Wednesday 6th April 2016

Subaru and Prodrive back together!

Iconic rallying duo collaborate again, this time for an Isle of Man record with a WRX STI

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Think of Subaru records on the Isle of Man and you will most likely think of that lap in 2011 with Mark Higgins saving the mother of all tankslappers at 150mph. What you might not remember is that he broke that record again in 2014, with a then-new WRX STI and a 19:15 lap.

Rather more than a roadgoing STI now!

Now Subaru is back once more with an altogether more serious effort at going fastest around the TT lap. Given how much racing Subaru has been involved with recently at the Nurburgring - there was a class victory at the 24-hour last year - the lessons learnt from that will surely come in handy on the Isle of Man. Similarly bumpy, scary and fast, after all.

Where the old cars were clearly road derived, this looks far more like an all-out racer and set to take a fair chunk out of the existing time. Even better, it's being built with Prodrive - the glory team reunited!

Currently there aren't any details released from Subaru or Prodrive on this WRX STI, so we'll have to glean a few bits from these images. That gigantic wing will surely benefit downforce on the very high speed section, the brakes look gigantic behind the wheels and the roll cage looks like it could have come straight from a rally car. There are two seats in it though, just in case Higgins wants to scare passengers again...

Now about a livery...

Will it have any more power? Again, there's nothing confirmed yet. You would have to hope so given the tweaks that have been made elsewhere, and on the Isle of Man arguably more than anywhere else the benefits of power will be felt. But then if the STI is as stripped out as it appears here, it probably won't need much additional power from the standard 300hp to beat the existing time. Let's see.

The 2016 Isle of Man TT will take place from 28 May to 10 June, so expect a record attempt at some point then. Higgins needs to average 118mph to succeed...

[Source: Autocar]

[Ved]

This is itching to be released as a mild special edition at the very least. Lots of history there so fingers crossed.