Why '22B' ?
 

Whats the basis for the moniker?

Hexadecimal for 555 the tobaco sponsors for Subaru.

From the SIDC FAQ (http://www.sidc.co.uk/faq.htm#1.3)

In late 1998, Subaru UK officially imported 16 22Bs (described below), and passed them on to Prodrive for modification. The UK cars differ from the privately imported 22Bs, not just in their 3 year factory warranty, but with revised gear ratios more suited to UK roads. The was acheived by changing the final drive ratio from 3.9 to 4.44 to lengthen the gearing. Cosmetically, the car got the headlights from the '99 model, UK rear light clusters and driving lights (not fog lights!) were fitted where the normal 22B has blanking plates. From the back, you can tell you're looking at one of the rarest cars in the world by the "Type UK" and "Prodrive" stickers. The price was £39,950, and demand for the cars was overwhelming.

Interestingly, Subaru UK were not able to put their 16 cars through the Single Vehicle Approval scheme because the maximum of 50 privately imported 22Bs had already been registered in 1998. Consequently the Type UKs were registered in 1999. The cars do not meet European Type Approval regulations for noise and emissions.

cheers :up:

It also (uniquely) has a 2.2 Boxer engine, which is another random guess at where the name came from. There's no 'official' explanation - but then again, nobody asks what the significance is of 'S203' (except that it comes after the equally random S201 and S202), or 'Spec C' ('C' for what, exactly? Not 'cheap', that's for sure).

ok - off at a tangent now - why are the US models (Scooby in general not 22B)generally 2.5 rather than the 2.0?

emissions, and the need for a torquey motor as americans are lazy and dont like to work the gear box. Plus it is easier to get the same power with more capacity.

on the 22B front, 22B is 555 in hexadecimal, 555 being the sponsors at the time. I suspect that was coincidence.

Andy - yeah I was always under the impression it meant 2.2 Boxer.

C in Spec C is competition I believe, although some say its because the Japs use A, B and C to categorise levels of tuning, in which case it doesnt stand for anything :D

Politics, mostly. Some claim it's down to poor fuel quality in the US meaning that the specific output (power/litre) can't be as high as in Europe or Japan, but the fact that the US measures and reports octane levels using a different system means the numbers aren't directly comparable and this misleads some people.

Go to the US and you'll see that even the most basic cars get 2 litre engines almost as a minimum. Try and sell a performance car in the US with a 2.0 engine and people will look at you funny, just as they would if someone tried to sell a 'high performance' 1.4 over here. It just wouldn't have credibility in the market, however good it was.

Bollox Andy ;) :) , the Renault 5 GT Turbo was one hell of a 1.4!
Cman

And still is:)