Prodrive Golf rally car

WRC cars too weedy for you? Get yourself to China with one of Prodrive's 300hp+ Golf rally cars

The Impreza WRX for our conservative modern era, the Golf R seems to have nailed all the things we used to love about our Scoobies and toned them down for acceptability in polite society. Less Maccy D's car park, rather more Waitrose. The basic formula of whooshy turbo power, all weather four-wheel drive B-road 'progress' and signature metallic blue paint are all carried over. Just more tastefully done.

Golf just white goods? Look again...

Final nail in the coffin comes with news that Subaru's long-time rallying and road car performance partner Prodrive is now going rallying with a bloody Golf. Tsk. They'll be putting gold wheels and a bonnet scoop on it next.

Like a WRC car but more so and built specifically to compete in the Chinese Rally Championships, the Prodrive Golf will make its debut this weekend at the Longyou Rally (really) with Chris Atkinson at the wheel. Yes, even the driver is an ex-Subaru man, perhaps a neat analogy for your typical Golf R customer.

Although built to the same basic standards, the Golf SCRC uses a 2.0-litre engine rather than the 1.6s of WRC cars. With a 35mm restrictor rather than the 33mm WRC cars run Prodrive is claiming over 300hp, the transmission being the default WRC spec Xtrac six-speed sequential. By using the same MacPherson strut suspension front and back uprights and anti-roll bars are all interchangeable, reducing the number of spares the team needs to carry, Ohlins dampers and WRC spec AP brakes completing the top notch parts spec.

Rear wing best described as 'adequate'

Interestingly the Golf was designed to a template Prodrive describes as "a generic rally car model ... developed prior to creating its Mini John Cooper Works WRC." This apprently sped up development considerably. "We inputted data such as the dimensions, centre of gravity and minimum weight, as well as the positions of key items like the engine and gearbox to create the Golf," says Prodrive Motorsport MD John Gaw. "We then looked at every component and element of the car and identified where we could improve it. Around 80 per cent of the car is all new and the remaining components are either common components you would find on all current WRCs or those where we genuinely believe we already have the best part possible."

Although the 2.0-litre engine rules the Golf out of WRC (the Polo seems to be doing an adequate job as it is...) Prodrive has designed the car with other series in mind, including the World Rallycross Championship and 'open' class rallies in Europe Asia and North America.

Will, as it did with the Impreza, inspire a generation of Golf owners to ape the rally car's hoped success by making their road cars into bodykitted and liveried homages? We'll see about that one.