Estate car practicality, a 2.5-litre turbocharged boxer four engine, a six-speed manual gearbox, rally-bred four-wheel drive, gold brake calipers and a bonnet scoop. That’s a rather special sounding list of attributes for a single car to have, isn’t it?

So, let us make your day just a little brighter by confirming that you could have all of those things for just £8,990. Yep, they all come courtesy of this Subaru Forester STI that’s currently for sale via Japanese import specialists Torque GT, and you absolutely must buy it.

As you’ll well know, the Forester STI was only sold in the Japanese Domestic Market, but the Impreza WRX STI underpinnings and dog carrying space out back have made it an extremely popular import to the UK. 

This particular example is a pre-facelift 2004 car (which to our eyes is the best-looking Forester variant) and features a Stage 1 tuning pack that includes a Haywood and Scott exhaust, an AEM fuel pump and a Cosworth air filter. Oh, and it’s been mapped to produce 325hp, up from the standard 260hp. Nice. 

It’s got 153,800km on the clock, but just look at how clean that engine bay is. We’re getting slightly weak at the knees. Someone please take the plunge and sign on the dotted line before we do…

STORY Greg Potts
PHOTOS Torque GT