RE: 'No frills' Prodrive P25 already sold out

RE: 'No frills' Prodrive P25 already sold out

Saturday 25th June 2022

'No frills' Prodrive P25 already sold out

Thought the half-million pound restomod Impreza was priced too high? Well, not so much...


Just ahead of its public unveiling at the Festival of Speed on Thursday, Prodrive confirmed that all 25 examples of its stunning P25 restomod are already spoken for. The firm admitted to PH at Goodwood it had pre-sold five cars to customers it had an existing relationship with, but following the announcement on Monday - alongside studio pictures of what the model actually looks like - the rest were gone in just two days. “We haven’t known anything like it,” remarked Richard Thompson, Prodrive’s Chief Engineer. 

The appeal is obvious enough. Having seen the P25 in the metal, PH can report that it lives up to its remarkable billing. Naturally it has been compared with the 22B, the car that ranks as its spiritual predecessor - but for Prodrive, the team responsible for running the Subaru works rally team back in its nineties’ heyday, the opportunity to build a modern day version taps into something much deeper. Not least the experience accrued in some of the toughest competitive environments in motorsport. 

“The Prodrive DNA is in the car, so that’s 30 years of development - be it Subaru WRC or Mini WRC or Golf or whatever - there’s a big background to it,” remarked Thompson, when asked about how long the P25 project had been in gestation. “But really seriously you would say the last 18 months we’ve just been getting a feel for it, and then [it's been] very intense for the last 9 months, with dyno development and designing the gearbox and suspension and all the kinematics. That’s been a tough period.”

The car on show at Goodwood - bodyshell zero - looks in fantastic condition given the scramble to be ready for the event, although Thompson confirms that there is much Millbrook-based calibration work still to do (the tuning of the fly-be-wire throttle and fly-by-wire clutch began just this week) as they aim for a sign-off toward the end of summer, ahead of assembly in Q4. Nevertheless, because the P25 is based on the chassis of the two-door Subaru Impreza, the build-up even to this point has required extensive additional effort. 

“It is a true restomod. We take an existing Subaru WRX STI - we’ve been in the background over the last year looking for very, very good examples - and then we strip them, we media blast the bodyshells, get them back to bare metal, then start the long journey of the process.” When that process includes ensuring that you’ve got ‘zero corrosion’ on a twenty-year-old frame, and then need to go to the trouble of stiffening it before you start bonding and bolting on composite body parts, you can see why Thompson expects each example to take 1,000 man-hours to build. 

But it’s clear that something very special is being cooked up in Banbury. When asked if the P25 was intended as a ‘rally car for the road’ from the start, the chief engineer was unequivocal. “In terms of an engaging drive, that’s what we set out to achieve. So the adjustability in your throttle maps, in your centre diff setting, in your anti-lag settings - all of that DNA came from the world rally car, and that’s in the car,” he confirmed. “But it’s fair to say there are no frills: no traction control, no ABS - but you do have a floor-mounted pedal box, and you’ve got a brake pedal that moves a millimetre, and you’ve got WRC-inspired brakes, and you have a hydraulic hand brake. But it’s no frills. Because once you start on the road of all those aids, then you end up with a 1,500kg Audi RS4 or BMW M5, so you’ve just got to be true to your original remit.”

That remit has certainly included going to places the 22B could never have hoped to reach. Thompson noted that while the original special edition was based on the contemporaneous rally car, it was never truly optimised for its wider body. The P25 is. “All the kinematics, the track width, the wheelbase, the centre of gravity, weight distribution - all of those elements have been optimised. When you look at the car, the wheels are out at the edge of the wheel arches; it’s a true 1770mm wide car.”

It is also one made as light as possible. “The road car’s 1,200kg, the track day car is going to be under that value, and then the 400+ horsepower means the power-to-weight ratio is going to be really good. But then it’s all about your instantaneous roll centre position, your static roll centre position, your bump steer, your camber variation - all the things we’ve learned over a long period of time, you try to put into P25 and execute them sensibly and reliably.” 

