Fifteen years ago, chances are that no one in the UK would have heard of the Japanese car manufacturer, Subaru. Those that knew of of these far-eastern autos viewed them primarily as farming vehicles that farmering communities would use to ferry their crops and sheep dogs from A to B when the trusty Range Rover was to wide for the twisty country lanes, they were a less attractive option than van contract hire. Of course now the Subaru name is well know in Britain, and has even earned the affection moniker, ‘Scooby’, mainly for its iconic now Impreza model, a popular choice for customers looking into car leasing. What is intriguing is how Subaru gathered followers through a successful spell in top level motorsport, and interstingly, a video game.

The young Scottish really driver Colin McRae won his first world championship in a Subaru in 1995, the plucky young scot was a man of little words that let his driving style do the talking, and what style he had! McRae could only be described as frantic, he hustled his car over dirt, dust, ice and snow with reckless abandon, always fast, sometimes to the point of flipping and barrel rolling his car after hitting a rock, only to continue as if nothing had happened.

As McRae became relatively famous, dragging the success of the World Rally Championship with him, the viedo games publisher Codemasters enlisted his help for a console rally game in which McRae and his iconic Impreza took the staring roles. The game was praised in games journalism for its ultra-realistic physics and gorgeous visuals and sold in it’s hundreds of thousands. In a direct relation to the success of the video game, Subaru saw the buzz around the Impreza grow with sales of the devastatingly quick P1 version particularly impressive.

Throughout the noughties the Subaru Impreza in its various iterations became the boy racers dream. The 4WD beast became available to buy in deep metallic blue with gold rims, echoing the livery of the famous rally car. Today Subaru faces tough rivalry from the Mitsubishi Evo 10 which is widely thought of as the better model and sells well through contract hire firms. But through the WRC, Colin McRae and that massively popular game, Subaru has been able to cement a place in the UK car market with a wide range of models from super-minis to 4x4s. Subaru is living proof that a strong motorsport heritage can translate into healthy sales figures!