment with more power, reduced weight and different chassis settings. Some were built in numbers small enough to make the regular STI appear commonplace.
The STI changes shape
The second-generation Impreza WRX STI arrived in 2000. It remained in production for seven years and appeared with three different front-end designs, subsequently nicknamed the bugeye, blobeye and hawkeye.
This generation introduced the six-speed manual gearbox that would remain with the STI until the end. Brembo brakes became another familiar feature, while later versions received the Driver Controlled Centre Differential. The system allowed the driver to alter the operation of the centre differential, though an automatic mode could also manage the torque distribution without intervention.
Japanese versions continued with a 2.0l engine. Several export markets, including South Africa, eventually received a larger 2.5l unit.
A much bigger change arrived in 2007, when Subaru unveiled the third-generation STI as a five-door hatchback. The decision divided opinion. Though hatchbacks were common in the WRC by then, many buyers still believed an STI should be a four-door sedan with a large wing on its boot.
Subaru widened the bodywork, fitted four exhaust outlets and retained the bonnet scoop, so the hatchback was not difficult to distinguish from an ordinary Impreza. It also gained double-wishbone rear suspension and more advanced versions of the Driver Controlled Centre Differential and Vehicle Dynamics Control systems.
The sedan returned in 2010. So did the tall rear wing, restoring the profile most closely associated with the STI. During the same period, Subaru began competing with the car at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, where the STI recorded six class victories between 2011 and 2019.
The fourth-generation WRX STI was introduced in 2014. It was the first version sold without the Impreza name, though its mechanical layout remained familiar.
Export models retained the 2.5l turbocharged EJ25 engine and six-speed manual gearbox. The body was stiffer than before, the steering was quicker and the DCCD system had been revised. Active Torque Vectoring was also added, and braking was again handled by Brembo.
By this stage, however, the EJ25 was beginning to show its age. Its fuel consumption was difficult to ignore, and the engine lacked the efficiency and broader spread of performance offered by several newer rivals. Subaru continued to update the car, but it never received the newer FA-series engine fitted to the standard WRX in some markets.
Production ended in 2021. Subaru later confirmed that a new STI based on the current WRX would not be developed with the existing internal-combustion platform.
The PlayStation years
Rallying introduced the Impreza to one audience, but video games introduced it to another. The WRX and WRX STI were regulars in the early Gran Turismo games, which included an unusually broad selection of Japanese-market models. Players could choose between different generations and specifications of the Impreza, often before those versions had been covered in any detail by motoring publications outside Japan.
The Lancer Evolution was given much the same treatment. As a result, the Subaru-Mitsubishi argument became part of the experience of playing Gran Turismo. Even players who had never seen either car on the road knew the names STI, Evolution, Type RA and Tommi Mäkinen Edition.
The games arrived at a time when Japanese performance cars were becoming internationally fashionable, but many of the more specialised models were still unavailable outside their home market. Gran Turismo filled in some of those gaps. It told players what the cars weighed, how much power they produced and, within the limits of the game, how differently they behaved.
By the early 2000s, the STI and Evo were no longer known only to rally fans. They had become two of the defining cars of the PlayStation generation.
The argument soon extended beyond the games. Motoring magazines seldom tested one without bringing up the other, and each new version was judged partly on whether it had moved ahead of its rival.
The Mitsubishi was generally considered the more clinical of the pair, particularly once its electronically controlled differentials became more advanced. The Subaru had the lower centre of gravity of its boxer engine and a distinctive exhaust note, but was not always as sharp or as technically adventurous.
The WRX STI in South Africa
South Africa’s relationship with the fast Impreza began with the Impreza GT in the 1990s. By the time the WRX and WRX STI names became established locally, Subaru’s WRC success had already made the car familiar to enthusiasts.
The STI also made sense in local conditions. Its turbocharged engine lost less performance at altitude than a naturally aspirated engine, an advantage that was particularly noticeable in Gauteng. All-wheel drive made the power easier to use, while the four-door body meant the car could still serve as daily transport.
Then there was the noise. The unequal-length exhaust headers used on South African cars produced the offbeat boxer thrum that became almost inseparable from the STI. Modified exhaust systems usually made it considerably less discreet.
Rally coverage, motoring magazines and video games had already done much of the groundwork. When used examples began to become more affordable, the STI found an enthusiastic local following. Many were modified in pursuit of more power, and genuinely standard cars became progressively harder to find.
Subaru Southern Africa also commissioned the STImulating Edition in 2004. Only 15 were produced, each fitted with a Prodrive exhaust and revised engine software, resulting in a power bump from 195kW to 225kW. Prodrive lowering springs and uprated dampers were fitted, and each car received its own wheel-alignment set-up. Naturally, the revisions were covered by Subaru’s standard warranty.
Visually, there was little to separate it from a regular STI beyond the STImulating badges. Its significance lay under the skin: it was a locally developed, factory-backed STI produced in extremely small numbers.
What comes next?
Production of the WRX STI ended in 2021. Not long after that, the Japanese marque announced that a new STI based on the current WRX would not be developed using the existing internal-combustion platform.
The STI name has not disappeared, however. At the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, Subaru revealed two concepts wearing the hallowed badge. The Performance-B STI concept was the more conventional of the pair, featuring an internal-combustion engine, a horizontally-opposed engine layout and Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, though the brand stopped short of confirming it for production.
Alongside it was the Performance-E STI concept, an electric performance car intended to explore another possible direction for STI-badged performance vehicles. For now, neither amounts to a direct replacement for the WRX STI.
Mitsubishi ended production of the Lancer Evolution in 2016, while the STI followed five years later. The two cars that spent much of the 1990s and 2000s being compared with one another are now both absent from the market.
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