When the Subaru Impreza WRC arrived on the rally scene in 1993, it was developed by Prodrive and primarily sponsored by the British cigarette brand State Express 555. While the 555 brand colors were blue and gold, its packaging was often blue and yellow in Asia. But the blue and yellow color scheme on Subaru rally cars is barely remembered for the cigarette brand.
Instead, the blue paint with gold wheels is cherished as the iconic colors of Subaru throughout its World Rally Championship success. However, Prodrive’s chairman David Richards recently admitted that the wheel color was supposed to change for the redesigned 1997 Subaru Impreza rally car. Aren’t you glad it didn’t?
A Shipping Error Created An Icon
Subaru 22B STI rear three-quarterSubaru
For some background, the FIA replaced Group A with a new formula, World Rally Car, with new specs that allowed more room for race teams to build wider, faster cars. Subaru redesigned the Impreza WRC and decided that it would mark the change with a new wheel color. On a recent episode of The Intercooler podcast, Richards tells the story of how the car ended up with gold wheels instead of the new charcoal gray color intended by the race car’s designer.
“We turned up; the first rally of the WRC was in Monte Carlo in ’97. We turned up there with the new car and the wheel manufacturer was Speedline, I think, from Italy, and they sent the wheels along,” Richards explained. “They were supposed to be charcoal gray. Peter Stevens, the designer of the car, was appalled to hear that when Speedline sent the wheels, they sent the wrong color, and they were all gold.”
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Too Much Publicity Forced Subaru’s Hand
1997-2000 Subaru Impreza WRC Blue Front RallyingSubaru
The team had to run the Subaru with the gold wheels, but as Monte Carlo was the first race of the season, that also meant the Impreza WRC was photographed for marketing at the start ramp, and by the press that were seeing the car in the metal for the first time. The first race of the season is always a big deal, but to make matters better worse, Subaru then won that race. Okay, winning isn’t exactly a worst-case scenario, but from a PR standpoint, your car with the wrong wheels just got the maximum possible exposure.
Per the podcast, Richards apologized to the president of Subaru and told him that the wheels had been sent back to be painted the proper gray color. According to Richards, he was told, “No, no, no, we’ve done all the advertising, you’ve got to remain with gold wheels from now on.” And the rest, they say, is history.
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Subaru drivers went on to win titles in 2000 (Richard Burns) and 2003 (Petter Solberg) with the Impreza WRC, and its last appearance in WRC was in 2008, after which the Subaru World Rally Team withdrew due to the financial crisis. The team’s final tally was three manufacturer championship titles, three driver championship titles, and 46 rally wins. It’s still one of the defining brands of stage rally despite there being brands with more rally pedigree. And to this day, Factory Subarus competing in the American Rally Association have blue paint with gold wheels.
2024 Subaru WRX ARA RallyChristopher Smith / CarBuzz / Valnet
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters
The 1997 rally championship brought Subaru its third manufacturer’s title, but is also remembered for the epic close finish that saw Colin McRae losing out on his second driver’s title to Tommi Mäkinen by a single point. What were the Mitsubishi colors Mäkinen raced under? You probably need to be a WRC fan to know that, but generations of general car enthusiasts know those Subaru colors. In fact, the Impreza that McRae raced at Monte Carlo in 1997 is still around and is a half-million-dollar car at auction.
2001 Subaru WRXSubaru
If Subaru had changed the wheel color for the 1997 season, it’s fair to say that the color scheme may have become just a memory rather than a key component of Subaru’s identity, and not just in racing. To this day, you’ll find Subaru blue exteriors and gold wheels on its Impreza, WRX, and SUVs. It’s as identifiable to Subaru as fireworks are to the Fourth of July. All thanks to that one mistake at the start of what’s arguably one of the greatest WRC seasons of them all.
Source: The Intercooler (YouTube)
