Good news! The rally-bred Impreza is back! Pat Devereux straps into the 300bhp, 4WD turbo-loon

So what's it like to drive?

Predictably banzai. Our first drive of it was at Laguna Seca racetrack where the STI felt totally at home, if a little breathless. Even working the engine as hard as possible the chassis didn't feel even slightly stressed. Steering feedback is definitely improved - if still quite detached - and there's a healthy dose of lift-off oversteer available with everything switched off.

Brakes were strong and progressive, gearbox slick and engine noises appropriate. Preferred settings here were: Intelligent; Traction; and DCCD in manual mode with a rear bias.

On the road, the STI feels much the same as on the track, but you immediately feel all that new stiffness in the chassis. Every bump, lump and crack is telegraphed to not just your hands, but your back and backside, too. This is exactly what you want when you are blazing to your next destination in an imaginary hurry, but progressively more painful after about an hour of the same.

Which is exactly the way an STI should be: hard, fast and grippy. Preferred settings: Sport; Traction; DCCD manual with no bias.

Should I buy one?

There are other cars that are faster, more exotic and/or more premium. But none of them offers the same offbeat combination of rally-bred performance and handling like the WRX STI. If you like your console driving games, you'll love this car.

The 2015 Subaru WRX STI is the fastest new Subaru you can buy. This rally race ready street car is fast, fun and iconic. In another accurate, fun and informative TFLcar review Nathan drives and reviews 2015 Subaru WRX STI near Monterey, California.

The name is Bond, Michael Bond, and he is the founder and owner of a UK company called Rumbler that is purportedly planning to recreate the looks of the striking 2013 Subaru WRX Concept on the production WRX with a project codenamed "Concept 13".

To my knowledge, Subaru has only confirmed a limited number of units of the WRX STI (and not the WRX) for Britain, but Rumbler says it will "by-pass the normal supply channels to import additional models specifically for the Concept 13 project". How that's possible and if Subaru UK will allow it, is something I do not know.

But what exactly will Rumbler do to the production car to make it look more like the study we all loved? Well, here's what the press blurb states:

"It will restyle the WRX body to reflect the original Subaru concept around the nose and tail and recreate its sophisticated modern design style. Although little can be done with the bulk of the body every customer will also be given tuning options for the engine to raise performance above the standard model from 350 bhp upwards to a maximum potential of 1,000 bhp depending on the customer's preference and budget."

Leaving aside the insane horsepower figure coming from a company that, on its website, showcases drawings of a Batmobile Tumbler-inspired study and the Ultra-Smart Watch, the whole idea sounds vague, if you ask me, and let's be honest; the concept looked great mostly because of its proportions and low-slung, coupe-like styling, both of which can't be recreated without new sheetmetal from top to bottom. Deleting the rear wing and adding a new fascia and rear diffuser won't really turn the WRX into the impressive concept, will it...

Right now, it's only an idea with Rumbler stating that, "production will begin when we cross the threshold of fifty (50) confirmed orders. There is no upper limit," and adding that, "At present the Concept 13 project is limited to the UK/British Isles (including Eire) but may be extended to other markets with sufficient demand".

We know for a fact that Subaru has priced the WRX STI at £28,995 a pop in the UK – so if Bond is referring to the STI and not the plain WRX, that would mean an investment of at least £1.45 million (US$2.4 million) for the cars alone.

A visit to Rumbler's website, where Michael Bond describes himself as "confidential escrow financial services agent" by day and a "technology designer, innovator and occasional writer" by night, will probably raise more questions than answers (i.e. this: "Acquiring The RUMBLER Sport Tank – FREE)", at least until we see something tangible to back up the talk.

If you check Subaru's public website or one of your local dealers, you can still order a Subaru Impreza WRX hatchback in the States – in fact, you can even choose between a 2013MY and 2014MY, possibly negotiating a lower price in the process.

However, that's the outgoing model, not the new, non-Impreza-labeled 2015 WRX and WRX STI that are available for pre-order exclusively as four-door sedans.

We haven't heard anything about Subaru having plans for five-door hatchback iterations of the series, with the Japanese carmaker stating that sedan models are more popular and also provide better potential for growth in this sports category.

You never know if they'll change their minds down the road, but for now, the only thing we can give you is this rendering from RM Design that turned the WRX STI sedan into a hatch, complete with a big rear spoiler.