Subaru swears: ‘STI is not dead’

There have been a lot of questions lately about Subaru’s beloved STI badge – mainly: when will we finally get a new one? Subaru has introduced a handful of interesting concepts, but the company still hasn’t confirmed a new STI model for production.

Even without a new STI model on the way, STI remains an important part of Subaru’s identity. In a recent conversation with Australia Driving forceSubaru Australia managing director Scott Lawrence made it clear that the performance brand isn’t going anywhere:

‘The pace of news and activity from STI in public is increasing. It has the most vocal followers within the Subaru camp. As these concepts proved, there is a lot of work happening in that area – STI is not dead.”

Subaru offered a glimpse of what its next performance car could be with the debut of the WRX STI Sport# Prototype (pictured above) in Tokyo last January. The concept previewed a modern STI sedan built on the latest WRX VB platform. Last October, the company also showed two STI concepts: the Performance-B and the Performance-E.

While the Performance-E presented a futuristic vision of what an electric STI performance car could look like, the Performance-B was more grounded in reality. Riding on the five-door Impreza platform, the Performance-B concept received a range of STI-specific performance upgrades, including, most importantly, a manual transmission.

Subaru has already said that if enthusiasts want a new STI, they should make their voices heard. Judging from the steady stream of recent drafts, there’s reason to believe something is brewing. Now the only question is if – and when – one of these concepts will finally go into production.

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Source: Subaru

Motor1’s opinion: It is reassuring to hear that the STD does not go away. But until these three letters return to the back of a real performance car, fans will continue to wait and wonder.