Achieving the sort of reliability that a modern-day owner expects also extends to what’s under the bonnet. Prodrive has gone to considerable lengths to produce a flat-four worthy of the car. “It’s a brand-new engine based on the EJ25. It’s a hybrid block so we’ve worked hard on block stiffness to create an engine that will reliably support 400+ horsepower for a good period of time. Everything’s been reviewed: pistons, connecting rod, camshaft, cam profiles, crankshaft, Garrett turbocharger - we’ve got a manufacturer relationship with Honeywell, and that means that we can pick and choose the right turbo for response and maximum power.” 

For now the new motor is intended to work in conjunction with a six-speed sequential ‘box exclusively, although Thompson concedes that there have already been enquiries about the possibility of a conventional manual transmission. Understandably, the engineer is very much in the corner of the fly-by-wire option - for functional reasons, certainly, but also because it’s fundamental to a more authentic experience of what the Impreza would be like if it were built from scratch today. 

Whether Prodrive chooses to bend to its customers’ will or not, it is clear that the lucky few will be well catered for in terms of options. For one thing, as Thompson alluded to, the firm will be more than happy to build you a more track-focused version of the P25 - made helpfully lighter by the deletion of the rear seats. It’ll go much deeper than that, too: “springs and anti-roll bars, different roll stiffness distribution, different roll gradients, wheel and tyre packages,” are all up for discussion if you’re truly intent on making the car your own. 

As you might expect, some buyers expect to be involved from the start, and will happily pore over every detail. They’ve certainly earned the right after agreeing to part with £460,000 plus VAT for the privilege. Hopefully their involvement will ensure that at least some of the cars are not immediately retired to a pressurised bubble, never to be seen again. Obviously there is no way for Prodrive to guard against that outcome - but for itself if no one else, the firm is evidently building a restomod begging to be driven with some properly old-fashioned Impreza-style gusto. Little wonder they're all gone. 


Author
Discussion

hu8742

Original Poster:

232 posts

124 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Seriously, half a million quid?? I get that Subaru & Prodrive have a decent following and there's a lot of history/nostalgia there, but what intrinsically makes it that expensive? Is the engine block made of solid gold?

There's clearly 25+ people who know more than I do. Personally I'd rather have that Singer from a previous article. I can see why that's probably 500k.

F1GTRUeno

6,335 posts

217 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
It irks me quite a bit when I look at the interior vents/interior as a whole and it appears to be pre-facelift. The inside doesn't fit the outside sort of thing.

I can't remember if they actually are or whether the Impreza changed at all interior wise when it was facelifted but the WRC GC cars all had two vertical squared off things for vents and that's ingrained in my psyche as much as blue and gold is when I think of Impreza and a car with that body looks so wrong without those vents.


GreatScott2016

1,128 posts

87 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
I made a serious enquiry to Prodrive after they first announced the P25 but not had any response back. Anyone got any insight into how the allocation process worked?

Billy_Whizzzz

1,989 posts

142 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Am I missing something with the interior that looks like an upmarket Vauxhall Cavalier… could or should it have been more special?

Vickers_VC10

6,759 posts

204 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
I don't get the really early spec heater knobs. They could have at least used the MY00/01 shape ones. It seems a weird decision.

rigga

8,727 posts

200 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Hydraulic handbrakes pass mot now ?

McRors

264 posts

55 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Billy_Whizzzz said:
Am I missing something with the interior that looks like an upmarket Vauxhall Cavalier… could or should it have been more special?
My thoughts exactly. However. I seem to remember, a previous article mentioned full width LED screens so perhaps this isn't final.

Here we go: We haven’t seen inside yet, although the dashboard is said to feature a full-width high-definition multi-page display including a data logger,

Edited by McRors on Saturday 25th June 07:29

Harrypop

2,611 posts

121 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
McRors said:
Billy_Whizzzz said:
Am I missing something with the interior that looks like an upmarket Vauxhall Cavalier… could or should it have been more special?
My thoughts exactly. However. I seem to remember, a previous article mentioned full width LED screens so perhaps this isn't final.

Here we go: We haven’t seen inside yet, although the dashboard is said to feature a full-width high-definition multi-page display including a data logger,
Personally I'd be more than happy with a simple, but functional, interior - so long as the quality of materials and fit/finish were of a suitable standard. This looks to be the perfect antithesis to the modern trend of overstyled dashes to me, there is a bit of an over-use of alcantara in the cabin for my liking though but I am sure that, with each car being bespoke to it's customer, this could be ammended to suit. There may also be an intentional difference between what is offered in the road spec car and the race version, possibly more to come?

trickywoo

11,701 posts

229 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Prodrive tax pure and simple.

