Subaru says this famous performance division is now working on an electric car, but a glorious age has ended.

NO MORE deep-throated thrub – Subaru has dropped a bombshell in signalling its famous STI fast car division’s involvement with petrol power has curtailed.

Announcement has come today from Subaru Japan that the next WRX, the ‘2.4T’ being introduced to New Zealand media in May - surely the final purely petrol-powered performance edition Fuji will create - will break with almost 30 years’ convention by not including a flagship STI special.

A decision delivered via Subaru of America doesn’t mean the absolute end for STI, a brand founded in 1988 by Ryuichiro Kuze that made its global start in huge style, setting a 100,000km speed record with a Subaru Legacy.

STI – full name Subaru Tecnica International – seems set to travel into the electric era.

The engineers are being kept on and many are working already on developing the STI E-RA Concept, a race-tuned design study unveiled at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon, as a next-generation reawakening.

Developed to give Subaru experience with new motorsport technologies for the carbon-neutral era, the E-RA (shorthand for Electric Record Attempt) has 800kW, four electric motors and a full-out aero package and will be used to reset a category lap record around Germany’s Nurburgring circuit next year.

However, the move does pull the plug on cars that, despite always having something of a craving for petrol - and how ironic the news came out just as pump prices reached a national high - consistently won huge fan support, right to the last. The final one for NZ, last year’s limited edition WRX Saigo (below), was spoken for before it even arrived.

Subaru New Zealand, in reaction to the news, has put on a brave face, saying that the electric era offers new opportunity and the collectible value of past products, particularly the low-volume items that already rate as expensive exotica – none more rare than the 22B coupe, with one as-new NZ-owned example recently listing for sale for an astounding $500,000 - will likely lift all the more.

Local managing director Wal Dumper might well have kindled some intrigue in expressing confidence the badge will still avail “via special limited edition vehicle offerings.”

Which means? “Subaru New Zealand will be creating something special for STI fans which we will announce following the WRX 2.4T launch,” he says.

In the longer term, too, he asserts “the STI legacy will still live on in the new realm of electric cars.”

He also adds thought that “the love that loyal Kiwi Subaru fans have for STI can live on through STI-inspired performance and styling parts.”

The end of the petrol product was always a matter of when, not if, but there’d been hope the next-gen WRX would keep the flame burning just that little bit longer. Apparently not. The incoming WRX with its 202kW/350Nm engine will be as hot as it gets.

The announcement out of Subaru America said: “As the automotive marketplace continues to move towards electrification, Subaru is focused on how our future sports and performance cars should evolve to meet the needs of the changing marketplace and the regulations and requirements for greenhouse gasses (GHG), zero emissions vehicles (ZEV), and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ).

“As part of that effort, Subaru Corporation is exploring opportunities for the next generation Subaru WRX STI, including electrification. In the meantime, a next generation internal combustion engine WRX STI will not be produced based upon the new WRX platform.”

The website for America’s Road and Track says today it was told by a Subaru spokesperson in an email that if and when a new STI does show up, it won't be based on the 2022 WRX (above).

Says Road and Track: “It's unclear how long it might take for the new car to show up, but since the new WRX hasn't even hit showrooms yet, years would be a safe bet. The spokesperson also said noted that ‘Electrification can mean hybrid or electric.’”

“Today’s STI announcement aligns with our current New Zealand Government’s drive toward low emission vehicles, including electric vehicles,” Dumper says.

“Our Government has a desire to be ahead of the rest of the world, with the introduction of effectively a CO2 ‘tax’ which the customer will pay at the point of registering their new vehicle.

“This certainly poses a challenge for the New Zealand automotive industry, given our smaller size in the context of the global automotive market, as it’s the larger markets that truly influence each brand’s manufacturer,” Dumper says.

“In the meantime, any Kiwi owners of STIs are probably feeling like they are sitting on a very good investment in light of Subaru Corporation’s announcement.

“We already know how much the historic Subaru Impreza STI 22Bs are worth, with some enthusiasts in overseas markets securing record auction prices.”

STI’s story began before the badge was even seen. The outfit engineered that record-setting Legacy that, through thumping around a high-speed oval in Arizona at an average speed of 223.345kmh for 447 hours, 44 minutes and 9.8 seconds, continuously, proved the exceptional reliability of the type under the toughest of conditions.

Subsequent STI cars made most enduring impact with involvement in rallying and, through that, development of a series of increasingly impressively powerful and adept all-wheel-drive and turbocharged big winged dub-beat road cars that drew a big enthusiast following, particularly with the young and technically-aware.

