SUBARU has worked closely with Banbury motorsport firm Prodrive to develop a scorching 280 horsepower Impreza Turbo two-door saloon.

The aim was to work with Prodrive to achieve the same exciting yet reassuring high-quality ambience carefully nurtured by BMW and Mercedes-Benz with their 'echnic and AMG-developed performance flagships.

Called Subaru Impreza P1 - Prodrive One - the car is planned to be the first in a line of ultra high-performance models which comply with all official noise, emission, environmental and safety rules.

Prodrive engineering project manager David Stevens said: "Our target was to achieve exhilarating yet safe characteristics on the typical sweeping A-roads and pitchy B-roads of the UK.

"We wanted the driver to feel confident and secure at any speed. We researched the wide variation of spring, damper and anti-roll bar combination that are available for the Impreza Turbo family."

Performance significantly improves on the standard car's 143.5mph top speed and 0-62mph time of 6.3 seconds. Top speed for the P1 is estimated to be in excess of 150mph, while a 0-60mph time has been recorded at 4.8 seconds.

The new Impreza P1 will debut on Subaru's stand at next week's London Motor Show at Earls Court. It will be available in Subaru dealer showrooms in March 2000.

The P1 features an unusual rear window wiper for greater rear-view visibility in the wet, and a striking 'Sonic Blue' mica body colour.

Story date: Wednesday 13 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.