1998 SUBARU IMPREZA GL

Highlights

Raced by the late, great World Rally Champion Colin McRae in the 1998 Safari Rally

A Works 555 Subaru World Rally Team entrant in the 1998 World Rally Championship

The recipient of an exhaustive two-year comprehensive restoration by Autosportif Engineering, returning ‘R7 WRC’ to its exacting Safari Rally specification and livery

First registered to Prodrive with the famous registration ‘R7 WRC’

One of only two Subaru Imprezas driven by Colin McRae on the Safari Rally, the ‘world’s toughest rally’

Driven by Colin McRae’s nephew Max McRae at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Retaining its original UK Prodrive registration

The Subaru Impreza WRC97

The legacy Colin McRae and his gung-ho, no-holds-barred, seat-of-the-pants driving style forged cannot be downplayed. Virtually single-handedly, he made rallying a household sport in the 1990s, inspiring a generation. And he did so thrashing a blue and yellow Subaru Impreza.

While Subaru’s exquisite rollcall of drivers over the years – including Tommy Mäkinen, Juha Kankkunen, Petter Solberg and Richard Burns, to name but a few – led the marque to three Drivers’ and three Constructors’ World Championships, it’s the McRae period from 1997, when the new era of ‘World’ cars were introduced, which remains closest to our hearts.

When the World Rally Championship regulations drastically changed ahead of the 1997 season, putting an end to the Group A era, Subaru and its trusted technical partner Prodrive were well prepared. The two-door WRC97, which was styled by the renowned automotive designer Peter Stevens and built using the latest GC8 bodyshell, proved to be a tour de force. It clinched eight victories from 14 events to easily dominate the 1997 World Rally Championship and win the Constructors’ title by a staggering 24 points.

Today, these early ‘World’ Imprezas are brilliant and surprisingly accessible cars to own and use, not to mention significant pieces of history from a time when you didn’t need a laptop and a squadron of electricians and data scientists to start and run them. We’ve famously championed the ex-McRae Imprezas, of which this car is among the most famous…

‘R7 WRC’

The sole Works outing for ‘R7 WRC’ came at the 1998 Safari Rally in Kenya, billed by its organisers as ‘The World’s Toughest Rally’

For the 1998 World Rally Championship, Prodrive made a number of modifications to the Impreza WRC97 using the knowledge gleaned from its 1997 campaign. The lion’s share of the engineers’ attention was the powertrain. The manifolds were reshaped to enhance the packaging of the engine bay, a new turbocharger was fitted boosting power and the anti-lag system – internally amusingly known as ‘push to crash’ – was refined to improve throttle response.

‘R7 WRC’ was among the first batch of Subaru Impreza WRC98s built and registered on 1 January 1998. After a Prodrive shakedown test at the MIRA proving ground in Lancashire, the car was flown to Kenya for its first World Rally Championship event: the 1998 Safari Rally. It was earmarked for the 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae and his co-driver Nicky Grist. And it’s fair to say expectations were high: in 1997, McRae and Grist had vanquished the opposition to win by a staggering seven minutes.

Oriented around the city of Nairobi, the Safari Rally really was the ultimate test for man and machine, the cars and their drivers having to endure treacherous terrain and sweltering cockpit temperatures on what was then the longest event on the calendar. To make matters worse, new rules for 1997 meant teams were no longer permitted to use service helicopters. That meant if a car needed to be repaired, it had to be done either by the pilots at the side of the road or at the designated service parks.

As a result, ‘R7 WRC’ was built to ‘safari’ specification, which differed to ‘tarmac’ or ‘gravel’ Imprezas in a number of crucial ways. Visually, the car sits much higher to allow for greater ground clearance over the rocky terrain and for the damper top mounts to be mounted on the underside of the body shell, rather than inside. For wading through deep water, a carbon-fibre snorkel was fitted, raising the air intake to the roof. And to avoid large wildlife causing damage to the car, heavy-duty bull bars were fitted directly to the chassis, mounted both behind and ahead of the front bumper. In the boot, there was an extra spare wheel and an enlarged 120-litre capacity. The drivers themselves received no such special measures. A film of heat-shielding reflective window tint and additional spotlights on the wing mirrors were deemed sufficient for McRae and Grist.

The main talking point ahead of the 1998 Safari Rally was the intense rainfall in the weeks prior, which had flooded the rivers and washed the stages clear of sand, leaving behind an un-cushioned bed of punishing rocks. It had also turned the stunning African landscape a deep shade of luscious green. Day one’s six special stages stretched a staggering 364 kilometres from Nairobi south into the bush – further than most rallies cover in three days.

