2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STI DCCD Prodrive Widetrack Type UK

Look, my taste in cars is a Broad Church. I love each of my cars for different reasons, but as a child of the 90s, my eyes have always been drawn to an Impreza. Be it parked on a questionable looking estate in south east London or hurtling down a tree-lined gravel laden track in the Welsh countryside.

They define to me what a drivers car can truly be, they take the compromise of traditional supercars and sports cars and firmly place it in the not applicable bin, allowing you meteoric performance and enough room for a trip to Ikea.

I bought this car for myself back in March of 2023, at the time it had covered just 44,000 miles. It was in a bit of a sorry state, some of the paint had faded in places, the tyres beginning to dry-rot and the suspension feeling a little on the baggy side.

Over the next 18 months or so, it has been on a journey of recommissioning, restoration, restomodding and rejuvenating. The car has been built for me to keep, fitted exclusively with the best quality parts and upgrades to produce my ultimate road-going rally car.

The base car is a 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Widetrack Type UK. It’s a DCCD (Drivers Control Centre Differential) that also has the enormously desirable Prodrive Performance Pack. 
Externally, the car is Platinum Silver Metallic - it’s the more subtle choice than the traditional Blue. The paintwork today is in excellent condition. The paintwork was remedied by OSC Chessington, the work was over £2,000 but with over 40 years of experience the quality speaks for itself.

Alongside the paintwork, all four wheels were refurbished and wrapped in a matching set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4s. They’re the genuine article, 17” STI alloys. Of course, on-top of the remedial work, I couldn’t help but include some subtle styling tweaks. Prodrive mudflaps, Perrin spoiler supports, a front lip and carbon fibre door mirrors and rear diffuser.

Inside the car is equally as clean – additional gauges read boost pressure, oil pressure and oil temperature, they were sourced from STI Gnome & Defi. To bring the car up-to-date, there is a Kenwood double-din Apple Carplay/Android auto head unit which is wired into a 12” subwoofer in the boot.

The real hint that this is no ordinary STI is the STI Gnome boost controller and 4-way map switch which allows you on the fly to select between low boost, high boost, low boost with anti-lag and high boost with anti-lag.

Of course, I couldn’t leave the mechanicals untouched. All areas have been addressed, it remains the standard 2.5-litre EJ25 but the turbo has been upgraded to an SC46 billet unit put together by Scooby Clinic with an HKS dump valve, the charge from which is cooled by a Perrin Front Mount Intercooler.

To manage the additional boost, a Syvecs S6 Standalone ECU is employed and uses a Perrin 4-bar MAP sensor, 800cc fuel injectors and a Walbro 255 fuel high-flow fuel pump. The engine breathes through a full stainless steel catless exhaust system and a wing mounted Mishimoto intake to keep intake temperatures down.

The car was recently tuned by premier UK Subaru Specialists Roger Clark Motorsports where it produced 411bhp on their dyno. It’s all well and good bolting 410bhp to a car though, but ensuring the car can steer and stop is another question.

That’s why I fitted a set of BC-Racing BR series coilovers, anti-lift geometry kit, and adjustable anti-roll bars. In-fact the car underwent a full underside restoration at the hands of Roger Clark costing over £6,500. During that time, the brakes were upgraded with performance friction discs and pads and braided brake hoses.

Since purchasing the car back in March of 2023, I have spent over £20,000 upgrading, fettling and restoring this STI to be the ultimate Subaru. All of the work has been completed to an extremely high standard and includes;  
Kenwood AppleCarPlay 
BC Racing Coil Overs
Coilover fitment and full suspension geometry 
Underside rebuild and renovation by Roger Clark Motorsport
Exedy upgraded clutch 
Replaced differential beam mountings
Replaced faded headlamps with new genuine items
A full service, cambelt change and remap at Roger Clark Motorsport in September 2024 
Bodywork renovations by OSC Chessington 
Wheel Refurbishment and new tyres
Subwoofer and amplifier by Car Audio Security 
Because of the nature of these cars, it is getting harder and harder to find genuine low-mileage cars, especially those sold in the UK originally that haven’t been beaten to a pulp.

This is one of those rare, low mileage, UK supplied STIs that has been loved, and diligently cared for. With over 400bhp on tap, and power sent to all four wheels it’s hard to think of a more capable car and I imagine I will regret parting with it, roughly 25 seconds after it's gone.

As with all our vehicles, a full digital folder is available on request containing more images, walk-around videos, and scans of the service history. The car can also be viewed by appointment at our West London showroom.