The Subaru WRX STi Recently Attempted to Break a Record at Nordschleife

The main focus of this story is the record attempt by Richie Stanaway at breaking a 7-minute lap at the Nordschleife in Nurburgring.

This is the 12.5-mile track which most manufacturers use for marketing runs. Stanaway was supposed to drive a WRX STi race car which was prepared in Banbury, England by Prodrive, a company which is well known for its WRC exploits along with Subaru for years now.

Superb STi

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subaru_World_Rally_Team_Impreza_WRX_STi_X1_SRT_front.JPG

The STi is a brilliant car which it more than proved when being driven from Frankfurt to the Nurburg area. It regularly attained speeds greater than 100 mph. 

The STi's suspension certainly is a little on the stiffer side, but it is in no way close to the bladder-control testing of the Ford Focus RS. The stiffness is only really obvious on broken-up sections of back roads. Apart from this, ride quality is absolutely amazing. Bryon O’Conner from Fast and Furious would approve for sure!

The screen and instrument cluster is a little dated, but it is believed that the 2018 model comes with a much larger, 5.9" setup. The seats are supportive and comfortable. But updates will be coming in with the 2018 model in this department too.

Further Improvements

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As far as the 2018 STi is concerned, it is supposed to come with improved brake cooling which will offer better on-track action without under wear or tear issues. It will have bright-yellow brake calipers. It will also come with an improved Drivers Control Center Differential. This will make the differential adjustments more refined and smoother. This will make it a lot easier to drive sideways if that's something you particularly enjoy.

The acceleration of the STi is super-fast even in gravel and sludge. While most AWD cars will be able to do this, the STi looks like it was built just for this one purpose. In fact, not driving it in such conditions is almost blasphemous. Have fun! This car is the epitome of exactly that!

Record Attempt

https://www.flickr.com/photos/naparish/2305511460

The record attempt was sadly cancelled by the end since the conditions out there were too horrible. Richie Stanaway did manage to get a couple of laps in just for fun, but there was no way record attempts were going to happen since the temperatures were really cold and there was too much standing water.

There was some information released about the Prodrive racecar which was supposed to be used for the record attempt. It had a complete roll cage welded into its body. The stiffness allowed fine suspension tuning by eliminating chassis flex. It had 9-inch tires. It used a manual WRC gearbox and auto clutch. It had a number of different aerodynamic devices fitted.

When at top speed, the whole package produced around 650 pounds of downforce. That is more than the late Andre the Giant! One interesting kit was the rear wing drag reduction system. This is the technology found in F1 cars too. With its hydraulic and electric operation, the wing is able to deploy complete downforce under braking or in turns and less when on long straights. The driver can control it completely. Quite amazing.