At $712K, Iconic Auctioneers Sneaked a Prodrive P25 into Blue-Chip Territory

Not two weeks ago, on this very platform, my colleague, Grace Jarvis, blurred the truth when she published a story about a pretty special Subaru headed for auction. I know Grace Jarvis. She’s an upstanding citizen, a stellar journalist, a devoted gearhead, and a person with a soft spot for old Volvos. She likes what Cadillac is up to, and she once let me drive her Fiesta ST, very fast, on twisty roads, with nary a care. Grace is good people, is what I’m saying, so believe me when I tell you that her piece, titled “Attention Subaru WRC Fans: A Prodrive P25 Is Up for Grabs” was meant neither to mislead nor deceive you—nor I, for that matter, as her editor on the story—because a Prodrive P25 really was up for grabs, at Bonhams’ online auction.

What Grace didn’t know at the time, what none of us knew (because, er, we didn’t get the press release …), was that, in fact, two Prodrive P25s were up for grabs! Fully 2/25ths (a fraction that does not reduce) of the entire production run of these hand-built tributes to Subaru’s WRC dominance of the late 1990s were being offered by two separate British auction houses within two days of one another. Now, she was absolutely correct in stating that the Bonhams car, the tenth built, showing 190 miles, and the only one in silver, was the first P25 to be offered for public sale. When the sale took place on February 21, however, it failed to sell after seven bids at a high of £350,250 ($442,175).

The very next day, however, at its annual Race Retro auction in Coventry, Iconic Auctioneers served up numero uno, the very first P25 constructed. Looking fetching in traditional blue-over-gold wheels, consigned by the original owner, and showing just 121 miles, it faired considerably better, and when the hammer fell it sold for £562,500 ($712,380). The car was reported to have £17,000 in options from new, including Sparco SPX racing seats with four-point harnesses, rear seat delete with a cage installed, and 12 total wheels (six gold shod in Bridgestone Pontenza Sports, six anthracite wheels only). The price here eclipsed the £552,000 MSRP on these cars when Prodrive began production in 2023. 

If love is what makes a Subaru a Subaru, then surely a carbon fiber body, a gigantic Garrett turbo, rally launch control, a titanium exhaust, AP Racing brakes, a six-speed sequential gearbox, an electronically controlled center differential, bonkers performance, and the most exacting engineering in the world are what make a Prodrive P25 a Prodrive P25. Still, there must have been some love involved, or at least utter devotion, on the part of the winning bidder here, for there is certainly something to be said for owning the very first of an extremely limited, ultra-high-performance car—and paying whatever it takes to get it. 

In the admittedly small realm of blue-chip Japanese collector cars—one topped by the Toyota 2000GT but chiefly comprised of R33 and R34 GT-Rs, Acura NSXs, third-gen Supra Turbos and RX-7s, and the occasional Mazda Cosmo—with this result the P25 has passed its entrance exam with flying colors. Who’s to say what held the Bonhams car back, but I doubt this is the last we’ll see of the Prodrive P25 at auction, now that numero uno has set the bar.