Colin McRae's Subaru just sold for £230,000

The classic performance car market has gone a bit berserk of late. Whether it’s a Porsche 911 or a Peugeot 205, old fast stuff seems to have swelled to inconceivably large values. This, dear reader, is a Subaru Impreza that’s just sold for £230,000.

It probably won’t take much of a glance to realise it’s probably worth every penny, though. It’s not just any fast Impreza, but a World Rally Championship-spec Impreza. The first, in fact, and one which was predominantly tested by Colin McRae. You’ve probably heard of him.

“Chassis 001 was the car we unveiled and used as our primary test and development car,” says David Richards, head of the company that developed the car, Prodrive.

“It was thanks to the many hours Colin and the other drivers spent at its wheel, that when it came to the car's debut at Rally Monte Carlo in January 1997, Piero Latti was able to claim victory and help Subaru go on and win a third consecutive manufacturers' title.”

This car was born of new ‘World Rally Car’ regulations. So while Imprezas were already successful rally cars in ‘Group A’ spec, none were ferocious, bespoke two-door specials like this one.

Its 2.0-litre engine had a major tickle to yield 300bhp, while its new shape was stiffer and able to accommodate cleverer suspension and a very trick four-wheel-drive system, which had three differentials.

And it launched the utterly iconic two-door Impreza shape that became synonymous with rallying, and the late, great McRae. It was designed by Peter Stevens – he of McLaren F1, Jaguar XJR-15 and, um, Rover Streetwise fame – and bred some incredible road-going specials, too. Remember the Impreza 22B?

This now holds the record for world’s most valuable Impreza, though, after going for well above its estimate at the H&H Classics auction at Woodcote Park earlier in the week.

Its near-quarter-of-a-million price tag puts it on par with a brand new Ferrari GTC4 Lusso, another, slightly different four-wheel-drive performance car. Which would you rather have?