Live out your Colin McRae or Woolf Barnato fantasies

REVIVING something old as something new has become quite a thing, particularly when famous race cars derived from road fare are concerned.

One of the headline stories from the just-concluded 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed in the United Kingdom concerned the Prodrive P25, a recreation of one of the most beloved and coolest Japanese performance models of the 1990s’, the two-door Subaru Impreza 22B homologation special.

These today are the most valuable Subby road cars; a good ‘un can be worth to $500,000. Decent coin, but still about half the price of the car that’s been built by Prodrive to celebrate it.

To appearances, the P25 is an Impreza 22B that’s had its body panel tolerances finely tightened, however on closer examination it’s not really a restomod so much as a modern tribute that apes the general appearance, but is not exacting in reproduction.

The quarters, bumpers, boot lid, wing and bonnet are carbon fibre. The inside is all carbon and alcantara, with a rally-style shift paddle for the sequential transmission. Powering it is a tuned 2.5-litre flat-four turbocharged engine with around 294kW.

So, basically, it’s lighter – by around 70kg, at a featherweight 1200kg - and considerably more powerful than the original car.

The original engine is was, of course, a 2.2-litre, the EJ33, but that unit is no longer in production, so the British rally specialist – which, of course, built and ran the works cars - has instead favoured a modern unit, the EJ25. With upgrades to the cylinder liners, pistons, conrods and a bespoke valvetrain with variable valve timing.

A Garrett motorsport-spec turbocharger with an anti-lag system provides boost, while a dual-tipped Akrapovic titanium and stainless steel exhaust system delivers the soundtrack.

The reimagined rallying machine also features limited-slip differentials on both axles, Bilstein dampers, an AP racing four-piston brake system and 19-inch wheels with 235/35 Bridgestone Potenza tyres.

The P25 also uses a six-speed sequential gearbox with paddle-shifters rather than a manual gearbox, which isn’t true to the original 22B, but enables snappy gear changes in around 80 milliseconds. With the help of launch control and a mechanical all-wheel drive system, the P25 hits 0-100kmh in less than 3.5 seconds.

Peter Stevens, who styled the original Impreza WRC in 1997, as well as subsequent Prodrive limited edition Subarus, restyled a number of features of the P25. He worked alongside the Prodrive engineering team, overseen by technical director, David Lapworth, who was responsible for developing the first Impreza WRC 25 years ago.

David Richards, Prodrive chairman, said: “The iconic blue Subarus bring back memories of an extraordinary era of the WRC and it was the Impreza 22B that brought this rally car performance to the road.

“By reimagining this car using the latest technologies and materials the Prodrive P25 pays homage to its roots and there will be little else able to match its performance on the open road. I therefore believe we have achieved our vision of creating our own modern interpretation of the most iconic Subaru Impreza ever.”

The development car made several runs up the hill at Goodwood, before embarking on an extensive test and development programme. The 25 production cars will be built at Prodrive in Banbury, with the first being delivered to customers later this year.

So that’s reaching into recent past history.

Bentley has taken an even deeper dive still with announcement, also timed for Goodwood, to revive its 1920s Le Mans-winning Speed Six model for a strictly-limited production run of 12 cars.

The continuation series will, like the 2021 supercharged Bentley "Blower" series, be built by Mulliner Classic, a division within Bentley that specialises in restorations and builds of this type.

So, what are we talking about? Like the Blower, the Bentley Speed Six raced at Le Mans in 1929 and 1930, taking the top honours both years in the hands of Woolf Barnato, Tim Birkin and Glen Kidston.

It took the form of an improved, high-performance version of Bentley's top-of-the-line 6.5-litre model at the time. Because of its racing success, the Speed Six has become one of the best-known models in the company's back catalogue. While the Blowers were supercharged, the Speed Six relied on greater displacement, twin SU carburettors, a higher compression ratio and a performance camshaft to liberate 151kW (in Le Mans trim), which was enough to clock an average speed of 134kmh around the La Sarthe circuit and a new lap record of 7 minutes 21 seconds - 46 seconds faster than before.

In 1930, Barnato bet that not only could he drive from Cannes to Calais in France faster than an express train (the famous Blue Train), but that he could get from Cannes to his club in London before the train had even reached Calais. Driving a Speed Six, he subsequently did so, winning a £100 bet in the process, but being fined a far greater sum by French police. In addition to its Le Mans victories, the exploits of the "Bentley Boys" have given the Speed Six a greater cachet than most pre-war cars. In all, 182 Speed Sixes were built between 1928 and 1930.

For Mulliner's continuation series, the engineering team first created a 3D model of "Old Number 3" one of the three Speed Sixes entered at Le Mans in 1930, a car that is still raced by its owner today. Another, a 1929 road car that is part of Bentley's own collection, will provide data and references relating to performance and handling characteristics.

Thanks to their rarity and desirability, all 12 continuation series cars have already been sold.

Price? Knew you’d ask. It’s a highly guarded figure but, rest assured, is likely to be comfortably more than Bentley will charge for Continental GT Mulliner, the latest version of the current GT, running a W12 turbocharged 12-cylinder engine now pumps out 491kW, along with a colossal 900Nm of torque. That's enough to give the big GT a top speed of 335kmh and allow it to accelerate to 100kmh in just 3.6 seconds.