One of the most spectacular and special cars that have passed through Spanish roads is the 2003 Subaru Impreza S9 WRC. One of the official units (chassis number five) was present in our lands for several years. In the new episode of Reports, Tramalón will tell the story -or part of it- of this fantastic CAR in the hands of teams like Vilariño Motorsport.
We will focus on the years it was in the hands of the Vilariño family, passing through the hands of three different drivers. Before that, in his World Rally Car season, he was used by Petter Solberg – in the year of his WRC title – and by Tommi Mäkinen (both in 2003). In 2004 and 2005 it was enjoyed by French fans as it passed through the hands of Stéphane Sarrazin (Subaru WRC driver in 2005 and 2006) and Nicolas Vouilloz, IRC champion with Peugeot in 2008.
His first two years in Spain (2006-2007) were spent in the Canary Islands with Juan Luis Cruz at his command. In 2008 he arrived in the Basque Country, acquired by the Vilariño family. Gorka Apalantza was one of the lucky ones that he enjoyed driving it, and with several victories. Thanks to this, he managed to win the 2008 Basque Rallysprint Championship among numerous WRCs. Nine victories achieved with this car. His last appearance was the 2009 Azpeitia-Ikasberri Rallysprint. Since then Apalantza hasn`t competed again.
The turn from 2009 was for Andrés’ son, Ander Vilariño, a regular driver at the Hillclimb and two-time European Champion in 2005 and 2007. His appearances between that year and 2011 were sporadic, but with numerous triumphs. In 2010 he contested six races with full victories in all of them. It showed his speed in a new discipline for him.
The other member of the family, Angela, also had fun with the Subaru in some race before its sale. She achieved a total of three victories with the mount in 2011 alongside Alazne Apalantza and Borja Guereñu. In 2015, as many will know, the Basque returned to rallying with a full program within the Spanish Asphalt Championship, an Opel Adam R2 and Sara Fernández to the right of her.
Chassis number five of the Impreza WRC said goodbye to Spain in 2011 with victory in the Rally Ciudad de San Sebastián. Since then the car has been in France, with very few races held since 2012. We leave you with several interesting documents about the car in Basque Country:
