Subaru caused quite a stir among enthusiasts when it unveiled the Viziv Performance Concept at last October's Tokyo Motor Show, and the inevitable conclusion they drew was that it was really a preview of the next Subaru WRX.
That's now starting to seem like something of a certainty now that Subaru has revealed teaser images ahead of the Tokyo Auto Salon (Jan. 12 to 14) of the Viziv Performance STI Concept, which looks to be a preview of the next WRX STI.
As the name suggests, the Viziv Performance STI is pretty much what we'd imagine the original Viziv Performance concept would be like if it was handed over to those clever people at Subaru Tecnica International, which is the official motorsports and tuning arm of Subaru.
The Viziv concept we saw last autumn in Tokyo was already a crowd-pleasing design, but as we'd expect with an STI model, the images we've been given ahead of the full reveal of this one shows a much flashier vehicle altogether. The trademark pink STI badge is right where it should be in the grille, and it's complemented by pink accent lines in the grille, the front lip spoiler, the new air inlet, the side skirts, and on the rear wing. And as it has to be with any STI worth its salt, the rear spoiler is absolutely enormous. Also unsurprisingly, the flared wheel arches may also be a little wider than they are on the standard Viziv concept.
There's no word about powertrain details ahead of the official reveal, although being Subaru, it's hard to imagine anything else under the hood other than a flat-four engine with all-wheel drive. However, the new WRX and WRX STI were recently said to be scheduled for 2020 and that they could utilize some form of hybrid propulsion system. With the way emissions regulations are going these days, a 48V mild hybrid would have to be the very minimum requirement to allow Subaru to market these new models on a global basis.
