It’s 25+ years since the world got to know the Subaru WRX thanks to the exploits of Carlos Sainz and the late, great Colin McRae, to say nothing of Gran Turismo and Sega Rally Championship. But there was a time before W, when it was just “RX,” and when Subaru was just dipping its toes into performance cars for the first time. While its output would seem tepid today, the Subaru Turbo RX you see above is one of those early machines.

The RX only got this monochrome white color scheme in 1987, but the Turbo RX debuted with the enlarged third-gen Leone in 1984. That particular name was never applied in the U.S., as before 1985, Subaru had a one-model lineup here, though it sold overlapping generations of the Leone to Americans.

Rally Subarus

By then, the company already had a rally team and a long history of direct and indirect motorsports participation. The first Subaru to run in a major competition in North America was an FF-1 prepped for California dealer Jack Coyle by a moonlighting Fuji Heavy Industries employee, Noriyuki Koseki, later one of the founders of Subaru Tecnica International (the “STi” in WRX STi).

A decade later, Koseki was running privateer and later loosely factory-sanctioned racing efforts for Subaru. Second and third-gen Leones were regularly competed in the 1980s by drivers like Ari Vatanen, Per Eklund, and most famously Possum Bourne, who scored Subaru’s first podium finish in the 1987 Rally New Zealand.

It wasn’t until the founding of STi and the company’s partnership with ProDrive that they entered the top tier of international rallying, but the Leone-era efforts were still a credible testament to what the cars could do.

American customers knew almost nothing about this. While not entirely unknown, indeed, in 1986-88, the Olympus Rally in the Pacific Northwest was a World Rally Championship (WRC) event; rallying is still not a commonly followed sport in America and definitely wasn’t on most people’s radar in the 1980s. Nor would Subaru’s image in the early 1980s have suggested that performance would be a selling point.

Subarus were “Inexpensive and built to stay that way.” At least until 1984. The first Turbocharged Leone was created in 1983, and at first, the more potent powerplant was confined to the Leone 4WD wagon, which needed all the power it could get. But in 1984, the Turbo was extended to the coupe and sedan versions, and it made them decidedly peppier than before. No surprise, considering that the 1,781-cc EA-81 engine made only 73 hp before the turbo bumped it up to 95.

Subaru Turbo RX

But the second-gen Leone was on its way out in 1984 and the next-gen car was waiting in the wings. The sharp-edged, hip-to-be-square third-gen Leone was bigger, roomier, and more mature than the second-gen car, but not fundamentally different. It used the same basic structure and the same EA-series engines.

While the turbo Leone had been introduced with the EA-81, the new RX used a new version of the EA, The EA-82. On paper it looked pretty similar, a 1,781-cc flat-four with an IHI turbocharger, but redesigned SOHC heads (replacing OHV units), and higher compression boosted power to 115 hp and 123 lb/ft., a nearly 20% improvement over the outgoing EA-81. Japanese versions got even more power, but as was usually the case, federalizing required some compromises.

Despite its increased size, the new car had only grown a little heavier, and while 115 hp would never make the car a rocket, it only had about 2,400 lbs. to haul around, and it was still *a lot* more than the non-turbo Subarus. It was also almost unique on the market at that time, as there just weren’t any other affordable four-wheel drive sports sedans, much less ones *with a low range and locking center differential,* a highly unusual spec if ever there was one.

In its first two model years, the Turbo blended in with the other Subaru sedans, distinguished only by badging and wheels, but in 1987, it got this dramatic monochrome look, strongly influenced by aftermarket trends at home. Usually, these cars also had bold “4WD RX TURBO” decals in addition to the side skirts and air dam, but they’re mysteriously absent here.

Turbo Coupes

The monochrome look was accompanied by an RX Turbo Coupe, a faster version of the Mk3 Leone Coupe that had been introduced in mid-1986. This three-door model was delayed for some time, and Subaru continued to sell the second-gen hatchback (and related BRAT) alongside the new cars in 1985 and 1986.

The addition of the special looks made the Turbo RX Subaru’s first real attempt to specifically pursue sports-sedan customers, who might not have previously been all that aware of Subarus. The coupe went one better, draping the same pieces in a prettier shape. It didn’t move the needle, however, and only 2,600 of the coupes were imported from 1987 to 1989, when both Turbo RX models were put to bed in favor of a juiced version of the new then-new Legacy.

However, the RX Turbo wasn’t the only stab the company made at enthusiasts at the time. The RXs are a bit overshadowed today by all the later Imprezas and Legacy GTs, but at the time, it was the wild XT/Alcyone coupe that drew the air out of the room. Easily the wildest thing to have graced a Subaru of America showroom up to that time, the XT looked like nothing else and offered flat-six power for those who wanted much more than the standard XT could offer. But that’s a story for another day.

We spied all of these RXs Radwood shows – the sedan and the ’89 coupe in Washington, and Subaru’s own ’88 Coupe in New Jersey way back in 2019. The photo at the top of the story, however, makes it look a whole lot like this car is rolling through Nikko National Park in Japan, just a few miles north of Ōta, the city in Gunma prefecture where it was built.