Subaru built its generally enviable reputation not only on robust and capable automobile for the farmer in all of us, but some serious high-performance compact cars. Throughout the 90s, the Impreza WRX STI tore into the World Rallye Championship (WRC) and demonstrated the car company’s depth of skills.
We North Americans finally earned the right to the WRX for the 2002 model year and all was wonderful. By 2008, things got ugly, like, physically ugly but the 2015 model year turned out to be the ugliest of them all.
Yes, by then, Subaru’d decided to drop the WRX and STI hatchbacks for reasons of structural integrity, or at least, this is what I was once told by a Subaru representative. From that very moment, enthusiasts have been clamoring for the return of the hot hatch and it looks like it might happen.
We were present for a number of Subaru’s Viziv concept reveals and the latest, the Tourer Concept, could serve as the inspiration for a near future performance hatchback. Details are all but completely non-existent at the moment as rumor has it that a turbocharged 1.8-litre 4-cylinder boxer engine and AWD will be the selected powertrain.
The biggest piece of info is that the car is not only slated to compete in the 2020 season of the WRC but might be smaller than the current Impreza, so more like Ford Fiesta and Toyota Yaris in size.
We’re up for a Justy WRX STI!! Seriously Subaru, make it happen!
