Hey im in the states, and the 22b's have never been over here, but ive seen a few post about them on this site. How hard is it to find a 22b in the UK? They seem like the ulitimate sports subaru and are a beauty to look at.

Also ive heard that its called the 22b because its the hexidimel way of writing 555, the subaru rally logo. Is this true? Also what does 555 stand for?

Thanks
-sam

 

Good evening my colonial cousin

You are right with your assumption of the naming of the 22b. The 555 is the trading name of a significant tobacco trading company that sponsored / sponsors Subaru WRC. However due to advertising laws in a lot of european countries, the WRC Impreza isnt allowed to display cigarette advertising so they opt for subtle variations......... a bit like the Jordan F1 team who advertise Benson & Hedges cigarettes but often display "Buzzin Hornets" on their cars as a subtle variation (but everyone knows they are still advertising cigarettes because of the colours and the font styles)

As to how common, not many in this country but the odd one does crop up every now and again.............. check out www.22b.com Superb site with "real" enthusiasts

 

If you get a pack of the 555 ciggies the writing on the pack is exactly the same as it is on the side of the car

 

IIRC there were 400 22B's made, of which 16 were officially sold to the UK market. I think 2 were written off very soon after delivery, as for the rest, who knows. Many more have made it to these shores as personal/grey imports from Japan, so there are relatively quite a few knocking about. Scoobyclinic has two.



:c ool:

 

There were 426 'official' cars, 16 of which were type UK's and 10 were for Australia...although I beleive that there would only have been 399 of the Japanese ones built, no number 13...

There were also a few 000 numbered cars built for various VIP's like Colin McCrae, Nicky Grist and the owner of International Motors here in the UK...IIRC one of these got written off

 

There was a number 13. It was shipped to Subaru American as a demonstrator I believe.

 

Ahh, that makes at least two in the States now then...unless no 13 had to be crushed or exported under the 1 year rule that applies to some imports