If you’ve been following along with Hagerty’s recent Redline Rebuild series, the latest project car might come as something of a surprise.
You expect to see a big V8 on the workbench, and smaller engines aren’t out of the question either – host Davin has over the last few years rebuilt the BMC A-series engine in a Mini, and the tiny single-cylinder engine on a Honda CT70.
But he’s approaching this latest project with some trepidation. The car? A post-2000 Subaru Impreza WRX, most easily recognisable for its “bugeye” headlights – a controversial styling choice at the time, though one that with 20 years of hindsight, isn’t particularly offensive today.
Whether the same can be said of the engine or not, time will tell. Not because these Subaru turbocharged flat-fours are short of performance, or character, but they’re not quite as plug-and-play as an old Detroit V8 on carbs, even if most piston engines are similar in principle.
The first job though is to get it home, and given the Subaru has no keys, we get to enjoy a short montage of Davin attempting to “steal” his own car, just to put it in the trailer. And once it’s back at the workshop, there’s then the task of seeing whether it even runs.
We won’t spoil the ending, but suffice to say it should be an interesting project – and given the increasing popularity of Japanese performance car icons, perhaps one of the most intriguing rebuilds yet.
You can watch the first video above, and follow along either here or on the Hagerty Youtube channel.
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