SUBARU IMPREZA RB5 & MITSUBISHI EVO VI
Enemies both on the stages and off, Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo VI and Subaru’s Impreza RB5 were high points in the history of rally-bred homologation specials
by ADAM TOWLER PHOTOGRAPHY by DEAN SMITH
I’M PAYING FOR MY FUEL IN ONE OF THOSE enormous, newly built petrol stations; the type where the shop is bigger than some small supermarkets. As I tap to pay I glance out onto the forecourt and there, on an otherwise deserted row of pumps, is the RB5. I stop and stare, and then gawp some more, and not just because it’s a hero of a driver’s car that I just happen to be holding the key for.
Actually, the one thought that strikes me over all others is how compact and how amazingly inoffensive it looks. This is, you’ll recall, the ultimate everyman sports saloon, the folk hero turned boy-racer dream; the bad boys’ car, the ram-raider, the uninsurable, the menace to society. Yes, it may now be viewed largely as a covetable modern classic, but it’s still a car with a massive, overarching reputation. And yet… its 17-inch Speedlines don’t come close to filling the arches, I can see daylight underneath the car, such is its lofty ride height, and not even that wing can make it look intimidating by the standards of today. We’ve become accustomed to cars sporting gaping (and often fake) black mouths that plaster their frontages like giant decayed teeth in a grimace, tiny slivers of rubber surrounding enormous and intricately styled alloy wheels, and an air of general thuggery backed up by ludicrously high power numbers. By comparison, the dear old Scooby is amusingly effete, but simultaneously a surge of adrenaline flits around my stomach, and a snug embrace of nostalgia wraps invisibly around me.
It’s the RB5 that I drive first, because I collected it from its owner – none other than current GM advanced design director and ex-Jaguar man Julian Thomson. He’s owned it for quite some time, purchasing it for a sum that makes me shudder with jealousy given the state of the current market. It’s a nice, presentable example, but it’s no garage queen, having accumulated just over 100,000 miles. Crucially, it’ll give us the full-fat RB5 experience, because it features the WR Sport upgrade pack, which in period was also available for any UK-spec Impreza Turbo 2000.
Talking of which, just what was an RB5? For starters, it had little to do with Richard Burns, whose initials it carried. Or perhaps more accurately, Richard Burns had little to do with it. The Englishman had signed for Subaru at the beginning o
