Subaru Impreza news - STI for a concept - 2008

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

The good news is that the new Subaru Impreza hits Britain this autumn. The bad news - discounting the fact that it's a stubby hatchback - is that we won't see the STI version until next spring.

But to tide you over until then, CG artist Lars Mortensson has come up with this rendering of the Impreza WRX STI. We ought to point out that this is in absolutely no way officially endorsed by Subaru - Mortensson has combined elements of the new hatch and his last-gen STI to create something that's definitely, well, striking.

We're keen on the front-on view - even if those headlights are a bit 5-Series-derived - but it's a bit stubby and overstyled in profile.

Nonetheless, we applaud Mortensson's effort: if Subaru wants to adopt a few of the less fanciful styling cues from this concept to help the STI arrive quicker, we won't complain. There's a certain Evo X on the way soon that needs some serious competition. We sense a fight a-brewin'.