Subaru WRX STI Type RA teased ahead of July 8 reveal

Subaru has let slip a telling teaser image of what it says will be “a better way to get your daily dose of fibre” – carbonfibre, to be precise.

A teaser image of an unpainted carbon fibre roof on a WRX sedan delivers a fairly unambiguous message – a lightweight version of Subaru’s rally-bred sports sedan is just around the corner.

That image has since been followed by a close-up of the car's boot, revealing not only a track-spec carbonfibre wing, but the car's badge - STI Type RA.

However while Subaru has also made noise about an upcoming Nurburgring four-door lap record announcement with its hard-core WRX STI Type RA NBR Special, that’s not the car being teased here.

For one, the lairy vents and bonnet pins of the NBR Special don’t appear to be present, and the neat finish off the carbon roof indicates the Type RA is something showroom-spec, not the bespoke stripped-out race car that Subaru is throwing at the Nurburgring.

Besides, we’ve already seen the WRX STI Type RA NBR Special in its entirely on a couple of official hype videos. Why tease something that’s already been revealed?

The road-ready WRX STI Type RA will be revealed in its entirety on July 8, with a more performance-focused configuration than the regular WRX STI that will couple lightweight body bits with various chassis enhancements to sharpen the base car's already dynamic offering.

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Full details are just around the corner, but if it follows the same pattern established by previous-generation STI Type RAs – which were only ever sold in the Japanese market – we can expect bigger brakes, enhanced aero, stiffer suspension settings, less weight and a track-oriented wheel and tyre package.

The Type RA is virtually a certainty for the US market given Subaru North America is behind the teasing (as it was for the BRZ STI teaser seen earlier in the week), but its potential for our market is unclear at this stage.