Ex-Richard Burns Subaru Impreza WRC up for grabs at 80MM | GRR
A slice of rallying history will be up for grabs during the Bonhams sale at the 80th Members Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport. This 1999 Subaru Impreza Prodrive WRC, plated ‘T15 SRT’, is the car with which the late great Richard Burns drove the 2000 Monte Carlo rally, winning a stage along the way. It could be yours for near enough an equivalent price to the recently-announced Prodrive P25…
Of course, the P25 is a ‘restomod’ that doesn’t come with provenance. This is a proper stage-winning rally car. Burns and co-driver Robert Reid would have been in the running for the overall win, if not for an overnight cold snap. The conditions ended the rally for no less than four cars in the top ten, including Burns’ Subaru, alongside three 206 WRCs. Tommi Mäkinen went on to win the 68th running of the Monte Carlo Rally in the Mitsubishi Evo.
After its year on the world stage this Impreza was moved on by Prodrive to Armando Pereira, who campaigned the car in the French Rally Championship. He racked up class and overall wins over the next couple of years before being moved on again in 2004. Following conversion to gravel spec, it won the French Gravel championship following a consistent season-long campaign. The car wouldn’t retire from gravel competition until 2011, leaving ‘T15 SRT’ with a decade of campaigns under its belt and significant historical provenance
The car moved to the custody of its current owner in 2018, who commissioned VMS Competition to carry out a comprehensive restoration. The five-year process involved total disassembly and the procurement of rare original parts, including carbon-fibre seats and magnesium wheels that saw action in Monaco all the way back in 2000.
The car is now resplendent in its Monte Carlo 2000 livery, complete with original componentry and a Prodrive Inspection report complete as of March 2023. This ready-to-run historic rally car could be yours, with Bonhams estimating it’ll go for between £430,000 and £520,000. As a piece of rallying history, sharing a moment of victory with the great Richard Burns, this is a car that’s near-unrepeatable, that will be available to buy during the Bonhams 80MM sale on 16th April.
Images courtesy of Bonhams.