2024 Subaru WRX Fastest Ever: The Project Midnight Story

Описание: Subaru Motorsports USA revealed "Project Midnight," the quickest and fastest ever WRX making its debut at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Born from the success of the record-breaking "Airslayer" Gymkhana car, Project Midnight takes things to a new level with a singular directive: outright speed. The lightweight widebody machine inherits a legacy of rallycross dominance, now evolved to break records and push the performance envelope of the platform.

Project Midnight's progenitor - Airslayer - was based on a 2020 Subaru WRX STI and starred in the viral video Gymkhana 2020, performing wild stunts, including a 230-foot jump where its active rear wing controlled the car's airborne attitude. While Airslayer did break records at timed events like the iconic Mt. Washington Hillclimb and Car & Driver Magazine's Lightning Lap, its real mission as a Gymkhana star meant it was built to be the jack of many trades. So the question arose: What if it was reimagined in the form of the current WRX with a singular focus on pure tarmac speed? And what if it were piloted by Scott Speed - a Subaru Motorsports USA driver with a star background in everything from F1 to rallycross?

Project Midnight features ultra-wide aerodynamic bodywork and a radically enlarged version of the wing found on the team's WRX ARA24 gravel rally car. The carbon fiber body and a significantly lightened chassis give it a curb weight of well under 2,500 pounds - nearly 300 pounds lighter than the Airslayer and 1,000 pounds lighter than a standard WRX! Project Midnight uses specially derived tarmac suspension geometry and swaps Airslayer's 17-inch rallycross wheel and tire package in favor of 18x11-inch OZ Racing Superturismo LMP magnesium wheels and 280/650R18 Yokohama ADVAN slicks.

Under the hood, a turbocharged and intercooled 2.0-liter flat-four engine produces 670 hp and 680 lb-ft of torque, revving to 9,500 rpm and spitting flames from its hood-exit exhaust. The powerplant is the most recent and top-performing evolution of Subaru Motorsports USA's highly successful rallycross engine that helped Scott Speed earn Subaru the Nitro Rallycross Teams Championship in 2021.