Subaru pulls out of World Rally Championship
16 December 2008
Subaru has announced it is to pull out of the World Rally Championship.
The Japanese car maker has campaigned the iconic Impreza in the WRC since 1993.
It won drivers’ championships with Colin McRae (in 1995), Richard Burns (2001) and Petter Solberg (2003). Subaru was constructors’ champions from 1995 to 1997.
Subaru joins Suzuki, which announced its decision to pull out of the WRC yesterday, just one year after returning to the championship.
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Subaru’s rally team is run by Prodrive, which is based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The company, run by David Richards, has been linked to a takeover of Honda’s F1 team, which was put up for sale two weeks ago.
Richards said: “Subaru's departure from the World Rally Championship is a great loss as it is one of the sport's icons. The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over.”
Subaru is one of several car manufacturers cutting or down-scaling its motor sports activities. Already this year Honda has left F1, Seat has left the British Touring Car Championshp and Audi has cut back its sports car programme.
Last week rallying’s governing body, the FIA, confirmed a radical change in the sport’s technical regulations for 2010 in an effort to cut costs.
But five-times WRC champion Sebastien Loeb has criticised the new ‘Super 2000’ cars, saying they will be too slow.
Over the past 12 months, Auto Trader has featured a Peugeot 206 GTi once owned by the late Richard Burns and a Radical SR8 which Colin McRae bought new.
Colin McRae was killed in September 2007 in a helicopter crash. Richard Burns died in 2005 after battling a brain tumour.
Click below for pics of the Impreza road car
Video: Watch footage of the Subaru Impreza WRX
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