When I finished shooting the BRZ STI Concept a couple of weeks ago at the STI HQ in Mitaka, I headed upstairs to the STI Gallery to see if there were any cool cars on display. It seemed I had picked the perfect day to have a wander…
…as there was a cool triplet of WRC cars on display. Next to McRae's 1998 "P14 WRC" Prodrive rally car was Petter Solberg's 2006 WR car…
…that was used in the 2007 Rallie Monte-Carlo.
The STI staff let me have a nice look around the car and even take a peek under the hood where the EJ20 that powers this beast sits. It may have been restricted to 300 HP, but there were no limits set on torque obviously, so that is what it has been tuned for. While those 300 horses are cranked out at a peak of 5,500 rpm, a wallop of 434 lb/ft is developed at 4,000 rpm. Impressive numbers and just what you need when tackling tight mountain stages. With a lot of importance given to throttle response piping has been kept to a minimum with the intercooler mounted horizontally in front of the engine. Part of the carbon intake chamber was missing from this car but basically it is mounted directly on the turbo…
…and fed by a complex carbon air guide. The most curious part of all was the expansion chamber on the intake side of the intercooler-piping, definitely something to help develop that massive low-rpm torque. An anti-lag system keeps the turbine spinning even when throttle is released, for that instant punch of thrust whenever the driver requires it.
It's all business inside! The AP Racing pedal box helps shift the driving position so that the driver is sitting pretty much inline with the B-pillar, both to help shift weight towards the center of the car and of course as a safety aspect if you happen to hit a tree while sideways! The roll cage is nothing short of a work of art and pretty damn beefy, as it has to take some serious impacts if the worst was to happen.
The top part of the dash is flocked to avoid nasty reflections on the windscreen that could potentially distract the driver, while most of the various switches and controls are neatly laid out on the carbon fiber transmission tunnel. Check out the handbrake lever, that's also carbon. Gears are selected via the paddle behind the steering wheel, pull back for an upshift, push it for a downshift.
You can't beat the looks of a slammed tarmac-spec rally car!!
On top of state of the art dampers Solberg's Impreza is fitted with the mother of all AP Racing monobloc calipers at all four corners. The lightweight BBS wheels are shod in BF Goodrich g-Force cut slicks, 225/40R18s all round.
Big thanks to the STI Staff for allowing me to shoot this impressive car in detail.
-Dino Dalle Carbonare
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
couldve done a camparison of mcraes car with this one to see how much technology has progressed
the "shift lever" mentioned above is actually the hand brake lever.
great to see rallycar spotlights. a grp. b car spotlight would be awesome
I love how you say "this impressive car in detail." I don't know about you, but I don't see any detail?
Where are the pictures of the dampers/ shock towers? Where are the pictures of the trick-AP Racing brakes? Any pictures of the steering wheel? Where are the pictures of the pedal box? Where are the pictures of the special gussets of the rollcage? Where are the pictures of the fuel system?
Where are the pictures of the suspension components (control arms and such)? Where are the pictures of the turbo, wastegate? Any spec of the turbo? Any close-up pictures of the dash and switches? How about any pictures of the rollcage behind the b-pillar?
In other words, where are the details that you are talking about?
I hope you took pictures of McRae's car, or maybe Burns/Kankunnen's car from the 99/00 seasons. dat GC8G.
"You can't beat the looks of a slammed tarmac-spec rally car!!"
Fknaryt
Ummm... Why is that a 4 lug? Last time i checked 2006 Sti's had 5 lug.
Excusez moi Dino, that shift lever is the e-Brake! Hydraulic handbrake to swiftly unbalance the car for hairpins and the like.
Those brakes are humongous.... and the rolcage is indeed a work of art.
Great car, nice coverage!
On a side note; that is NOT a shift lever, but the handbrake ! All shifting was done on the steering wheel.
"Check out the shift lever, that's also carbon...although most shifting is done with the paddles behind the steering wheel. "
Isn't that the handbreak lever instead ?
Dino, are you sure? "Check out the shift lever, that's also carbon...although most shifting is done with the paddles behind the steering wheel. " I'm sure it's the hydraulic handbrake...
The later WRC cars used four lug hubs due to the quick change axles. You can pull the whole axle out of the car through the hub without removing the wheel.
just would like to say that its actually the hand brake lever and not yhe shift lever, and it only has one paddle fir the shifter. If the shifter goes out then car is useless
4 lug conversion is hard core shizzz
Rad. I'm feelin this. One of my all-time favorites!
