- Subaru’s Project Midnight is the most powerful and fastest WRX race car to date.
- It debuts at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed with 670 hp and tips the scales at just 2,469 lbs.
- You also can’t own one or anything like it despite fans’ desire for a new STI.
Subaru has finally unwrapped its latest performance project, the WRX Project Midnight. After a series of teasers, we finally have all the specifications for this powerful beast. It’s a slick spin-off of the Airslayer Gymkhana car and makes 670 horsepower.
Subaru also doesn’t appear as though it’s poised to put any of the new tech on display into a production version of the WRX.
More: Subaru WRX Sales Tank By 39.5% As Forester Flies Off The Shelves
On paper, Project Midnight is a monster. It leverages a 2.0-liter flat four-cylinder to develop 670 horsepower (499 kW) and 680 lb-ft (920 Nm) of torque while revving to 9,500 RPM. It sends that power to all four 18-inch wheels and 280-section-width Yokohama tires.
As mentioned, this is a spin-off of the Airslayer, a Gymkhana car from 2020 that set its own records and did various stunts including a 230-foot jump. Project Midnight actually weighs almost 300 pounds (136 kg) less than Airslayer and 1,000 pounds (454 kg) less than a standard WRX. All of that sounds awesome and it objectively is. The driver taking the car up the Goodwood Hillclimb confirms that it feels great to drive too.
“Subaru Motorsports USA and the team at Vermont SportsCar have delivered an absolute beast. When driving the car it clearly has rallycross roots, but the wider tires, track, and geometry give it a very unique feel and incredible grip. The ultimate driving machine; half RX, half sports car – a true joy to drive,” said driver Scott Speed. The sad thing is, Subaru doesn’t offer anything like this car to consumers.
To Subaru’s credit, no automaker will sell you a racecar. Well… Porsche, Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, and a slew of others will, but who really wants that anyway? What fans want is to have their favorite halo car done away with and then for the brand to bring out a slightly improved version of the WRX with 6 more horsepower (4.47 kW) and 14 more torques (18.96 Nm) than it had a decade ago.
Subaru really seems like it’s turning into another brand that shows us cool things at car events and then never delivers those cool things to real customers.
