Heavily modified Subaru WRX STI breaks four-door saloon lap record at Nurburgring
With a rally-spec engine, slick tyres and extra downforce, this Subaru is far from the road car it’s based on
Subaru has set an astonishing sub-seven-minute Nurburgring lap time in a heavily modified version of the WRX STI, setting a four-door saloon lap record in the process.
The time of 6m 57.5s was set using a Subaru WRX STI Type RA NBR Special, which has previously recorded impressive lap times on the Isle of Man TT course, as well as coming third overall in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb.
The model is based on the Japanese car manufacturer’s WRX STI performance saloon, but bears little resemblance to the car that can be bought at dealerships.
Race and rally specialist Prodrive overhauled the car, fitting a World Rally Championship-spec version of the standard car’s 2.0-litre engine. It has an output of around 600bhp and an estimated top speed of 179mph.
Other modifications include nine-inch-wide slick tyres for extra grip and a WRC gearbox that can change gears in 20 milliseconds.
The exterior of the car has also been reworked thanks to a high-downforce aerodynamics package. This improves handling by forcing the car into the road as the air flows over it, and features an F1-inspired drag reduction system in the rear wing to improve top speed.
The WRX STI nameplate has a long history with performance Subarus, born out of the company’s iconic rally efforts with the Impreza in the ‘90s. WRX stands for World Rally eXperimental and references road car technology inspired by rallying such as the all-wheel-drive system, while STI means Subaru Tecnica International, the company’s motorsport division.
Subaru ditched the Impreza badge for its performance saloon with the latest generation, which is a standalone WRX STI model.