I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but Jamie of Officially Gassed has built a pretty amazing 4wd integra which I’d put money on being more fun to drive than the £500k imprezza. Quite likely faster too and for a fraction of the cost.

Pretty much none of these Prodrive cars will be driven as they are intended.

I’m amazed they are sold out.

We have our very own PHer building a very sorted 4wd 205 which I bet will be a nicer drive too.

Edited by trickywoo on Saturday 25th June 07:58

Draxindustries1

1,657 posts

22 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
There's making a decent profit then there's taking the p1ss.
There's no way more than £100k went into any completed car. Its a ridiculous asking price.

Insert Coin

1,965 posts

42 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
I’ve got a mate who has built a better car than this in their shed for £50.

What about those shutlines?

More money than sense.

That interior is gash.

Parts bin special.

We just need ‘Big’ Rob and Car Crazy Dad in here to complete this P25 bingo thread.

Twinair

642 posts

141 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
I don’t have that kind of money! But if you read the article and think about what they are doing and have still to do, imo, it’s a bargain. I get the Singer comments too - I think they are also very high want. Retro stuff - ready for the 2020’s and beyond, when all we (mostly) seem to see is white goods, legislation driven transport solutions - with iPads on the dash? Yeah, half a mill, it’s proper money, but what price would be needed for bespoke, ‘real’ pistonhead fodder? In a short time - these will swop hands for 750, then approaching a mill. Great stuff prodrive.

Harrypop

2,611 posts

121 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
trickywoo said:
Prodrive tax pure and simple.

I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but Jamie of Officially Gassed has built a pretty amazing 4wd integra which I’d put money on being more fun to drive than the £500k imprezza. Quite likely faster too and for a fraction of the cost.

Pretty much none of these Prodrive cars will be driven as they are intended.

I’m amazed they are sold out.

We have our very own PHer building a very sorted 4wd 205 which I bet will be a nicer drive too.
Well; if you're willing to put money on something then I for one am happy to take it as being factual.

Mysstree

443 posts

45 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
To much fake suede on the interior for my taste.

Harrypop

2,611 posts

121 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Mysstree said:
To much fake suede on the interior for my taste.
It can definitely be overdone;



I love a bit of alcantara/suede when it's used to compliment the other cabin materials, not so much when it is the dominating factor.

mcelliott

8,626 posts

180 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
The fact they didn't throw in a free can of Lynx and a baseball cap was the deal breaker for me.

FA57REN

1,012 posts

54 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
It's not a matter of being "too expensive", it's that a half-million-quid Impreza is the total antithesis of the original. Which was raw performance and AWD handling attainable by the common man, even if he had to save and scrimp a little to afford it.

cerb4.5lee

30,182 posts

179 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
This will have a similar power to weight ratio as my TVR Cerbera 4.5 then. It will arguably feel quicker with it being a turbo though. It is a lovely looking thing to my eyes, big money though.

Saudade

181 posts

69 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
Twinair said:
I don’t have that kind of money! But if you read the article and think about what they are doing and have still to do, imo, it’s a bargain. I get the Singer comments too - I think they are also very high want. Retro stuff - ready for the 2020’s and beyond, when all we (mostly) seem to see is white goods, legislation driven transport solutions - with iPads on the dash? Yeah, half a mill, it’s proper money, but what price would be needed for bespoke, ‘real’ pistonhead fodder? In a short time - these will swop hands for 750, then approaching a mill. Great stuff prodrive.
I'd argue MST escorts are real pistonheads fodder and you could get 5 of them for the price of these.

Even a BBR'd mx5... Or anything else you can think of really for that price range and under.

I can't imagine anyone buying one of these and actually using it.

Fair play to prodrive, not for the engineering as such, but somehow selling all of these.


EyeHeartSpellin

664 posts

82 months

Saturday 25th June 2022
quotequote all
I love it but I’m always fascinated by just how much money you need to have to buy a car like this. If you had £2 million in the bank you would be richer than 99% of Earths population but this would still be over 25% of your wealth to own. At what insane level does a pure toy like this become actually realistic to buy?!