Subaru’s Most Iconic ’90s Cult Favorite Is About to Really Enter Holy Grail Territory

In the highlight reel of Subaru’s greatest moments, you’ll find plenty of action highlighting the brand’s dominance in the FIA World Rally Championship. However, this didn’t peak until the 1990s, which is when the brand gave us the Impreza STI 22B.

The 22B isn’t just hands down one of the greatest and rarest Subarus of all time. It’s also one of the greatest Japanese sports cars of all time. But not many were made.

All that is to say, we can’t help but drool over an example that just recently surfaced on the secondhand market.

The car that catapulted Subaru into the global spotlight

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Subaru might be known for making affordable and practical all-weather automobiles for the masses. However, it’s also one of the most storied brands in motorsports.

That’s due to its many victories in the World Rally Championship. This Impreza STI 22B is one of the quintessential byproducts of that era.

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Back when the WRC established its Group A rules in the 1990s following the experimental Group B era, the FIA still maintained its production vehicle homologation requirement.

The rule required automakers to produce a certain number of road-going versions of their racecars to be eligible to compete. The 22B is one such version of Subaru’s iconic WRC racecars. It’s also far more than that.

A legendary car spawned from legendary winnings

The 22B is the road-going version of the same exact rally car that led Subaru to score three consecutive WRC Constructors’ titles between 1995 and 1998. It was driven by none other than the late, legendary Colin McRae.

McRae is regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time, a designation reserved for the likes of the legendary Ayrton Senna. While Senna made his fame in Formula One, McRae’s legend emerged in WRC.

One of 16 1999 Subaru Impreza STI 22Bs going to auction in June 2026

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McRae also gained notoriety for being the first British rally driver to win a WRC Drivers’ title. He also held the record of being the youngest league champion until 2022.

During the same period when Subaru was at such a high point in its motorsports efforts, the company also celebrated its 40th anniversary. So, in a three-pronged push, the Japanese automaker created the Impreza STI 22B to honor the victorious rally car, commemorate its WRC wins with McRae at the helm and remember four decades of existence.

In 1998, Subaru produced only 424 22Bs total. Initially, the company capped production at just 400 numbered units specifically for the Japanese market.

But because it sold out almost instantly and demand was so high, Subaru and STI secretly made an additional 24 unnumbered examples specifically for the British and Australian markets.

Only 16 of those made it to the UK. The remaining eight went down under.

It’s either a brand new Lamborghini, a nice vacation home or this

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This latest example to surface for auction bidding on PistonHeads is one of those 16 cars. It bears the 1999 model year, as the unnumbered production extras bled over after the initial 1998 production.

It boasts just 23,514 miles and lived its entire life on the islands in the Northern Atlantic. While it’s exchanged hands a total of four times, the auction states its current owner was one of its longest.

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Because of its legendary status, the 22B is known to fetch some high prices whenever one goes up for sale. More often than not, results fall around the quarter-million-dollar mark.

In the case of this particular example, some predict it could climb well past previous values and set a new record in the neighborhood of half a million.

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