Subaru unveiled its new rally car for competing in the American Rally Association Championship on August 2. The machine doesn’t have its competitive outing until the Ojibwe Forests Rally on August 25 and 26. Ahead of hitting the first stage, Subaru is chronicling the vehicle’s development process.
The video starts with Subaru competing in the ARA Championship in 2022. At that point, the team was in fierce competition with Ken Block and had made aero tweaks to the WRX to cut the gap. The team had been using this chassis since 2015.
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Developing the new WRX rally car proves challenging because the ARA is changing the rules to make competing more cost-effective for teams. However, the exact nature of those revisions isn’t explicit when Vermont SportsCar begins developing the vehicle. Creating a competition machine is challenging when the regulations are still in flux.
The creation process starts by taking a 2023 WRX and completely stripping it down to a bare chassis. The team even removes the roof panel and part of the rear floor. The next step is engineering the safety cage.
The race car’s debut announcement shows that it uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine with a 33-millimeter restrictor plate and 22-psi boost limit. The powerplant produces 320 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque. The WRX available in showrooms has a turbocharged 2.4-liter boxer four-cylinder making 271 hp and 258 lb-ft.
The rally car has SADEV six-speed sequential transmission. The road-legal machine comes with a six-speed manual or a CVT, which the automaker calls the Subaru Performance Transmission.
The new WRX rally car features a carbon-fiber widebody kit, and there are additional vents on the hood in comparison to the road-going car. A tall wing is on the rear. Inside, there’s an FIA-compliant roll cage and seats that support the HANS device.
Driver Brandon Semenuk and co-driver Keaton Williams will race the WRX rally car at the Ojibwe Forests Rally. Travis Pastrana will compete with a second car later in the ARA season.
The 2023 WRX starts at $31,625 after the $1,020 destination fee. The Premium grade costs $34,125. The Limited is $38,515, and the range-topping GT is $44,415.
