A brutalist goodbye for the current generation.
Now that Subaru’s confirmed that the Detroit auto show (opening January 14th) will host the launch of their WRX STI S209, the company’s internal teaser mill can get to work in earnest. Following the super close-up shot of the grille (revealing the S209 badge) comes a darkened-out, but rather-revealing image of the special edition, that thus far has had very few details screwed down.
What’s obvious to us with this second teaser is that the S209 (fittingly) wears a very aggressive exterior treatment, made up of a wide bodykit replete with front bumper canards, large bumper air intakes, and gold wheels.
Actually we’re assuming the wheels are gold based on the teaser video they’ve showed us in the past, from which we’ve also assumed that there’ll be a goalpost of a rear wing too. The latest teaser photo is in greyscale, oddly. But whatever the colour of the car is, the hue seen in the greyscale photo is rather nice. We hope that sticks as it goes into production.
Speaking of production, Subaru has yet to clarify how many S209s are going to be made for the North American market. We’re assuming it’s a highly-limited number, the same way the S208s were very limited when offered in Japan. The S209 is also likely to miss to on the 2.0-litre flat-four engine that the S208 got in its home market, in favour of the 2.5-litre boxer mill that’s more suited to US fuel quality.
We can’t wait to see the S209 make its debut, if just to see what can be eked out of the current-generation Subaru WRX STI. Any day now.
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