A Levorg STI Sport prototype in testing is photographed in traffic

Estate bodies need sporty vehicles. The combination of the practicality of an increased cargo volume together with a mechanical configuration with sporty aspirations can offer examples as interesting as the Subaru Levorg STI Sport.

Looking back to the years when the Subaru, then Impreza, WRX featured its wagon bodywork, owners of “estate” vehicles could enjoy a balanced formula between their passion for moderately high-performance cars and a more generous interior cargo space than its saloon variant.

Even fans of Japanese domestic car culture, or JDM, will know of the all-powerful Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GT, a variant that, as its name suggests, offered a full rally car with enough space to fit a whole month’s shopping in its boot, something unthinkable today from the three-diamond brand but which, just over a decade ago, was an option in the company’s lineup.

Be that as it may and, despite the baton of those family Subaru Impreza having been passed to the sublime Subaru Levorg, its presentation over its nearly 10 years of life has shown proposals that involve the department of the magic letters in developing a vehicle that would also carry the other baton of configuring an estate with the character that STI imprints on its productions.

Thus, once again, this year, the Subaru Levorg Prototype STI Sport was presented at the local event, a model that could well be manufactured in series, just as it is, but which, under the premise of its conception as a prototype, one would think would remain just an exhibition vehicle.

Now, thanks to photographs published by a Japanese Twitter user, we can see a test unit of what appears to be a Subaru Levorg STI Sport..

Oh? By chance pic.twitter.com/FtIbU1wcOV

— つぶ@Castrol86 (@RaptorZN6_86) May 20, 2020

A test car of the brand

The photograph taken by @Castrol86 shows significant details worth examining one by one.

To begin with, the hidden logos. We have already discussed the camouflage used by manufacturers to hide the most intimate details of their test cars, but on this occasion this unit only covers the Pleiades constellation emblem, the name on the left and, on the right, what even seems to be the three-letter STI logo.

The exhausts this car shows and the bumper are practically identical to those of the prototype exhibited at the beginning of the year, which would suggest that this car’s production would largely take on the look and configuration of that concept car.

On the other hand, the lights are also typical of the new generation shown in the previous prototype of the Subaru 2021 Levorg, a car that, although aesthetically it follows the directive of the one it replaces, is practically new in its architecture since it will be built on the SGP construction platform, from the initials Subaru Global Platform, and whose order books open in Japan from 2 July of this year.

Finally, those who know Japan will be aware of how complex yet useful the national plate system is: from the home prefecture to the engine type, passing through the vehicle’s use, everything is summed up in the plates fitted to a car.

Thus, this Subaru Levorg STI Sport has the red diagonal stripe indicating that it is a brand car, either from a dealership or from the manufacturer, which also, in the upper left margin, announces that it originates from Gunma, the prefecture where Subaru has its main plant. In other words, we are dealing with a Subaru owned by Subaru and not a private unit.

For all these reasons, thanks to this user’s photograph, we are led to think that the Subaru Levorg Prototype STI Sport will not remain an exhibition unit, but rather was a demonstration that a sportier version of the estate is on its way. Even if only for Japan.