SUBARU RS/ B4 TURBO
LUXURIOUS AND WITH LONG LEGS THE B4 WAS A WRX FOR GROWN UPS
The Legacy sedan (renamed Liberty for Australia) took Subaru and its buyers to a market niche previously forbidden to the brand and its range of basic two and four-wheel drive models.
The Liberty was a sophisticated medium-sized design with All-Wheel Drive that didn’t need to be manually selected when the running got rough. Performance wasn’t initially a Liberty attribute, but that changed late in 1990 when preview versions of the snarling RS Turbo sedan arrived.
The RS should have been a strong seller in a country like Australia with our open spaces and predominance of second-rate roads. It wasn’t and that lack of success reflected Australia’s general lack of interest in all-wheel drive performance cars.
Sedans priced at $36,990 hit the showrooms in 1991, followed a year later by an RS wagon. Both used a 2.0-litre, quad-cam engine that revved to 6500rpm and developed 147kW. Standard boost was a conservative 0.7 Bar and people who bought RS Turbos for competition found that 200kW could be easily extracted.
Five-speed manual transmission was mandatory, airconditioning, electric windows and mirrors, a four speaker stereo and cruise control, fog-lights and a boot spoiler all standard with ABS brakes optional.
Despite the risk posed by considerable mechanical complexity and a drive-train that was being pushed pretty close to its limits, Subaru bravely included the RS in its Three Year/100,000km Warranty programme.
The RS was withdrawn in 194 and while turbo versions Legacy continued to sell overseas Australia relied on the smaller WRX. Then in 2001 we saw the 190kW Liberty B4 with twin turbochargers and some quirks which Liberty enthusiasts stepping up from an RS were disappointed to discover.
Lag at the switch point between turbo #1 and its high-end compatriot manifested like a brief encounter with a rev limiter. That irritation apart the B4 was a fun thing to drive and came with leather trim, climate-control a/c, a full body kit an 17-inch alloys.. Early B4s were ones were manual only, then from 2002 a four-speed automatic became available.
One grumble was the lack of factory-fitted cruise control, Some cars had after-market systems fitted by dealers and other have adapted used units from the Outback. Informed owners say the wiring is in the loom and competent people can do the job easily.
Given that the vast majority of B4s have been on the road for almost 20 years and RS Turbos closer to 30, survivors in outstanding condition are understandably scarce. What isn’t explicable is why they still cost ridiculously little money.
The typical RS Turbo sedan will have travelled around 300,000 kilometres, still be on its original engine and sell for less than $6000. Budgeting a further $3000 to replace the motor with a later-model, used unit is sensible.
Less than $10,000 will also buy a B4 that needs very little doing and will, providing you don’t expect it to travel huge annual distances, deliver several years of low-cost enjoyment.