Subaru WRX & WRX STI GC8 · GD · GR/GV · VA

The range, generation by generation

GC8 / GF8 (1992 to 2000): the original

The STI ran as Versions I through VI, the engine climbing from EJ20G to EJ20K to EJ207 and the power from 250 PS up to the 280 PS cap it hit at Version III in 1996, where it stayed. This is also where the badges get misread: the electronic DCCD centre diff, the front helical LSD and the close-ratio box were Type RA and Type R homologation features, not something every STi had. The ordinary road STi ran an open front diff and viscous centre, no DCCD. Crowning the lot is the 22B (more on that below). The US never got this generation at all.

GD / GG (2000 to 2007): bugeye, blobeye, hawkeye

Three facelifts of one chassis, known by their headlights. The STI sedan is the GDB, the wagon STI the GGB (a bugeye-only car). This is where America finally got the STI, in 2004, on the blobeye, so any US bugeye is a WRX, not an STI. The hawkeye (2006 to 2007) is the best-sorted of them, and the JDM S-cars (S202, S203, S204) openly broke the 280 cap at 320 PS.

GR / GV (2007 to 2014): the hatch

The STI came back as a widebody five-door hatch, the GRB, with the widebody sedan GVB returning in 2011 after buyers grumbled about a hatch-only STI. Japan kept the 2.0 EJ207 at around 308 PS; the export and US cars ran the 2.5 EJ257. The 2011-on cars are the sweet spot.

VA (2014 to 2021): the split, and the end

Here the plain WRX left the boxer legend behind for the new FA20 turbo, but the STI held onto the 2.5 EJ257 right to the last car in 2021. Then Subaru pulled the plug: the model that replaced it launched with no STI at all. For now, the VA is the last STI there is.

The 22B STI: the one everyone wants

Built for barely six months in 1998 to mark Subaru's 40th and three straight WRC manufacturers' titles, the 22B is the wide-body, two-door crown of the whole family. Two things people get wrong about it: it is a 2.2-litre (the EJ22, not the usual 2.0), and only about 424 were made, 400 for Japan plus a handful of UK, Australian and prototype cars. Officially 280 PS, in reality nearer 320. It is a six-figure car now, and the registry on this page tracks the ones we can find.

So which WRX or STI do you actually want?

Want the icon on a budget? A clean GC8 WRX is appreciating fast and still attainable, while a genuine STI Version costs more. Want the modern usable one? A hawkeye GD STI (2006 to 2007) is the pick, or a 2011-on GR/GV. Wherever you look the rules are the same: buy a documented, stock car over a modified one every time, get the engine compression-checked (the EJ25's ringland reputation is real, but it is bad tunes and abuse that kill them, not age), and on imported Japanese cars, get underneath and check for rust before you fall for the badge.