mess with at the traffi c lights or, more to the point, down
a twisty B-road. The ballistic three-box saloon reinforced
the everyman aspiration of having a sensible family car
that was actually a rally car underneath, and the buying
public couldn’t get enough.
...and then one day, without any particular warning,
Subaru decided to yoink the rug sharply out from
beneath everybody’s feet by announcing that the new-
for-2007 Impreza would be a hatchback. And everyone
said ‘Oh. What, really...?’ while pulling a face like a baby
who’s just accidentally licked some vinegar. The Impreza
hatch was, in short, not totally what the public wanted.
But underdogs often make the best project bases and,
while the world’s moved on a bit and we’ve sort of got
used to the idea of a hatchback Impreza, there’s still
something deliciously naughty about altering its very
essence and reinventing it as a stance queen.
Don’t go thinking it’s all show and no go, however. In
this particular guise, the Thai-spec Impreza runs an EJ20
motor – that’s the 2.0-litre fl at-four found in countless
big-power Imprezas (and Legacys, and Foresters...),
and Jitpaphat certainly hasn’t left it stock. These
engines are always a bit weird to look at, their boxer
confi guration doesn’t make for the most logical engine
bay view, but poke through the spaghetti and you’ll
spot a shiny billet turbo in there, a TD05 20G with the
iconic HKS mushroom fi lter hanging off the end alongWHO IS AZC?
This Impreza wears a bodykit by AZC – but just who is that? It’s a company based in Bangkok, the
initialism being short for Addzest Carcolor, and they deal with a broad spread of modifi cation services –
paint, wheels, suspension, you name it. And of course, there’s the custom widebody kits. They do a bit
of retro stuff , but most of their work focuses on late-model Japanese cars, Hondas in particular. So if you
fi nd yourself in Thailand looking for a new exhaust or a colour change on your FK8, AZC is who you call!
Check ’em out on Facebook (search ‘AZC Addzest Carcolor’), they’re kind of a big deal...Defi ning car culture 029SUBARU IMPREZA
A rear end to rival those on Love Island
A boxer with a big punch