Subaru has sent a WRX around the 'Ring in the same time as the Porsche 918

It is a four-door car record by a country mile

4y ago
80.9K

The amount of Subaru-Prodrive products seem endless, with the relationship between the two powerhouses of motorsport starting in 1990 still continuing to this day in some shape or form. The last achievement was demolishing the Isle of Man TT four-wheel record using a fully-prepped Subaru WRX time attack car with rally driver Mark Higgins at the wheel, but now they have turned their sights to the Nordschleife.

Subaru went a step further and asked Prodrive to produce a bespoke WRX STI RA (Record Attempt) to launch an attack on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The aim of this endeavour? To smash the four-door car lap record. And my god has it done just that.

The time? 6 minutes 57.5 seconds.

I'll repeat that. A Subaru WRX STI has gone around the Nürburgring in 6 minutes 57.5 seconds.

That has ripped a full 34.5 seconds off the previous record held by the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. In fact, it has all but matched the time of the performance benchmark that is the Porsche 918 Spyder.

To set things straight, the car was a Subaru WRX STI RA NBR Special - a one-off racer produced at the Prodrive skunkworks that will have cost millions to develop. At the same time, it still uses the same basic 2.0-litre block as the WRX road car but has been heavily turbocharged to produce upwards of 600bhp.

A time attack WRX demolished the previous TT record set by a standard STI back in 2014

A time attack WRX demolished the previous TT record set by a standard STI back in 2014

Unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Mark Higgins drove the car to a 3rd place finish behind a Jaguar XJR-12 and a Penske-Chevrolet PC22. But it has now been cemented into the history books through this scintillating lap that will not be broken by any four-door car for a long time to come.

Footage of the run is yet to be released but Subaru has said the time has been fully ratified by Nürburgring officials. In the meantime, here's a compilation of the car chirping its way up the Goodwood hillclimb:

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Comments (42)

  • Misleading claim in there, can't really smash the Giulia QV's record when it's not a production car, especially when it cost several million (vs £60k) for the one-off and has twice the power of the road legal version....

      4 years ago
  • Ironic this is in the "Car Knowledge" section but the author seems unaware that this car clearly isn't production so has nothing to do with the Alfa's record. Unclear what record Subaru were going for either to be fair

      4 years ago
    • Exactly that is my question. This Impreza is obviously heavily tuned car...far more than cars in BTCC or WTCs.... now comparison with Alfas 's time is not bad at all... for Alfa...

        4 years ago
    • To my understanding they are launching a production version of this car later this year called the RA or something like that

        4 years ago
  • My issue is this is a race prepared car with little in common with the road going car. How can this be a record when there is only one seat?

      4 years ago
  • The WRX line isn't an "Impreza" anymore. Subaru moved the WRX to it's own line in 2015. It shares more parts with the Legacy than the Impreza now.

      4 years ago
  • What is so special about this sound or car?

    And it is so stupid to claim a fastest 4 door car record with basically DTM car! :D WTF?

      4 years ago
    • Stopped at the word "sound" because you obviously don't have ears.

        4 years ago
    • What is so special here? That blow of whistle? If You want to hear good 4-pot engine's look for Alfa clips. This is typical japanese racer sound- nothing special here...sorry. Only italians make good sounding cars and muricans.

        4 years ago
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