2001 Subaru Legacy Wagon Outback H6 *nice Car! on 2040-cars

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Catch the rally bug in one easy step at Wales Rally GB

You should go watch a rally. Yes, you. And by "a rally," I mean pretty much anything that could be considered a rally. Is there a grassroots rallycross event near you featuring some $500 beater Subarus mucking about in a field? Go to that. Or a full-blown WRC event. Set your coffeemaker to kick out some extra-potent brew, because you'll probably have to wake up early and drive for a bit to see something. But trust me, it'll be worth it. In Europe, with hundreds of events concentrated in a relatively small geographical area, in all sorts of environments (snow, forest, dirt, you name it), this is a lot easier. North America is huge. Your TV is closer, your couch is comfortable. That's the challenge for hooking new rally fans in America. So, why get off your tail? I travelled to Wales, the tiny windswept country on the western edge of Great Britain, to find out. First, we stopped by David Higgins' rally school, parked at the top of a sheep-studded ridge in the middle of nowhere. This was a two-part trip. The first bit was a visit to David Higgins' rally school, parked at the top of a sheep-studded ridge in the middle of nowhere. The second part was the main event: watching the headline rally event in the UK – WRC Wales Rally GB – in what amounted to a tropical storm at winter temperatures. Despite the challenges, it was one of those trips that left me smiling the whole time. At the Higgins Rally School, we had a very abbreviated experience, essentially the highlights of a multi-day course condensed into a few short hours. The first was learning how to do J-turns on mud, in an old UK-market Ford Escort ... with right-hand drive, and so, a left-hand manual shift, which made it much harder to nail the technique with the "wrong" hand. Then, it was off for a lap with an instructor in the passenger seat in a rear-drive-converted Subaru Impreza WRX – flying through gravel, mud, within spitting distance of piles of logs. That was exhilarating. Or at least, it was, until the ride-alongs with the pros. Jimmy McRae, a storied driver and father to the late and even more storied Colin McRae, was behind the wheel. The car was an early 1990s Prodrive-built Legacy, a real works car, and it made demonic noises as McRae flew through the woods, mostly sideways.

Scion FR-S Convertible (in Toyota GT86 form) spied in South Africa

Though the eventual existence of a convertible version of the Toyota GT86 (and its Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ versions for America) is a no-brainer, we've yet to get a glimpse of the real-deal car until now.
Spotted in Cape Town, South Africa, of all places, this completely undisguised GT86 convertible seems to be in a remarkably advanced state of development. The image seen here was obviously sniped from quite a distance and without the aid of a powerful lens, but we can still make out a production-ready looking piece of rear bodywork for the convertible top to hide away in, as well as a functioning trunk lid. It's hard to make out with any certainty, based on this evidence, but there does seem to be space retained behind the front seats for two, small rear chairs.
With the first car spotted, we'd expect to seem some more and better images of it flow through in the near future, and if not, Toyota has already confirmed a concept version for next month's Geneva Motor Show, dubbed FT-86 Open, so stay tuned. For now, click through to the FT86Club.com forum to have a slightly closer look at the images.

Subaru WRX STI EJ20 Final Edition a Japan-only goodbye

Just before Subaru stopped selling the WRX STI in the UK and Continental Europe, the automaker released 150 examples of a WRX STI Final Edition for the UK. Now that the Japanese-market WRX STI is about to give up its 2.0-liter EJ20 flat-four engine, the company's repeated the gesture. Subaru will produce 555 of the WRX STI EJ20 Final Edition for buyers in Japan, celebrating the motor that's served for 30 years in turbo and non-turbo forms in a bag of Subie models ever since it found a home in the 1989 JDM Legacy sedan. We'll guess the production figure recalls Subaru's blue and yellow World Rally Championship livery when State Express cigarette brand 555 sponsored the multiple-championship-winning team from 1993 to 2004.  This take on the turbocharged EJ20 rocks 304 horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque. Those aren't output numbers to make a statement, seeing as they're less than the 325 horses and 318 lb-ft in the special edition WRX STI S208 from two years ago, and the 320 hp and 320 lb-ft in the S207 from four years ago, both with the same EJ20 engine. The Final Edition does get engine tweaks like mass-balanced pistons, upgraded clutch and flywheel, and a plaque reading "EJ20 Final Edition." Power's sent through a six-speed manual to four 19-inch, gold BBS wheels held back by Brembo brakes. As the automaker did with the S208, the EJ20 Final Edition will only be available through via a lottery application on a local Subaru site between Oct. 24 and Nov. 11, priced at JPY4,521,000 ($41,620 U.S.). After that, orders for other versions of the WRX and STI with the 2.0-liter will only be taken until Dec. 23, 2019. As the WRX STI endgame continues, we're left to wonder what's headed this way in the next-generation model. The EJ25 2.5-liter boxer-four specific to our market will bow out, but competing narratives suspect larger and smaller engines could replace it. At least one report thinks the Levorg wagon's 1.8-liter turbo might power the next WRX — our WRX currently uses the FA20 2.0-liter with 268 horses, and a report from August predicts the next WRX STI to get a more powerful FA20 with 315 horsepower. The new-gen sedan is expected to bow next year before launch in 2021.