Subaru Brings Back Old-School Blue and Yellow in New Livery

Subaru Brings Back Old-School Blue and Yellow in New Livery

January 16, 2019 Off By Patrick Conlon

A blue Subaru with a big wing, gold wheels, and a big yellow star cluster on its side: That’s the way the car gods meant a racing Subaru to look. So it’s good the Subaru is bringing the motorsports livery back.

At the Detroit Auto Show on Jan. 14, Subaru’s going to show off the new motorsports competition livery shown here, which features WR Blue Pearl paint (which you can get on a base WRX), gold wheels, and bright yellow graphics “dominated by the Subaru star cluster on the doors with a prominent sweep that extends to the B-pillars and roof,” as Subaru says in its press release.

I dig the look.

But of course I do, because it’s got some great history behind it, especially from the 1990s and 2000s, when Colin McRae, Richard Burns, and Petter Solberg were tearing up rally stages around the world:

The blue and gold theme goes back to the days of Subaru’s sponsorship with British cigarette company 555. Near as I can tell, it appears that the comet theme has been gone since around 2008, and looking at Subaru’s motorsports website, they’ve been mostly stuck using a bunch of different color graphics on their cars since.

The blue “comet” theme (and the 555 theme) is really what many folks consider the quintessential Subaru color scheme. Hell, if I bought a road-going Subi today, I’d definitely get WR Pearl Blue, and if I could get those yellow stars, I would, too.

Though the car shown is clearly a rallycross car and not a stage rally machine, Subaru says the livery is set to debut at the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Missouri in mid March.