Every car scene seems to be sub-divided into followers of brands. You have the muscle car scene and its division along Ford/GM/Mopar lines, exotics divided among the Italian and German brands, and then the Tuner scene, which has perhaps some of the weirdest divisions. There’s the Nissan guys, the Honda guys, and then “the rest” seem to be grouped together. Subaru is kind of a odd brand in this scene – the things that define a Subaru are somewhat quirky – AWD, flat4 motors, and something neither of the other two major brands seem to share much of – a rally pedigree. What pulled me into the Subaru scene in specific vs. the others was one car in particular. This car. I first encountered it at Importfest a few years back, then I got to meet the owner in person at a local meet a couple years ago. Then I bought my first Subaru.

The story of this car goes way back beyond my first encounter with it. By that time it was onto it’s second life. Originally it was a 2.5RS that Arthur managed to do some severe damage to while experiencing a “less than optimal traction situation”. Rather than totally write the car off Arthur decided to rebuild it, better than before. He had been in touch previously with the folks at Trial and once the car was being rebuilt he managed to pry out of their hands an ultra rare (think 5 in existence) full wide body kit. They only built them originally for show-car purposes. One car was stolen and wound up sometime later in Jamaica, one car was wrecked, and I couldn’t unearth the wearabouts of the other kits.

The kit is an all encompassing change for the 2-door GC Impreza. Front fenders, rear quarter panels, door skin, front and rear bumpers, sideskirts, hood (I think?), and rear wing with adjustable carbon centre section are all unique to the Trial kit. Complimented by rally style carbon mirrors (maybe Arthur was trying to counter the wideness?) this makes for easily the most unique GC in North America.

A closer look at that massive-by-any-standards rear wing reveals it’s adjustable in two stages.

I’m not sure of the aerodynamic efficiency of this wing given how narrow that centre element is, but you can’t debate throwing this thing through the wind at decent speed is going to create more downforce than your average STI wing! Nice touch with the naked carbon side adjustment panels.

Here’s a closer look at those Gramlights with the burnt lip that everyone goes bonkers over. The colour of this car is actually from a Kawasaki Ninja if I recall correctly, rather than the normal BRP or WRB that these cars came in. It has a much punchier more saturated feel than the OEM Subaru blues ever did, and compliments the colours in the lips of these rims perfectly.

This really was a beautifully thought out kit, and it’s ashame they didn’t do more of these types of setups for the GC. Look at that stance!

Since this shoot, Arthur has had a 2.6L (bored & honed 2.5L block) installed to replace his aging 2.0L. Along with the same GT30R he had previously his goals are around 400whp, though last time I spoke with him he was considering adding meth injection to the equation to bring that number up.

The local constabulary could tell this car is going to spool like a warpdrive, and run like a starship piloted by crack smoking monkeys (that’s fast) – of that there’s no doubt. They must’ve stopped by just to remind Arthur they could spot his car a mile away. Oh, and did I forget to mention? It has a custom system fully built by Clarion. Perhaps we’ll explore that next time…

Thanks Arthur!!