2002 Subaru Impreza

It was ugly. People laughed at its bright-blue color and ridiculed the air scoop atop its aluminum hood. Its two-toned fabric seats, black and blue, became the butt of jokes. Its name, the Subaru Impreza WRX, was a laugh too.

WRX. Why would a car company give a vehicle a name that sounds like "wrecks"?

It's all part of a plan.

You can get attention in the auto business by looking beautiful. You also can get it by being ugly with purpose.

Subaru is good at going the ugly route, as shown by models such as the 1979 Subaru DL sedan, with its overextended front bumper, and the 1988 Subaru XT6 coupe, a wedgy, linear thing with instrument-panel lighting reminiscent of a nightclub strip.

The company has experimented with mainstream styling, as represented by its Forester sport-utility wagon, in a successful attempt to broaden its sales base. But the 2002 Impreza WRX is a definite return to the P-Ugly (Purposefully Ugly) School of Marketing.

Subaru's executives call it something else: "Subaru Driving Performance Strategy." But the aim is the same -- to exploit that small, lucrative segment of niche buyers who value function over form, performance over style. They are the hard-core insiders -- the people automotive marketers call "enthusiasts." They see beauty in the Impreza WRX's hood scoop, because they know it feeds air to the intercooler of the car's two-liter, four-cylinder, 227-horsepower, turbocharged engine.

That's a lot of kick for a compact car weighing 3,085 pounds. The enthusiasts know that, too. And they know that the Impreza WRX's wider track and standard, 16-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, shod with Bridgestone Potenza all-season radials, gives the car the balance and grip it needs to take curves with authority.

That is why enthusiasts greeted with approbation the same test car detractors treated with opprobrium. Enthusiasts wanted to know if I had a chance to "put it on the track," to drive it at top speed on a raceway. I had not. But Subaru will provide that opportunity for Impreza WRX buyers, who will be given a complimentary membership to the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), one of the biggest organizations sanctioning professional and amateur road racing, rally and autocross events in the United States.

The people who attend and participate in those events are the same people who mourned the recent death of stock-car racing great Dale Earnhardt. They look at a car covered with decals and big numbers and see glory. They look at the bright blue of the tested Impreza WRX, or the "blaze yellow" of some special WRX models, and see the same thing.

Subaru understands. The company knows that an orange numerical decal against that bright-blue body stands out on anybody's track. Ditto a black numerical decal against a blaze-yellow body. The thrill of watching one of those cars zip around the track on a Sunday afternoon i s surpassed only by being in the driver's seat.

This, I had a chance to do -- albeit in the comparatively mundane environments of Interstate 95 and the New Jersey Turnpike. The Impreza WRX's seats might be ugly. But wow! They hug the back and butt perfectly, working with the seat belts to keep you firmly in place during crash-avoidance maneuvers. That's in keeping with Subaru's policy of "active driving, active safety," and that's no laughing matter.

That name? This is the story. The 2002 Impreza WRX is based on Impreza models used in the demanding World Rally Championship races. Presumably, Subaru could have named the car the Impreza WRC. But that might have landed the company in a squabble with the racing organization. Also, it could have caused an identity crisis with Hyundai Motor Co., which is running a model overseas called the Hyundai Accent WRC2.

Besides, WRC, when pronounced as an acronym, sounds like "wreck," which is more of a personal ult to the product. WRX ("wrecks") sounds like the car could be doing damage to someone else, which is much more acceptable for marketing purposes.

But the truth is that automakers often use the letter "X" in sports cars and other high-performance vehicles. "X" implies speed and the technology to handle it, and no one who drives the WRX can argue with that.