Subaru WRX STI S207 and Mazda 323 GT-R Sell for £43,875 and £20,250 at UK Auctions

Two Japanese homologation specials crossed the block at UK auctions this summer, and Auto Messe Web has now reported both results. Together they offer a snapshot — not a market trend — of how two very different JDM cars were valued in Britain.

The S207: £43,875, with the shaken sticker still on the glass

The first is a 2015 Subaru WRX STI S207 NBR Challenge Package Yellow Edition, chassis VAB-010979, sold on July 25 at an Iconic Auctioneers sale held at The Wing, Silverstone Circuit, as lot 293. The reported result was £43,875, which Auto Messe Web converts to roughly ¥9.17 million.

The production figures require some unpacking. STI built 400 S207s. Of those, 200 carried the NBR Challenge Package, marking the class win at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Of those, 100 were Yellow Editions in the exclusive Sunrise Yellow. This car belongs to that final 100-car subset, and the auction catalogue described it as possibly the only example in the UK.

Subaru's own specification for the S207 is 241 kW (328 PS) at 7,200 rpm and 431 Nm from 3,200 to 4,800 rpm, from the 2.0-liter turbocharged EJ20 flat-four. According to the auction description the car remained mechanically unmodified, retaining that engine, the six-speed manual and Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive. The odometer showed 52,195 miles, about 84,000 km. The car arrived in Britain in January 2026 and had covered only 200 miles since, with major servicing attributed to Roger Clark Motorsport.

The detail that made the Japanese coverage is cosmetic: the Japanese shaken roadworthiness-inspection sticker was still affixed to the windshield. It was a small remnant of the car's previous life in Japan, still clinging to the glass when it sold in England.

The 323 GT-R: £20,250, above its 1992 Japanese list price in nominal yen

The second car is a 1992 Mazda 323 GT-R — the Familia GT-R at home — chassis BG8Z-303074, sold on August 29 in Iconic Auctioneers' Classic Sale at CarFest 2026 as lot 568. The reported result was £20,250. Converted at the rate Auto Messe Web used, that is about ¥4.21 million, above the car's roughly ¥2.5 million Japanese list price in 1992 in nominal terms, without adjusting for inflation.

The GT-R was Mazda's Group A homologation car, built in 2,500 examples worldwide, with a 1.8-liter turbocharged DOHC four rated at 210 ps, full-time four-wheel drive with a viscous limited-slip differential, and a five-speed manual. This one is Clear White, one of only 200 finished in that color, and showed under 75,000 km.

It had also been refinished. MW Bodyshop carried out a bare-metal respray with the glass out, at a reported cost of around £15,000 — roughly ¥3.12 million — with Japanese OEM trim and mechanical parts sourced for the job. That figure is striking: the paintwork alone reportedly cost close to three-quarters of the car's eventual sale price.

What the two results do — and don't — tell us

Because the cars sold at separate events six weeks apart, the results are not a direct head-to-head comparison, and two sales are not enough to establish a market trend.

The gap also cannot be explained by production numbers alone. The Yellow Edition was limited to 100 cars; Mazda built 2,500 examples of the 323 GT-R. The newer, lower-production Subaru still brought more than twice the reported price of the older Mazda, despite the latter's rally-homologation credentials and costly refinish. Age, presentation and international name recognition may all have influenced bidding — the S207's newer platform and familiar nameplate are easier for a buyer to place, while the 323 GT-R's significance takes a paragraph to explain — but bidder counts, estimates and provenance files are not in the public record here, so treat that as a reading rather than a cause.

For US buyers the two cars present very different import positions. A 323 GT-R built in 1992 is well past the 25-year threshold; a 2015-built S207 does not reach the age-based exemption until 25 years after its own individual manufacture date, which under NHTSA's rule is counted per car from its build month, never from model year. Our import checker explains how to establish that date from the car's records and identification plates, and the wider auction market tag collects our other sale reports.