Subaru first started bringing the WRX to the U.S. back when I was in high school. God, I wanted one so badly. It had a turbo engine! It had all-wheel-drive! It had a stick shift! It could give BMW and Audi a run for their money at a fraction of the cost! That car was a true game changer.
And to sell it, Subaru had a ton of great ads that let the car's performance speak for itself. (They couldn't really sell it on looks, you know.)
But at some point, they must have decided they needed a bit of star power to help sell it. Someone who knew all about performance. Someone young and athletic that the kids could look up to. Someone who takes what he wants. The man for the job... um, Lance Armstrong.
It's kind of laughable now, but Lance was Subaru's pitchman for many years. Then he switched to Nissan, who dropped him last year after his whole "I used performance-enhancing drugs but spent years lying about it and waging wars against anyone who said I did because I'm a sociopathic asshole" thing..
At any rate, the WRX ads with Lance are fun to watch today, even in light of how far he has fallen. And the ad is right — the car had excellent performance, as many of us know. It may have been the most honest thing Lance was ever part of.