After a strong start, McRae and Grist encountered an unforeseen issue on the second special stage of the rally when the chunky tread on their rear Pirelli tyres tore away under the intense high-speed load, resulting in a double puncture. Four minutes were lost to the leader Tommi Mäkinen in the process of changing the rears, though a dogged McRae was undeterred. “If you drop four minutes in a European event you’re out and that’s it,” he said safely back in the service park, “but here in Kenya it’s not such a problem.” A slight change to the camber of his Subaru was made to relieve the load on the rear wheels, after which the comeback was on. Four special stages remained on day one of the rally and, amazingly, McRae won all of them with what looked to be relative ease. ‘R7 WRC’ was back in the fight.

McRae and Grist picked things up on day two just as they’d left off on day one: in decisive fashion. The day’s special stages traversed the spectacular ridge of the Great Rift Valley, with competitors crossing the equator several times in the process. Alas, Lady Luck unleashed her cruel wrath towards the end of the leg, when the Subaru’s engine began to falter – the result of oil so hot it was boiling. Despite the best efforts of Prodrive’s engineers back at service, McRae and Grists’ race was run.

The 1995 World Rally Champion drove only two Subaru Impreza WRC cars on the world’s toughest rally: ‘P8 WRC’ in 1997 and ‘R7 WRC’ in 1998. Here at Girardo & Co., we have been honoured to encounter and rehome both of these incredibly special rally cars.

Post-Works career

Its factory duties complete, ‘R7 WRC’ was returned to Prodrive and, like most of its competition counterparts, sold and subsequently used as a privateer entry in domestic and international rallies across Europe. It’s important to note that this Impreza was photographed partially disassembled at Prodrive around the time it was sold and the Safari-specific points on the bodyshell are visible.

In 2017, ‘R7 WRC’ was acquired by an English collector who immediately commissioned the Oxfordshire-based competition Subaru specialist Autosportif Engineering to comprehensively restore this Impreza to its factory specification, both mechanically and cosmetically. Undertaken over the course of two years, the project was exhaustive and put the onus on reinstating the specific details that make Safari-prepared Imprezas unique. As a result, Autosportif was able to source a plethora of original Prodrive-built Safari components. These included (but were by no means limited to) the carbon-fibre A-pillar-mounted snorkel, the bull bars, the enlarged 12-litre fuel tank, the wing-mirror spotlights and even the Coralba rally computers used by Nicky Grist.

Steve Goddard’s SGM Race Paint was charged with applying this Subaru’s signature shade of blue – fitting, as it painted (and continues to paint) almost all of Prodrive’s competition cars. And the instantly recognisable 555 Subaru World Rally Team livery was reapplied in perfect period-correct detail, down to the 1998 Safari Rally-specific decals. Upon the completion of its restoration, ‘R7 WRC’ was exhibited by its owner at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it proved a real fan favourite.

Less than a year later, we were able to find ‘R7 WRC’ a fantastic new home with a UK-based collector new to the world of rally cars. He enjoyed the car on several occasions, driving it – as intended – on the world-famous Forest Rally Stage at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and even at Walter’s Arena, the stages of which were actually encompassed in the Rally of Great Britain back in the late-1990s. BGMsport maintained the Subaru throughout his ownership, ensuring it remained in the finest possible fettle.

Two years later, in November of 2022, we were privileged to sell ‘R7 WRC’ for the second time, on this occasion to an Italian collector based in Emilia-Romagna. In addition to entering the Impreza in the fiercely popular RallyLegend in San Marino, he also accepted Goodwood’s invitation to have the car at the Festival of Speed in 2025, where it formed part of the class celebrating 30 years since Colin McRae’s 1995 World Rally Championship title. Over the course of the weekend, the car contested the world-famous hill-climb in the hands of two very special guest drivers: Colin’s nephew Max McRae and Bugatti-Rimac’s chief test-driver Miro Zrncevic Mrgud. The latter had a lifelong dream to drive one of Colin’s Imprezas and his overwhelming emotion having realised it was incredible special to see.

Following its Goodwood appearance, the Subaru returned to us here at Belchers Farm to be offered for sale once again. In the time since, we’ve commissioned a cosmetic refresh, which included repainting sections of the bodywork that had been stone-chipped, reapplying the legendary 555 Subaru World Rally Team livery and fitting new tyres. The car has also been professionally detailed.

Today, this fabulous Subaru stands as an incredibly significant piece of rallying – and, in turn, Colin McRae – history. And having experienced this Impreza now on the three occasions we’ve been privileged to offer it, we must also point out what an exhilarating and remarkably accessible beast it is to own and drive. ‘R7 WRC’ flatters its driver with the way it’s set up. It’s always welcomed enthusiastically, whether a high-profile event or simply out on the public roads. There’s also an indescribably special feeling knowing Colin McRae sat and gripped the same wheel.

Without doubt, this very car had a hand in inspiring an entire generation of car lovers.

Price Upon Application