{"id":247988,"date":"2023-12-10T08:49:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T08:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/?p=247988"},"modified":"2023-12-10T08:49:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T08:49:01","slug":"prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Prodrive P25 Review &#8211; British rally-bred monster takes on the world"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Daily Express test drive Prodrive&#039;s P25<\/h3>\n<h3>What we love<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Earth-shattering dynamics and noise<\/li>\n<li>It still has mod cons despite being stripped out<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s the closest to driving a WRC car you can get<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What we don&#8217;t<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Going over potholes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the middle of First Man, the biopic about Neil Armstrong, there is a sequence that sees him and fellow astronaut David Scott head into space to rendezvous with the Agena. Shot from the inside, the audience is taken on a ride as their spacecraft is thrust upwards.<\/p>\n<p>As it does so, the whole thing shakes and groans and howls and squeals as it battles the laws of physics before reaching the calm of space, it is violent but thrilling &#8211; just like the Prodrive P25.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly to its space-bound cousin the Gemini SC8, it is not designed for comfort or luxury, it is not designed to cushion your blows, it is designed for a purpose and that purpose is performance.<\/p>\n<p>What&rsquo;s more, just like the rocket it can&#8217;t fit more than two people and the ride isn&#8217;t the smoothest. However, like that rocket, it is a raw and unbridled piece of artistry.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Express.co.uk was invited to its home and creators, motorsport experts Prodrive who have won Le Mans, the World Rally Championship, and developed dune-conquering Dakar prototypes.<\/p>\n<p>The Prodrive P25 is a restomod, a car which looks old but is completely new.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Prodrive has modified the car to look like the rally winning leviathans it ran in the late-1990s and given it the performance as well as the reliability of a modern supercar, a car which is also now mostly made of carbon fibre rather than steel or aluminium.<\/p>\n<p>The changes aren&#8217;t just skin deep and go far beyond a new bodyshell. Prodrive has boosted power on the 2.5-litre turbocharged boxer engine to over 450bhp. Torque is up too, and the suspension has been modified with bespoke upgrades alongside new brakes and an anti-lag system in the sportiest of the three drive modes (Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus).<\/p>\n<p>Inside, the interior may seem spartan, but look closely and you spot an up-to-date infotainment system and an electric handbrake. However, this is about as far as the mod-cons go, the whole point of the Prodrive P25 is that it is as close as someone can get to owning a World Rally Car for the road.<\/p>\n<p>That may sound like a clich&eacute; but look closer and you&#8217;ll notice the four-point harnesses, the extinguisher system, the single paddle for changing gear (just like a 2017-2021 spec WRC car), and then you start it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/24\/940x\/secondary\/Prodrive-in-Shenington-5106530.jpg?r=1702069152298\"><\/p>\n<p>The car awakens with a loud bang as the exhaust fires up and the beast awakens<\/p>\n<p>Without even moving an inch, the car has let you, the uninitiated, know it is not just an Impreza. Far from it, for &pound;460,000 you would hope it isn&#8217;t, but it is worth every single penny, for one simple reason.<\/p>\n<p>It isn&#8217;t the exclusivity, only 25 are being built and they&#8217;re all sold, and it isn&#8217;t AI tech, because there isn&rsquo;t any. It is like a boxing match that begins when the wheels start moving and goes beyond stiff suspension and a single-gear shift paddle because you don&#8217;t drive the P25 like anything else.<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, the clutch pedal isn&#8217;t connected to anything, it&#8217;s fly-by-wire and you don&#8217;t use it after first gear.<\/p>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re rolling you pull on the paddle to go up a gear and push it away to go down. The six-speed sequential gearbox doesn&#8217;t have a synchromesh either so the gear shifts are aggressive and combined with the engine give you a shove in the back as you&rsquo;re propelled through the air.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/24\/940x\/secondary\/Prodrive-P25-Road-5106532.jpg?r=1702069152370\"><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to stopping, it&#8217;s all on you because there&#8217;s no ABS and no traction control, something I initially thought I wanted on a day when temperatures barely rose above freezing and the ground was still frozen in some places.<\/p>\n<p>If driving a nearly half-million-pound car with no ABS and no traction control on frozen roads sounds terrifying, it isn&rsquo;t. My synapses were firing so fast and my mind was so engaged that those factors didn&#8217;t cross my mind until after we&#8217;d returned to Prodrive HQ.<\/p>\n<p>Before then I got a taste of just what half a million pounds gets you in the corners and with its no-nonsense approach to lightweight and high power-based physics you get a car which darts from corner to corner like no other.<\/p>\n<p>Every press of the throttle is met with an instant response, and each turn of the wheel is met with messages telling you the grip &ndash; thanks in part to the car&#8217;s tyres &#8211; is there and will remain so.<\/p>\n<p>On the brakes, there is no hint of locking as you balance your foot on the pedal and the car decelerates, its reassurance breathes confidence into your driving, telling you it&#8217;s ok to push on.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/24\/940x\/secondary\/Prodrive-Interior-photo-5106534.jpg?r=1702069152423\"><\/p>\n<p>And push on you do because, at the end of the day, this is a rally car with number plates and not only are rally cars fast, they are tough.<\/p>\n<p>This one, if it ends up living in the UK, will need to be, as the number of potholes&nbsp;rises and the roads become rougher and rougher.<\/p>\n<p>But even potholes are no match for this, Prodrive&#8217;s B-Road King. Noisy and stiff it may be but raw and focused it most definitely is.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s a heavyweight boxer on full-blast, Oasis on Morning Glory, and an antidote to filters society puts upon itself on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Drive the P25 and there is no filter, no hashtags, no photoshop and no autotune. It is a car you respect before launching it at the skyline and makes you a better driver for it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/24\/940x\/secondary\/Christopher-Sharp-standing-next-to-the-Prodrive-P25-5106525.jpg?r=1702069152504\"><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/life-style\/cars\/1843621\/prodrive-p25-subaru-impreza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daily Express test drive Prodrive&#039;s P25 What we love Earth-shattering dynamics and noise It still has mod cons despite being<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prodrive P25 Review - British rally-bred monster takes on the world - AutoMotoBuzz.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prodrive P25 Review - British rally-bred monster takes on the world - AutoMotoBuzz.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daily Express test drive Prodrive&#039;s P25 What we love Earth-shattering dynamics and noise It still has mod cons despite being\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AutoMotoBuzz.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-10T08:49:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Prodrive-P25-Review-British-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world-.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/\",\"name\":\"Prodrive P25 Review - British rally-bred monster takes on the world - AutoMotoBuzz.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-10T08:49:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-10T08:49:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/car-reviews\/prodrive-p25-review-british-rally-bred-monster-takes-on-the-world\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Car Reviews\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/category\/car-reviews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Prodrive P25 Review &#8211; 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