They say you should never meet your heroes, as you'll only be left disappointed. In 1997 at the age of 11, my dad took my brother and I to our first rally. Unbeknown to us, we were about to meet Colin McRae and Nicky Grist. Despite only getting a brief hello and an autograph, as a child it was more than enough to decide I wanted to grow up to be a rally driver.
My dad's company car scheme at the time was with Subaru, and I vividly remember the day he said his trusty Justy was being upgraded to an Impreza Sport. It wasn't a Turbo, but it was blue with gold wheels, and at that moment in time it was the best thing in the world.
Roll forward a few years to 2003, and I'd just passed my driving test when Petter Solberg beat Sebastien Loeb to win the World Rally Championship by one point in his Subaru Impreza. Every subsequent year between then and now (bar one) I've been to Wales Rally GB. If I wasn't obsessed with Subaru enough before then, I certainly was by this point; a Blobeye Impreza WRX STI in blue with gold wheels was firmly in my fantasy garage.
Then in 2015, with my feet firmly under the desk at PH, we teamed up with Wales Rally GB to organise a Sunday Service at the Welsh round of the WRC, and we were joined by the same Nicky Grist that had scribbled on a card for me 18 years previously. Those that were there with us will attest to Grist's friendliness and how much time he had for everyone. If that wasn't enough, the following week I met the Norwegian legend that is Petter Solberg. Meeting a massive hero for the first time in a professional capacity is probably for the best, otherwise I might have been a bit of a fawning fanboy mess.
I've met Solberg a couple more times since then and I have to say, he really does live up to expectations. Passionate, buzzing with enthusiasm, in love what he does and always with a big smile on his face. You might be wondering why I'm still going on about people and events rather than cars, but it serves to emphasise just how big a part of my life Subaru has been. Therefore it's amazing really that it has taken me this long, but I've finally bought my biggest hero of all: an Impreza WRX STI.
I first clapped my eyes on this exact car all the way back in 2014 at our Mercedes-Benz World Sunday Service, when I met the owner Tim Hicks, otherwise known on here as tahicks2003. As regular Sunday Service goers we'd often chat about the car, and conversations slowly got more serious about me buying it. It took me a further two years to wear him down, but it was such a great experience to deal with a really genuine guy that I had met through PH. This is what our community is all about.
So, 500 words in, I better say something about the car. It's a 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type UK with the Prodrive Performance Pack (PPP). And if you haven't already noticed, it's World Rally Blue and it has gold wheels. But where to start? Just looking at it makes me smile. Honestly. There's no other car that can bring back so many fond childhood memories, some which may involve standing in a cold, wet forest all day in Wales in November. For me it's years of wearing bright blue bobble hats sporting the 555 logo, bedroom wall posters and desktop backgrounds. And I can't be the only one that used to drive along in my first (and maybe second) car making exhaust and dump valve noises...
But I've known what it's like to look at for the last 15 years; it's what it's like to drive that will make or break my near life long obsession. And boy, does it deliver. Most modern turbocharged cars are so linear that you don't feel any boost which, to me, defeats the purpose of a turbo. I want lag, I want to hear the turbo spooling, and then I want a kick in the back and a roar from the exhaust - the Impreza gives me all of it. Very, very quickly, I hasten to add.
The Prodrive Performance Pack, or PPP, added a high-pressure fuel pump, sports catalyst, exhaust and an ECU map, boosting power from 265hp to 305hp and cutting the 0-60 time from 5.2 to 4.6 seconds. The 'Blobeye' is by far the best looking Impreza, in my opinion of course, and was the last one to have the 2.0-litre flat four boxer engine before the 'Hawkeye' got a new 2.5-litre engine in 2006, mostly made of chocolate. With limited slip differentials at the front and rear and such a mechanical driving feel, there's no doubt in my mind that the car is doing absolutely everything it can to put all of the power down on the road.
To find such a clean, unmolested example with just 47k miles on the clock is really hard to come by now, so I just had to have it. My plans for now are to clean it, cherish it and start buying a few bits off my long shopping list at Scoobyworld to restore it to its former glory. There'll be nothing OTT, however, and nor will I be getting an 'If in doubt, flat out' tattoo across my chest. I'm thoroughly excited about the months and adventures to come ahead, which I shall of course share on here. And if anyone is missing my Renaultsport updates with the sale of my Megane, then there's an update on that situation here too...
FACT SHEET
Car: 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type UK
Run by: Ben Lowden
Bought: July 2018
Mileage: 47,828
Last month at a glance: Ben's secured a Scooby, and what a corker it is!
1 / 10
