Doug DeMuro Explains Why the 22B is the ‘Holy Grail’ Subaru Impreza
Widebody, upgraded suspension, more powerful engine, and a little help from Nissan make this limited edition Impreza worth its weight in gold.
Today is your lucky day. You have been given $100,000 dollars to spend on a car of your choice. Do you get a fully loaded C8 Corvette? Maybe a lightly optioned Porsche Cayman GT4? Your mind is reeling with the possibilities. How about a 22-year-old, five-seat, Subaru coupe based on an economy car? Not at the top of your list? Then perhaps you are not familiar with the Subaru Impreza 22B.
YouTube star/AutoTrader editor Doug DeMuro gives us an in-depth look at what makes the 22B so special and why they command six-figure sums and continue to climb in value. To the average Joe on the street this may look like nothing more than someone’s winter beater. However, if you pulled this into a local cars and coffee or better yet a Japanese imports show, people would lose their minds. This is why.
The 22B was offered only in 1998 and limited to just 400 copies in Japan and a few more in other markets. None of these were sold in the United States. The demand for this car right from the start was overwhelming. “Subaru claims they sold out within a few hours of announcing that it would be going on sale. It was the ultimate Impreza for ultimate Subaru fans.” Explains DeMuro. Subaru has a lot of diehard fans thanks to video games and rally racing. This vehicle paid tribute to the successful Subaru rally race cars of the time.
The first thing that hits you when looking at the 22B is just how wide and muscular it appears. Right away it is clear that this special edition is not a simple paint and sticker job. This car is the epitome of Coke bottle styling. That is thanks to front and rear fender flares that add 3 inches to the overall width of the car. The wide body hints at what is lurking beneath.
What is beneath is a bespoke suspension manufactured by Bilstein and unique to the 22B. Also included are a set of 17-inch forged-alloy BBS wheels, painted in gold naturally. Behind those special wheels you can see the 4-piston brake calipers that are painted red. In today’s world red brake calipers come on just about every car imaginable, but back when the 22B was released, red brakes were still an indicator of something special.
Moving around to the back of the car you find a distinct lack of badging save for a small 22B application. The more interesting feature is the large rear wing. This particular wing is manually adjustable so you can change the angle of attack yourself depending on the type of driving you are planning on doing. It is a pretty cool feature although we suspect that most owners will set it and forget it.
Under the hood you will find not the traditional 2.0-liter but instead a 2.2-liter turbocharged flat-four engine. The intake manifold and some other bits are painted red because red means fast obviously. Official power numbers were never released but it is suspected to put out somewhere in the low 300 horsepower range.
This power combined with the sub-2900 pound curb weight and four wheel drive meant that this car could hit 60 mph in the mid-4 second range. Remember this was 1998, the Porsche 911 and Chevy Corvette of the day, would be hard pressed to keep up with this little Subaru. On his test drive DeMuro says: “This car is surprisingly quick. Very, very surprisingly so. I was not expecting it to feel this fast, but it does.”
Even with all this performance Subaru kept the practical side of the Impreza and it still has back seats. Getting back there is easy enough, just fold the front seat forward, but then you are greeted with a surprise. There is a little plastic arm that holds the front seatbelt in place. If you look closely at that piece you will notice it is actually a Nissan part.
Subaru is building this performance car icon and they look to Nissan for help. Do they want to borrow something from the engine or suspension of the Skyline GTR? No, just a piece of plastic seatbelt trim will be fine, thank you very much. The rest of the inside is pretty standard Subaru STI fare, although it does include toggle switches to spray water on the intercooler.
The 22B is an amazing car, the likes of which Subaru is unlikely to ever make again. “The 22B really is the ultimate Impreza, not just of the ‘90s but ever.” Says DeMuro. We agree with him as the fun factor of this car is through the roof.
So, is this where you would spend your $100,000? Let us know in the 6SpeedOnline forums.
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