SUBARU IN INTERNATIONAL RALLYING
1990-1992 YEARS OF LEGACY

EVEN THOUGH THE LEGACY RS HAD SET A LONG-DISTANCE WORLD-SPEED RECORD, SUBARU KNEW THAT WRC TROPHIES WERE NOT WON BY SPEED ALONE.

PERFORMANCE WAS THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE LEGACY RS, WHICH IT DEMONSTRATED BY BREAKING THE 100,000-KILOMETER WORLD-SPEED RECORD IN 1990 – AND THE RACE WAS ON.

Subaru had its share of successes in World Rally Championship events during the 1980s, but the Subaru World Rally Team didn’t emerge as a topflight WRC contender until the release of the Legacy model in 1989. Even though the Legacy RS had set a long-distance world-speed record, Subaru knew that WRC trophies were not won by speed alone.

For Subaru, organizing a team to develop rally cars was complicated by the logistics of establishing a European base of operations to be closer to WRC racing venues. In 1989, then-president of Subaru Tecnica International (STi), Ryuichiro Kuze, struck a partnership with the British motorsports company Prodrive that continues today as an essential part of the preeminence of Subaru in WRC competition.

Heading up the Subaru team of drivers was the legendary Finnish racer Markku Alen, winner of a record-breaking 19 WRC rallies.

ROARING PAST THE PAPERWORK

Although the Legacy was ready to roll, snafus in sanctioning (the process of “homologation”) kept Subaru out of the running until the fourth round of the 1990 WRC season, the Safari Rally.

Results were mixed as only one of the five Legacy entries in Group A (highly modified WRC division) completed the course, finishing sixth. However, the Subaru Group N (production-based WRC division) entry scored a stunning victory in its class – and the Legacy became the first Group N vehicle ever to survive the rugged Kenyan countryside and reach the finish line of the notoriously brutal Safari Rally.

The Legacy held its own in its first year as a WRC rally car, remaining competitive while displaying flashes of brilliance that showed great promise for the future.

THE FUTURE BEGINS

1991 was a transitional year for Subaru as it applied its growing WRC experience to improving the performance of the Legacy model. Although Alen took third place in the season’s first event, the Swedish Rally, he was dissatisfied with the Legacy’s performance. “No engine, no power,” he complained as the year’s initial success gave way to a series of disappointing defeats. Subaru went back to the drawing board, completing a redesign of the fuel injection system in time for the last event of the year, Great Britain’s RAC Rally. The three Subaru entries were driven by Alen, Ari Vatanen and the then up-and-coming rally superstar Colin McRae. That year, McRae had won his first of two straight championships in the British Open Rally driving a Legacy. But in the RAC, only Vatanen finished, placing fifth, while Alen and McRae scored DNFs.

Nevertheless, the redesigned fuel system greatly improved engine performance as the Legacy continued to evolve into a world-class rally machine.

GETTING INTO GRAVEL

Subaru narrowed its WRC focus in 1992, entering only seven of 14 WRC rallies. Operating from a position of strength, the Legacy demonstrated its superior AWD handling capabilities on gravel courses.

While Alen moved on to drive for Toyota in 1992, the two-man team of Vanaten and McRae made major inroads for Subaru in the WRC. In particular, McRae wowed the crowds with spectacularly skillful driving as he started the season with a strong second-place finish in the Swedish Rally. Vatanen lent a certain symmetry to the year with a second-place finish in the season finale at the RAC Rally.

The Legacy models already had gained a reputation as the best-handling vehicles on the WRC circuit. As engineering added more power to the equation, Subaru rally cars began to take on a new image – that of a formidable frontrunner. The debut of the highly competitive Impreza was still a year away. But the stage had been set for Subaru to dominate WRC rallying for the next decade.