Feast your eyes on this, kiddies: it’s Marcus Gronholm’s ride for the 2009 Portugal WRC event, and it’s a ProDrive Impreza WRC2008.
Yes, you read all that correctly, and no, I haven’t lost my mind.
Unfortunately for us (and possibly for Gronholm, and definitely for Subaru), it’s only going to be a one-off event for both Gronholm and Subaru. Oh, how I wish I could tell you that my headline was true, and that Subaru have officially reconsidered their stance on pulling out of the WRC entirely, but I can’t. Or, rather, I could, but it would be a gigantic lie if I did. So I won’t.
“Marcus Gronholm, though?” you wonder.
“Marcus Gronholm,” I reply, firmly and surely.
Indeed, it’s former Peugeot two-time world champion WRC driver Marcus Gronholm who will be tossing Subaru’s intended last gasp of WRC greatness around at Rallye Portugal next month. How and why he’s rallying in a Subie rather than a Ford or Peugeot, no one’s telling. Gronholm has said of this one-time return that it’s just for fun, and perhaps it really is as simple as that: he’s never driven a Subaru under these conditions, so this is really just an extended test-drive. 