2019 Subaru WRX Raiu Edition Is A Limited Run Just For Cannucks | Feature

Subaru’s been known to roll out special editions of its WRX from time to time. Some never make it out of the Japanese Domestic Market, but others do.

This one, however, is limited exclusively to Canada – and it’s the first such special edition to be offered for our neighbors to the north in over 15 years.

It’s called the Raiu edition, drawing its handle not from the Street Fighter character, but from the Japanese word for “thunderstorm” (after which the fictional martial artist was presumably named as well). It’s based on the WRX sedan (in non-STI guise), and upgrades basically include trim enhancements.

For starters, it comes exclusively in Cool Grey Khaki, offset by blacked-out door mirrors, shark-fin antenna, and badging. It also gets a smattering of STI components, including ground-effect aero pieces all around and a short-throw shifter.

Based on the Sport-Tech RS trim means it packs Recaro buckets, ultrasuede upholstery, Jurid front brake pads, red-painted calipers, and a seven-inch infotainment screen and nine-speaker Harman Kardon audio system. All of which paints an overall picture rather similar to the Series.Gray edition announced for the US market a few months ago.

The 2.0-liter turbocharged boxer four’s output remains unchanged at 268 horsepower (200 kW) and 258 lb-ft (350 Nm) of torque, driving all four wheels through a six-speed manual transmission.

Only 100 examples will be offered through Subaru Canada’s 93 dealers. Each carries a price tag of $40,995, or $43,020.50 delivered (in Canadian dollars), which works out to little over $31/33k in American greenbacks. That may seem like a steep premium over the $29,995 (CAD) sticker price on a base WRX in Canada, but works out to just $2k more than the WRX Sport-Tech RS on which it’s based.