Before blue paint, gold wheels, and the intoxicating rumble of an unequal-length manifold became the holy trinity of rally culture, Subaru was just a eccentric aircraft-constructor-turned-automaker building quirky, front-wheel-drive economy cars. The story of the Impreza isn't just about one car, it is a decades-long engineering crusade that started with a humble 1.0-liter flat-four and culminated in a global WRC empire. The Precursors & Ancestry "Long before Colin McRae was throwing blue-and-gold sedans sideways through Welsh forests, Subaru was proving that horizontally opposed engines were more than just a novelty act." Prototype Subaru A-5 (1962–1963) The seed was planted in 1962 with the experimental Subaru A-5 . At a time when the Japanese automotive industry was relying on front-engine, rear-wheel-drive setups, Subaru’s engineers took a radical detour: a front-engine, front-wheel-drive (FF) layout powered by an air-cooled boxer-four. Though financial realities ...
Dorifutography
An encyclopedia of sorts, from a mind of endless information. An automotive journalist and photographer Est. 2015.