TEG LAUNCHES R5/WRC SK OD A SUBARU HYBRID

Subaru specialists and British Rally Championship winning team TEG Sport has developed a new car for 2019, taking the best parts of a Skoda Fabia R5 and a Subaru Impreza World Rally Car and combining the two.

The car has a Skoda Fabia R5 shell with R5 suspension and dampers, but then has a twolitre turbo engine from an Impreza WRC and a Modena six-speed paddleshift gearbox used regularly in Subarus by TEG. The outfit has nicknamed it the ‘Skodaru’.

TEG’S Imprezas consistently win rallies all over the country, with mechanic Arron Newby a Manx Rally champion in its cars, while Jock Armstrong has won two Scottish Rally Championships with the team.

Stuart Newby, TEG boss and father of Arron, dreamed up the concept with some of his Impreza customers.

“Subaru haven’t done a lot for a while and they aren’t bringing new rally cars out,” he said.

“I’ve had some customers that I’ve had for years that were ready to move on to something else. We sat down one night and everybody was off to buy an R5, or we built something that was a bit more trick.”

The car will be available in right or left-hand-drive, and the company has 10 in build with eight already sold. Newby is hoping the test and development car will be out in mid-january.

The car will cost around £120,000, at least £20,000 cheaper than most second-hand Ford Fiesta R5s, and will cost less to rebuild as engine and gearbox refreshments can be done at home or at a variety of workshops, whereas R5s have to be returned to their builder.

The Subaru engine is lighter and more powerful than the Skoda R5’s 1600cc unit, but Newby believes the real benefit will come with the way the new parts are packaged.

“We’ve put the Subaru flat- four engine in, which is aluminium [lighter], we’ve managed to get it low down and a fair way back, so we don’t have a lot of weight in front of the front dampers,” added Newby.

“The heaviest part of our car is the gearbox and it’s at the centre of the car. Everything we could get down on the floor, we have, to keep the weight low. I think that will be the key to this car working well. We have no overhang in the front or rear, the weight is dead centre.”

The car could prove to be popular in Ireland as there is demand for right-hand-drive R5s, none of which are currently homologated.