Monday 7th March 2011

Things We Can't Unsee: No. 94, The Soft-Top WRX

New Hampshire Subaru dealer does bad things to a WRX STi saloon

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While Subaru was officially teasing us last week at Geneva with a coupe concept made of Perspex, this little beauty (perhaps not the right choice of word, there - Ed.) turned up at a Subaru dealer in New Hampshire.

Apparently, US dealer Manchester Subaru has this four-door convertible conversion of a 2011 model year STi saloon for sale at $75,000 (£46k).

On the face of it, that doesn't seem too horrendous, given that in the UK a WRX STi will cost you the best part of £33k anyway. But when you consider that in the US a standard STi saloon is only $38k (that's £23k, by the way), it does seem a little sharp. And it's not as though you'll even be able to hide your face when you've got the roof down.

Still, Manchester Subaru seems confident about its 'exclusive' special - confident enough that it plans to build (and sell, we presume) five of the convertible STis in total.

"The powertrain provides a rush to your ears and your gut, matching your own excitement as you explode from corner to corner", says Manchester Subaru on its website. "You're smiling the whole way. Progress is a wonderful thing."

Progress may be a wonderful thing, fellas, but we're not entirely sure that chopping the roof off an Impreza to create a 1980s Golf cabrio lookalike counts as progress...

[Lawrence5]

OMG.....

[Sonic]

OP says it all.

[Hendry]

The LOOKS provide a rush to my gut...

[ZOLLAR]

[BMWill]

Driving whilst basking in sunshine does sound appealing. Except for the fact that this car no longer has a boot (Assuming the folded hood is stored away in what was once the boot), which makes it a saloon with no boot!

That's their idea of progress is it?? Somehow, I'm not convinced... Especially when a brand new Cayman R or Boxster Spyder cost less than this (second hand) Subaru.


= )

[4Q]

"Just like a Golf"

Looks VERY home-made...

[DaveST]

Kind of reminds me when top gear got hold of the espace..

[Shaw Tarse]

Old news http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Ex Boy Racer]

I'm no expert on aerodynamics, but I bet that rear spoiler doesn't actually do anything when there's no roof...

[Evo]

Anyone noticed they didn't provide any pics of it with the roof up

Sure it's not a feature for Top Gear.

Home made Hot hatch convertibles.

[iain1970]

I'm getting the word...

ste.

[Hellbound]

Shaw Tarse said:

Old news http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Are we supposed to stop commenting here, click on the link and comment there? I iz confused.

Dare I say, most of PH's front page news can almost always be found on sites like Jalopnik, Worldcarfans etc, before they're put up on here anyway (PH exclusives excluded of course). So why not just post there??

Anyway, this car should be set on fire and rolled off into a ravine or something.

[Oddball RS]

There isn't a lot of room between the A post and the B pillar for when ur getting in stood up stylie

[ChipsAndCheese]

Why why why would anyone want that? It looks like a proper '80s cabrio with that fixed roll bar behind the driver.

Truly awful.

[noclue]

A thing of beauty!

[anonymous-user]

Reminds me of those god awful Escort soft tops.

[Evo]

More Escort XR3i and that's wasn't a good thing in the eighties either.

[Unf]

Hendry said:

The LOOKS provide a rush to my gut...

Surely you meant "from" ?

[Hellbound]

Let the rear of this E-Type concept counter act the hideousness of this hinged Rover-esque rag top.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/06/reimagined-jagu...

[ChipsAndCheese]

PSBuckshot said:

Reminds me of those god awful Escort soft tops.

That's almost exactly what came to mind for me too, but I thought of the old XR3i Cab.