As the saying goes, you'll strike treasure when you least expect to find it. That was what happened when we struck gold with this featured car. What you see here is the ultimate production Subaru, the FIA rally homologation special 2006 STi Spec C.

We couldn't believe our luck when we saw the VIN plaque that displayed the SLH option code to compliment the GDB F4FH 2006 STi chassis code. This car was made available to us by importers Tenaga Wan Bersaudara at their Jalan Jelatek, KL showroom and they'd told us only that it was the Version 9 STi.

Honestly though, I couldn't really tell that it was the Spec C on location. The new nose with it's sharper ‘eyes' and fancier tail lights are just as the regular STi's. So are the BBS alloys and those super aggressive Bridgestone RE070 rubber. But then I saw the rally style roof vent and the neat roof vane – the spoiler at the trailing edge of the roof.

Still I had my doubts as Imprezas and Evos that come to our market via the grey channel tend to be inconsistently specced with lots of extras thrown in by the importers to add value to their unit. Even the huge box-type rear spoiler wouldn't be to hard to source.

On thing I did know for sure though was that this is a JDM model, clearly indicated by the fact that it is powered by the 2.0litre EJ20 boxer engine, not the recently unveiled 2.5 litre version meant for the Eurpoean and US markets. It wasn't till I got to do some background research that my suspicions were conformed.

(The rest of the article can be found in Hypertune Vol. 51)

Text: Hisham
Photo: Victor Chen

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