Subaru's Smashing Lap Records

I've always liked Subaru's attitude towards performance measurements. While BMW and Audi will brag about their 0-60 metrics, or how many lateral G's of acceleration their cars can pull on a perfect skidpad, Subaru is all about their racing record.  And within a month, two different Subarus - driven by two brothers, no less - have both laid down new lap records on two of the toughest race courses on planet earth.

I'm talking about the Isle of Man, and the Mount Washington Hill Climb.  The Isle of Man hosts a yearly motorcycle race that dates back to 1904, although the current course used for the race (the Mountain Course) has been in use since 1911.  This twisting, winding intricate piece of road spans almost 38 miles in length, and over the past century, motorcyclists have become very adept indeed at covering it's 233 turns at a rapid pace.  The current lap record holder for the Isle of Man course is John McGuinness, who piloted his Honda CBR1000RR to an overall time of 17:12.30, with an average speed of 131.578mph.

What doesn't get a lot of attention at the Isle of Man are car lap records, since it's primarily a track for motorcycles.  In fact, up until June 10th of this year, the previous record for a production car had stood since June 6th - of 1990. British racing driver Tony Pond was the first motorist to get a production car around the Isle of Man track with an average speed over 100mph, setting the record at 22:09.10 with an average speed of 102.19mph.  Which is pretty impressive, considering he did it in what seemed like a totally stock Rover 827 Vitesse.  You can check his video out below.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6noOET7Eik

You can see why the record stood so long - you'd have to be a bit mental to push a car that hard on roads like that, judging by how close Tony got to some of those walls in that wailing, red Rover.  But the fact that no one even attempted for 21 years says a lot about how big one's balls have to be, I suppose?  Anyway, Subaru figured it was about time the record got beaten, so they enlisted the help of British rally driver Mark Higgins, in a US-Spec Subaru WRX STI.

And beat it they did.  Again, it's impressive to learn that this was an almost totally stock STI - it had a fire suppression system, full roll cage, competition seats, Mintex brake pads, a loud exhaust, different spring and damper rates, and no electronic speed limiter, but otherwise was just as you'd get an STI from the showroom, down to the road-legal Pirelli tires.

Result?  Higgins absolutely walloped the old record, setting a new time of 19 minutes, 37 seconds - with an average speed of 115.356mph.  Not quite up there with race-prepped superbikes, but still absolutely mental in a car of any type.  How mental?  How about almost losing control of the car at 150mph going towards a narrow wall mental?

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jSYiU-JdRw

Despite the really rather serious "Oh my, I need clean underwear moment" (which you'll note was taken with the typical cool reserve of a British driver!  "That was the biggest moment of my life.  On to the next turn..."), Higgins managed to not hit anything, setting the new lap time and average speed records by a wide margin.  Subaru released some seriously good footage of the record-breaking action, below:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFlSG9_Ue4A

As if setting a 21-year-old record for a race track that wasn't even designed for cars wasn't enough, another Subaru recently broke the record for the Mount Washington Hill Climb.  I can say from personal experience, having driven up the Mount Washington road myself a few years ago, that it is absolutely one of the scariest pieces of road in North America, and really anything over 15mph feels like you're taking your life into your hands.

Subaru rally driver David Higgins (Yes, Mark Higgins brother!) broke the course record at the Mt. Washington climb to the clouds this weekend, while everyone was paying attention to a slightly more famous hillclimb - that one in Colorado.  (By the way, yes, "Monster" Tajima did finally break the 10-minute barrier at Pikes Peak this weekend, setting a new record time of 9:51 in his 910bhp works Suzuki SX4).

To get an idea of just how crazy the Climb to the Clouds race is, here's an idea: the course is only 7.6 miles long, and goes from sea level to 6,288 ft of elevation - by comparison, Pikes Peak covers 12.42 miles, but only gains 4,721 ft in elevation - practically child's play!  (Not really, but everything's relative.)  In addition, most of Pike's Peak is paved now - whereas still about half of Mt Washington is gravel, and it seems to switch between gravel and asphalt pretty randomly.  The previous record holder was Frank Sprongl, who managed to cross the gates in 6:41.99 at the wheel of an Audi back in 1998.

Higgins set a first time of 6:19, which was pretty impressive - and then set another time of 6:11.54.  I'm pretty sure it took me about 25 minutes to get to the top of Mt. Washington behind the wheel of a Mercedes ML430, so any of those times seem totally absurd, further cementing my undying respect for Rally drivers.  There's no complete footage of either of his runs, but to get an idea of the pace he was going, check this out:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5TAV8kLI4g

So, well done to Subaru and to the Higgins brothers, who both have to be on top of the world at this point!  Now back to your regularly scheduled internet arguments about which turbocharger will put the most power to the wheels on a dyno at a shop somewhere.