They came in all colours but, invariably, most buyers liked them best in the iridescent blue that tied into the days when the works cars, then run by Britain-based Prodrive which in the heyday built the cars for Subaru Japan and STI (while STI then built variations of WRX, primarily for the Group N production category) ran with 555 cigarette brand sponsorship. Paint code O2C to those in the know.

New Zealand is especially involved in the STI story; our country opening the door to ex Japan used cars was a trigger for a massive tidal wave of all versions of Fuji’s fast products, some only intended for domestic Japan.

Though NZ sales of brand-new WRC homologation product always ran hot, the import market for better or worse made these bullets accessible to a much broader audience.

It is thought probable there have been more than 10,000 examples on NZ soil. That makes it highly likely this country’s per-head of capita ownership of mainly the four generations of WRX/Impreza-based STI cars (and Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution, it’s arch nemesis in rallying) stands higher than anywhere else in the world.

There’s more to NZ being special to Subaru’s hotshot race division, though.

After a very successful competition debut at the Safari Rally in 1990, STI set their sights on the World Rally Championship (WRC), initially in the outfit’s signature pink and white.

Although much was learned in their early efforts, victory finally came with the 1993 New Zealand Rally, where a Legacy won triumphantly. Though badged as an RS, the rally car (above) was an STI effort.

That feat lifted the brand’s and car builder’s status. It was also a springboard for a young Scot becoming known for his wild but huge talent; Colin McRae.

The following year, having divested its Legacy rally cars – one to a Kiwi hero whose story is one of legend, Peter ‘Possum’ Bourne - the STI team started the long-lasting racing campaign of the Subaru Impreza WRC model.

The success that followed was astounding – second overall in 1994, manufacturers’ titles 1995 and 1996, and a stunning eight of 14 rallies won in 1997, capping a remarkable achievement. Subaru became the first Japanese company to win a manufacturers’ title for three consecutive years. This racing success would permanently elevate Subaru and STI to iconic status in the world of rally.

With 47 WRC wins and counting, STI led Subaru to more rally wins than any other Japanese manufacturer.

This, coupled with the heroics of McRae (1995 drivers’ champion), Richard Burns (2001 champion), Peter Solberg (2003 champion), Toshihiro Arai (2005, 2007 Group N champion) and Bourne (Australasia’s most successful rally driver, with one New Zealand, seven Australian titles and three Asia-Pacific championships) would solidify Subaru and STI among the most respected brands in the world rally scene.

Quite rightly, Bourne was the man who most put the Subaru name into the national spotlight.

When he tragically died at age 47 in 2003, as result of injury when practising for the famous Race to Sky event he seemed likely to dominate, the Pukekohe-born legend was poised to kick into another international effort.

By then he had spent a quarter of a century pushing his mostly Subaru rally cars to the limit.

A career that began in the late 1970s when he entered his first rally and finished third in an over-powered Oldsmobile V8 Cortina accelerated all the more when he switched to a Leone, then took off all the more with that ex-works Legacy.

In 1983 he won backing from Subaru in New Zealand and three years later the Japanese factory supported him in rallies in Australia, the Far East, Africa, South America, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Bourne won the 1991 national championship with a Legacy and that domination continued with Joe McAndrew. Wellington-based ‘Smokin’ Joe’ claimed the 1993, 1994 and 1996 titles in an ex-Prodrive car.

Subaru holds 12 national manufacturer titles; the majority reaped by the Impreza/WRX. Successive version of that line secured driver’s titles for Bruce Herbert (2001, 2002 and 2003), Chris West (2004), Richard Mason (2005, 2006, 2011, 2012), Sam Murray (2007), and most latterly Ben Hunt, in 2015 and again in 2019.

Herbert and co-driver Robert Ryan, for whom four of his record five national navigator titles were secured in WRXs, made international history winning the 2001 Rally Rotorua in the famous bug-eyed version 7 STI, on the day it achieved international homologation.

Subaru Japan left WRC in 2008. STI’s performance involvements have continued in various national rally championships, plus it also involved in the Japanese SUPER GT series with Legacy and the BRZ coupe. It also raced with huge success in Nurburgring endurance events last decade. There was another big headline-making blast with an epic run on the Isle of Man motorcycle road race circuit.

The last STI sold here was a ‘Saigo’ special edition WRX, with the venerable 221kW/ 407Nm 2.5-litre boxer.

Twenty came in last year. The sticker was $67,990. Dumper said these have almost doubled in price since.