Subaru America recently set a new record on the Isle of Man TT Course with the Subaru WRX STI Time Attack car. The car, driven by Mark Higgins marked a new lap record of the fabled 60km Isle of Man TT Road Course with an average lap speed of 207km/h and a time of 17 minutes and 35 seconds. This breaks the previous record held by Higgins of 187km/h and a time of 19 minutes 26 seconds, in a more-stock STI.
The 2016 Subaru WRX STI Time Attack car used for this attempt is a joint development of SOA and Prodrive, with technical assistance provided by Subaru Tecnica International (STI). The new car is purpose-built for the Isle of Man TT Course to set automotive records. For the 2016 car, SOA decided to create a purpose-built car that could tackle the arduous TT Course in the demands it puts on suspension and engines. It called upon the joint expertise of Prodrive for the design and build, and STI for technical assistance. This record shows the capability of the WRX STI’s AWD (All-Wheel Drive) sports performance.
This new record comes pretty close to the overall lap record for the course, which was set over the weekend by Michael Dunlop. The rider set a 16-minute, 58.254-second lap in the RST Superbike TT, averaging about 214km/h. The fact that the STI comes so close to the best bike time is pretty amazing!
