The Mt. Washington Hillclimb is the oldest hill climb event in North America, and Subaru has just broken the course’s record with none other than rallycross star Travis Pastrana behind the wheel.
He tackled the 7.6-mile (12.2-km) mountain pass in his Airslayer STI, the same Subaru WRX STI used for Gymkhana 2020. And in addition to its weight and downforce advantages over the WRX STI rally car he used to set the previous record back in 2017, the Airslayer also ran this year’s pass with 862 hp (874 PS / 642 kW) compared to the 2017 car’s 600 hp (608 PS / 447 kW), making for a significant power advantage of 262 hp (266 PS / 195 kW).
Watch: Travis Pastrana Races His Gymkhana Subaru WRX STI Against A 1,300 HP Altima Drift Car
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In the end, Pastrana completed the hill climb in 5 minutes 28.67 seconds, which not only broke his previous record of 5 minutes 44 seconds by nearly 16 seconds but was also more than 45 seconds ahead of his next closest competitor. That’s no easy feat on its own, but it’s made even more impressive when you consider Mt. Washington’s mixed-surface roads and unpredictable weather.
After his record-breaking run, Pastrana said, “This car is the perfect machine to do it. Coming off a second-place finish at Goodwood I really wanted to set a new record here to show what the car could do in the right environment. Luckily we really had good weather this year and I knew if I could get a clean run-in, I’d have a great shot at the 5:44 time. So much fun and I can’t wait to do it again next time!”
Seeing as this run comes as just one of many stops along the Airslayer Global Takeover tour, both Pastrana and the car will be heading out to Connecticut’s Wicked Big Meet in September, which is said to be the largest Subaru enthusiast festival in the world.