This Prodrive-Tuned WRX STI Has Just Cracked A Sub-7-Minute Nurburgring Lap
We always enjoy a good ‘faster than’ comparison, and while it’s not necessarily a surprise that a highly tuned ‘ordinary’ car is faster than a supercar, the fact that a four-door saloon can best Italian and Japanese legends around the world’s most infamous racetrack is worthy of a nod.
The British motorsport and Subaru tuning wizards at Prodrive have sent a time-attack WRX STI around the 12.8-mile Nurburgring loop in a staggering 6m57.5s. That’s faster than the Lamborghini Aventador SV, Nissan GT-R Nismo, Mercedes AMG GT R and all sorts of high-powered stuff. It’s just half a second slower over the long lap than the Porsche 918 Spyder, and it’s now the fastest four-door car ever to try its hand on the German track.
The four-cylinder boxer engine blocks Subaru uses are strong enough to unlock vast extra potential – with modified internals, at least. And boy, does this car have mods. At its heart it’s a standard all-wheel drive 2017 WRX STI with a 2.0-litre boxer lump, but then a full roll cage is welded in, the suspension is changed for race-spec kit, the tyres are switched for nine-inch slicks and the engine is upgraded to the tune of ‘more than 600bhp’ at a screaming 8500rpm.
It’s running 25psi of boost and sucks air through a 75mm intake. Thanks to an incredibly advanced WRC-spec gearbox modified to be used with paddle-shifters, it can swap cogs in a mind-boggling 20-25 milliseconds. That’s quite quick.
You might recognise it as the same car that smashed the four-wheeled Isle of Man TT course record, only without the wrap and with a different aerodynamics package. Geared for maximum overall lap time potential around the track, it tops out at ‘just’ 179mph but produces as much as 295kg of downforce when it does – more than the Lotus Evora GT430, which is only fair since the Subaru isn’t actually road legal. Either way, it’s now a multiple record-bursting beast.
Comments
Only one thing meeded to say “Future is our friend, not our enemy”
Sure, fun in driving on public roads might die.
But then again sub 7 minutes lap times.
Technically speaking the Nurburging (atleast the nordshlief) is, when races arent going on and its a tourist day, a public toll road
It looks sick
As James May said, developing a car on the nurburgring ruins it ;)
I disagree
250 psi of boost? Mother of god!
Very impressive isn’t it, I can only presume they meant 25psi
…
Calm down it is a typo its 25psi boost.
Prodrive(r)
Get out
Y U NO ROAD LEGAL ???
Mainly because this time was set on racing slick tires, which are illegal but also completely useless on the road. Still an impressive time :)
The thing I find interesting about these fast Nurburgring lap times is that you would need a PRODRIVEr to actually complete a fast lap.
I saw it at goodwood too and i think it shouldn’t be compared to the roadcars at all. This is just a racecar, for example: the splitter. That thing is so massive it can be used as a stage for a concert. The ‘ring laptimes are already a giant mess full of barely legal tires and different timing methods anyway.
Woah woah woah, 250psi of boost!?!?!?!?!?! WHAT
Good to see the prodrive badge back where it belongs, on race/rally spec subies