Subaru has another crack at the Goodwood Hillclimb

Subaru has developed its hottest WRX for the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed and it proved to be quite the runner.

Known as ‘Project Midnight’ it took on the motoring festival’s famed hillclimb Timed Shootout. With an ex-Red Bull F1 pilot at the helm, the aptly named Scott Speed, Subaru was aiming for the fastest run.

Under the hood of the black beast is a 2.0-litre turbocharged flat-four that produces 500kW. Intriguingly, it has a bonnet exhaust that evidently spits flames. 

Speed said: “When driving the car it clearly has rallycross roots but the wider tyres, track, and geometry give it a unique feel and incredible grip.

He added, it is “The ultimate driving machine; half RX, half sports car – a true joy to drive.

Subaru has previously gone close to winning the Timed Shootout in 2021 with its ‘Airslayer’ Gymkhana car. It was only a few tenths off victory.

The new car is also lightweight thanks to bespoke carbon fibre bodywork and a lightened chassis. It weighs in at 1120kg and also features a huge rear wing for added downforce.

WRX (“World Rally eXperimental”), has been a mainstay of the Subaru brand for over 32 years from 1992 until 2014. In 2015 it lost the Impreza name and became simply known as WRX.

In qualifying, there was nothing between the two front runners, 0.1sec between Scott Speed and Romain Dumas.

Frustratingly for Subaru, on Sunday’s final, the Scott Speed-driven Project Midnight again just missed out on top honours. It posted a final time of 46.07sec. This was a second slower than his qualifying time. 

The fastest on the day was an electric Ford Transit driven by Romain Dumas, with a final time even faster than qualification, of 43.98sec. 

So another second for Subaru. However, they managed to edge out some fairly serious competition in the form of a Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (48.08), an Alpine A110 Pikes Peak (48.61sec), a Czinger 21C (48.82sec) and a Skyline GT-R R32 (48.91sec). 

Travis Pastrana in another Subaru, named Huckster, crashed during the final after qualifying in fourth spot.