Prodrive P25 Review: A Subaru Icon Reborn for the Modern Enthusiast

Introduction

Few pairings stir the soul like a rally legend flinging a Subaru Impreza flat out down a world rally stage. Both the driver and the original Impreza are long gone from the spotlight, but the memories of that iconic partnership remain as powerful as ever. The Prodrive P25 brings those glory days back in an evocative, unmistakable shape: a top-to-toe reworking of the Impreza built to celebrate a quarter of a century of rally history from the era when blue Subarus ruled the world.

A Rally Legend Reimagined

Prodrive entered the restomod market with this car, and it really is something special for a company to put all of its knowledge into reimagining an already iconic machine. The build starts with a two-door Impreza shell that is stripped back to the bare bones. Every panel is carbon fiber, in that classic wide-body style pioneered by the 22B and the world rally car.

The engine is built around a late-model 2018 2.5-liter boxer unit, heavily reworked so that pretty much only the block remains standard. Internals, management systems, and intercooling are all different. The transmission is possibly the most exciting part: a competition-spec six-speed sequential dog box with helical gears for a surprising amount of refinement. You can hear the gearbox working, but it is a civilized combination, paired with an electronically controlled center differential.

The result is a truly authentic rally car experience that is civilized but not sanitized. It has an edge, it wakes you up when you get in, and it is everything you would want this kind of car to be.

A Pure Analog Driving Experience

Talk of analog cars often falls short until you sit in the P25. Apart from the paddle-shift gearbox, everything is modulated by the driver. The brakes are massive rally-inspired AP Racing units with no servo assistance and no ABS, which is highly unusual in a modern car. There is no electronic stability control and no traction control either; it is all down to the diffs and how the center diff manages torque.

The brake pedal feels quite hard at first, and you may be surprised at how much force is needed to get the braking effort you want. Give yourself time to dial in, and the car becomes brilliantly responsive and pure: the output matches the input to the pedals and steering exactly, something almost no contemporary performance car can claim.

Power, Weight, and Driving Modes

There is a choice of dynamic driving modes. Road mode is very civilized in terms of powertrain response and throttle feel. A quick push of the button moves you into Sport, a big step up: torque rises from 400-450 Nm to 600 Nm, and power climbs from around 380 horsepower to close on 450. That step feels particularly significant given the car weighs between 1,150 and 1,180 kg even fully trimmed with comfortable seats and air conditioning, a genuine throwback to 1990s curb weights.

The most aggressive mode, Sport Plus, adds anti-lag with pops, bangs, and a turbo that is always awake, bringing a marked improvement in throttle response and overall aggression. Even outside anti-lag, the turbo is always spooling and waiting to build boost, which works like a civilized anti-lag system and softens the step between modes. Hitting the throttle still delivers a real punch of adrenaline.

Ride, Handling, and Driving Modes

Suspension is another key part of the package. Rather than an off-the-shelf part, Prodrive worked with Bilstein to produce a bespoke suspension package for this car. At low speed it is pretty firm, and it crashes and bangs a bit on the worst surfaces, but once you get up to speed it is sensationally good. Throw it down the gnarliest road you can find and it smashes through like a mogul skier, absorbing impacts that would upset lesser cars.

That composure encourages you to drive quickly, perhaps too quickly, because every road becomes a tarmac rally stage. That is the joy of this car: it delivers the dream many drivers imagined when they first fell in love with rally-bred Imprezas, now with far more detail and authenticity.

Interior: Simple, Pure, and Nicely Done

Imprezas were always very basic, plasticky things by definition, and if you are charging half a million pounds, you probably need a bit more than basic plastics. The P25’s interior has been handled by Callum, covering both design and manufacturing. Alcantara and contrast stitching lift the cabin and give it real tactility, while keeping it appropriate to the car’s focused character.

There is a full LCD dash with a diagnostic page, shift lights, and the different sport modes. A regular rally hydraulic handbrake is paired with an electronic park brake that disengages automatically, a real godsend for hill starts when balancing the gearbox and clutch. The optional rear seat delete and roll cage add extra peace of mind and suit the car’s rally pedigree.

The paddle-shift system is very rally in its execution: a single push-pull paddle, pull back for upshifts and push forward for downshifts, which becomes natural once you stop reaching for a nonexistent second paddle. The steering wheel is the highlight, feeling perfect in the hand with no buttons at all. It is all business, which is exactly what this car is about.

Who the P25 Is Really For

The price tag needs honest discussion: half a million pounds for an Impreza is an extraordinary figure, and you have to occupy a different headspace to understand it. The target customer will already own a collection of fantastic cars, and the P25 occupies a genuinely new space in such a collection. Nothing else out there offers this driving experience or the ability to attack a difficult road with this level of aggression.

Prodrive may be newcomers to building road cars, but they know the Impreza inside out, so if anyone has the right to build a restomod around one, it is them. As a driving experience, it is like nothing else in the restomod market, and it is hard to think of another car that has come close to replicating what this car delivers. Like all great cars, once you drive the P25, the money becomes immaterial.

Buying Advice

If you have the budget and a passion for rally history, the P25 is a rare opportunity: a freshly built, carbon-bodied, analog performance car with genuine competition hardware and no modern driver aids to dilute the experience. Be prepared for unassisted brakes, a firm ride at low speeds, and a car that demands engagement rather than forgiveness. For the right collector, it breathes new life into a fantastic icon while taking the restomod scene in a fascinating direction.

Conclusion

The Prodrive P25 is far more than an exterior makeover. With a heavily reworked boxer engine, a sequential dog box, bespoke Bilstein suspension, a Callum-designed interior, and a driving experience that is civilized but never sanitized, it captures the essence of rally’s golden era in a package you can drive on the road. It is expensive, uncompromising, and utterly singular, and that is precisely the point.