THE SUCCESS of the Impreza in the World Rally Championship during the 1990s turned Subaru into a global cult icon. Until then a niche manufacturer of boxy, all-wheel-drives, the Japanese marque was beloved by farmers, country doctors and real estate agents, but lacked emotional appeal.
But when Subaru's engineers began to tinker with the Impreza's rugged, effective but fairly simple chassis - and bolted a brace of turbochargers on to its boxer engine, they created the WRX, a rally world-beater. Almost overnight, an ugly duckling became an object of extreme desire: insanely fast, worshipped by petrolheads, celebrated in computer games and imitated by much bigger manufacturers eager for similar cult cred.
Subaru has yet to turn rallying success into widespread brand recognition, however. This is certainly the case with the company's biggest saloon, the Legacy B4 (the initials stand for 'Boxer Four'). Using a turbocharged, four-cam, two-litre engine similar to that of the Impreza WRX, as well as all-wheel drive, earlier versions of the model were rapid and capable, but their anachronistic looks seemed lumpish next to the Audis, BMWs and Mercedes.
Mechanically, the B4 seems similar to its predecessors, with a single-turbo engine that produces 260 brake-horsepower and an even more astonishing 343 Newtons per metre of torque at just 2,400rpm.
The familiar all-wheel-drive powertrain has now been hooked to a new standard five-speed Sportshift automatic gearbox, which is not only programmable but offers semi-manual, Tiptronic-style override. Keeping all this on top of the European competition is a new suspension setup that features wider track and revised geometry front and rear, as well as Bilstein dampers.
Idiosyncrasies remain in the new Legacy's looks, from the enormous air scoop in the middle of the bonnet (visual chest hair that's become an established element of the B4's bloodline) and the frameless side windows, to the rear-window wiper. The long-nose, short-rear-deck profile and the wide grille, with its horizontal chrome bar, have also been carried over from its predecessor. But the lines have been sharpened, with a lower, sleeker nose emphasised by a pair of edgy-looking light covers, while the curved cabin ends in a high tail whose upturned light clusters and side crease cleverly suggest a Kamm-style spoiler.