Subaru’s affinity with rallying is incredibly strong through the rise of its Impreza WRX during the 1990s in the hands of Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Ari Vatanen, Markku Alen and Peter ‘Possum’ Bourne.
On Australian shores, Subaru dominated rallying through the 1990s and early 2000s, but its maiden success came in 1985.
The Japanese manufacturer was still a niche brand in Australia in the 1980s after first arriving on local shores in 1973.
It was a time of transition for rallying in Australia due to the admission of internationally renowned Group A regulations to replace the extensively modified Group G ruleset.
Group A was a slow burn for local competitors, but Subaru aided the transition by importing a number of four-wheel-drive RX Turbos and selling these units for a subsidised price to top privateer entries.
This proved immediately successful thanks to Barry Lowe and Kevin Pedder winning the Australian Rally Championship in one of the RX Turbos.
Lowe went back-to-back in 1986 in a new RX Turbo and Mark Stacey in the co-driver’s seat in an evenly decided championship.
By the close of the decade, the RX Turbos were being outclassed by new models led by Mazda’s 323 4WD and Greg Carr’s Lancia Delta Integrale.
After fellow Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi took the title in 1990, Subaru came back in a big way through West Australian Rob Herridge in its Liberty.
It was a controversial 1991 season dragged on by protests, which went the way of Herridge and co-driver Steve Vanderbyl.
Going into the final round, Toyota rival Neal Bates and co-driver Mike Taylor needed to finish first or second, with the Subaru pairing needing to not score to win the title.
It was at the end of the control of Day 2 where the drama occurred when a repair took longer than the normal late time and organisers placed a 60-minute time penalty on Herridge and Vanderbyl.
A protest was lodged by Herridge immediately after the event and stewards ruled the penalty be withdrawn, with the Subaru team finishing third to win the title.
Bates appealed and the it was upheld leading to the 60-minute penalty being re-instated, but the saga didn’t end there.
Herridge went to the Australian Motor Sports Appeal Court as the drama was sorted 13 months after the rally and the penalty was again removed.
Subaru doubled up its effort in the ARC for 1992 as New Zealand driver Possum Bourne joined reigning champion Herridge.
Joined by Mark Nelson, Herridge went back-to-back, but his teammate from across the Tasman demonstrated this season the force he could be in the ARC.
Bates and Toyota did the winning in 1993-95 before Subaru made up for it in a decade of dominance.
From 1996 until 2002, Bourne won the championship in ex-WRC Impreza WRXs and Group N versions at the turn of the millennium.
Bourne combined his Australian program with international events and was contesting the Production World Rally Championship when he died in a crash accident in 2003.
Subaru’s efforts didn’t stop in the ARC and its winning didn’t either, with Bourne’s protege Cody Crocker winning the title in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Despite its dominance, Subaru pulled its ARC program at the end of 2005 and the championship struggled from there.
There was a return for Subaru in 2016 when it fielded a WRX STI for Molly Taylor, who won the title that year with co-driver Bill Hayes,
A front-running combination through until the 2019 season when Subaru pulled out of the sport again
Subaru is synonymous with rallying and it won’t be a surprise if it returns to the discipline in a world or local capacity.