Subaru Impreza WRC - The Autobiography of P8 WRC

The inside story of Colin McRae’s Safari Rally-winning Impreza including interviews with the McRae family and co-driver Nicky Grist, and studio pictures of P8 WRC following its restoration by Prodrive.

320 pages, over 370 images. Printed and bound in Great Britain.

• The design and development of the rallying Impreza.
• The background and history of the Safari rally.
• The story of Prodrive – the team behind the car.
• The full story of the 1997 Safari rally, plus Indonesia and Argentina.
• Biographies of Colin McRae, Nicky Grist, and members of the McRae rallying dynasty who have demonstrated the car in recent years.
• Brief profiles of P8 WRC’s rival cars and drivers from 1997.
• P8 WRC’s privateer European rallying career in Italy and Hungary, including drives by Ivan Capelli and Markku Alén.
• The later years of Subaru Impreza rallying, from 1998 to 2008.
• A detailed, illustrated description of the car’s restoration.
• Interviews with the McRae family, Nicky Grist and key members of the Prodrive team who originally ran P8 WRC and carried out the restoration.
• Over 350 colour photographs, documents and technical drawings detailing the car’s period rallying career, demonstration appearances and restoration, plus a portfolio of specially commissioned photography.

Colin McRae and Nicky Grist’s win in the 1997 Safari Rally was one of the most notable victories for the Prodrive Subaru Imprezas. This book tells the full story of the Impreza in rallying, explains how P8 WRC triumphed on what was its debut event, details its subsequent career in private hands and covers its restoration by Prodrive in 2023.

More about this book

The iconic factory blue and yellow Subaru Imprezas that challenged for honours in the World Rally Championship from 1993 to 2005 have transcended rallying. The Prodrive-developed and run cars took three consecutive manufacturers’ titles and were the mounts of Britain’s only two World Rally Champions, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, as well as Norwegian champion, Petter Solberg. There were many notable victories for the Imprezas, but perhaps the one that stands out is McRae’s win in the 1997 Safari Rally.

It was a victory achieved against the odds, as it was thought that the all-out temperament of the Scotsman was ill-suited to the demands of the event, which traditionally demanded guile and patience. Yet win McRae did and in emphatic style, navigated by Nicky Grist.

The Impreza that McRae drove in Kenya was registered P8 WRC. It was the car’s debut event, and it would only ever be used twice more by the factory, in Argentina, where Colin would finish second and in Indonesia, where he dominated before crashing out. P8 WRC would pass into private hands after the 1997 season and continued to compete in national and local rallies for many years, albeit with extensive changes to its original Safari configuration.

This book tells the story of P8 WRC, from the dust and heat of Kenya to an extensive restoration by Prodrive to its original Safari specification, which was completed in 2023.

Specification

• Size: 285mm x 235mm
• Hardback with dust jacket
• 320 pages
• Over 370 images
• Price: £69.00
• ISBN: 978-1-913089-52-9
• Publisher: Porter Press International
• Publication date: May 2024
• Author: Ian Wagstaff

The author – Ian Wagstaff

Ian Wagstaff began his career in the offices of Motor Sport and Motoring News before becoming Press and Promotions Manager at Silverstone Circuit. He went on to be an editor in the trade press. He has been working freelance since 1986, writing for the motor-racing press, plus automotive trade and business publications. Ian has won a number of awards for his work and is twice winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy for his books. He is also a past winner of the Motorworld Book Prize (Motorsport category) for his first book in the Porter Press Great Cars series which covered the story of the 1970 Le Mans-winning Porsche 917.