With the mud-spattered blue paint, Subaru’s WRX World Rally Champhionship (WRC) cars inspired a generation of fans.
Subaru may not be involved in the WRC anymore, but its latest rally car should still bring plenty of attention.
At the 2015 New York Auto Show, Subaru will unveil its latest rallycross car. Based on the 2015 WRX STI, it will compete in the Red Bull Global Rallycross series and X Games Rallycross.
In contrast to traditional stage rallying, where cars cover long distance at least partially on public roads, rallycross creates more of a spectacle by putting the cars on a tight circuit.
With cars practically touching and plenty of jumps and power sliding, it makes for quite a spectacle.
The cars that do all of this are based on production models, but they’re still nothing like what you can get in the showroom.
Dubbed VT15x, the latest Subaru WRX STI rallycross car packs a 2.0-liter turbocharged boxer-four tuned to produce 580 horsepower.
That power is channeled to all four wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox, allowing the WRX to rocket to 60 mph from a standstill in in just two seconds.
The car was constructed by rally-car builder Vermont SportsCar, with input from Subaru Tecnica International, the company’s performance division and the STI in WRX STI.
Subaru says this is the third version of its rallycross car in four years. As the saying goes, there’s nothing worth less than last year’s racecar.
The 2015 rallycross car trades Subaru’s classic blue and yellow factory rally colors for the orange, silver, and white of driver Bucky Lasek. Not that you’ll be able to tell what color this car is once it gets down and dirty on the rally course.
Lasek will compete in the full Red Bull Global Rallycross season, which starts May 31 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, alongside Sverre Isachsen. Travis Pastrana will join them at the X Games in June.