4-lug??? o_O
I wonder why it's 4 stud instead of the usual 5x114.3?
Wow! Thanks Dino for such an awesome spotlight. I creamed my pants
Now where's Mcrae's car?
JDMized: shut up, you're annoying. See that thing in your browser saying "dev.speedhunters.com"? Don't you like it? Well then don't click it. Problem solved.
that intake pipe is to do with the anti lag, although im not sure on the details why.
and it would be running a hell of a lot more than 434 lb ft on its race map
I wanna know of that digital gauge display. It looks awesome.
One word: Beautiful
Such an awesome intake set up, loving it, I was looking forward to some close up pics.... I got down to click on page2 for those close up details... and there was more! Hope there is more detail of this car in the future, including some of the other cars sitting around it??
excellent
I've witnessed Ford Focus WRC customer car putting out 780 Nm and 420 hp on dyno even though M-sport never gave customer cars the full power maps. I think those numbers are not even close to truth as is usual with WRCars. The 300hp rule has been a joke right from the start as Sierra Cosworths had about 350hp in 1987.
Hm I'm also curious about the 4 bolt pattern instead of 5x114.3. Honestly first time I've noticed that.
isocyanide is just mad that he doesn't know what anything JDMized just said actually means.
The reason why that stuff is important to the detail aspect of a detailed post is because all those things JDMized mentioned were important to this car being so awesome.
But I must say, JDM, you're wasting your breath, the attention span of most people doesn't stick around long when the person looking at the pictures cant immediately figure out where on the car the picture is actually focused on. Fuse panels, suspension geometry, chassis prep, wastegate plumbing and restrictor pipe details are really only important to like 0.00021% of automotive enthusiasts..
... on this site.
This is one of my all time favorite Rally cars but not from this season. The reliability of Subaru was terrible after Solberg won his Championship. I think things could've turned around in 2009 when Subaru swtiched to the newer hatchback model but then Subaru dropped out of the WRC. Also it seems that Prodive, the company that used to run the Subaru World Rally Team, has got it right again with Mini WRC putting them on the 2nd step of the podium in Monte Carlo this season.
That handle may be the hydraulic e-brake, but if the paddles failed, there was a way the driver could re-route thr hydraulics so that it became the shifter. It wasn't ideal, but it was good enough to get the car home and repair it.
Best looking WRC car ever
@Weasel: I am aware that I am (for readers on here) a huge PITA-prick to deal with.
Here is how I see it: Dino had the opportunity to shoot this great 2006 WRC STi, and he ends up taking just generic pics that most of us are familiar with. We all know what a 2006 WRC STi looks like on the outside.
Show us those tricks parts that were not cool to photograph when the car was going thru R&D in 2006. Now the car is 6 years old, and although it is still a great racecar, much of the technology used on the car is a bit obsolete.
I am 100% confident that the engineers at STi wouldn't have minded if Dino went down on his knee and shoot some juicy pics of the suspension components, or fuel system, or even the cage, or detailed pics of the engine bay.
Sometime I feel like I'm asking too much.
JDM, how do you know the sti staff there only let him take the pictures shown here? Be thankful for what you get. Also this site will never be motoiq, stop trying. Its owned by nfs for goodness sake.
Pitty they pretty much fucked Solbergs career for a few years using the above car which was years out of touch with the cars it was competing with
Mamma mia... We want now the Corolla WRC!
Awesome bit of kit, pity it wasn't that competitive. Still have a model of it sitting on my mantle though, and an 06 STi sitting in the garage so it must have left an impact! Would love a wallpaper of the first image...
@Grant and Others - Regarding the 4 stud conversion: Read somewhere before that it was a case of gains in rigidity from changing to a 4 stud setup from the previous 5 in around the 2006 WRC season. Though a previous comment about pulling driveshafts through the hub center makes sense as well.
Please make these into Wallpapers, for the love of god Hi Res Downloads Please
amazing car!!!!!
@m: look up my Flickr account and see how close I got up to LMP1 cars! (and my name is not "Dino Dalle Carbonare").
But you are right! This site caters to video-game players, I can't expect too much from it.
I'll shut up and go back to MotoIQ, while you guys discuss how sick those flushed wheels are.
Love?!
(Need desktops/hi res.!!)
I think it was converted to 4 lug for ease of removal in a pinch.
Could be wrong though
It would have been sacrilegious not to have posted a shot of Colin McRae's old WRC Impreza that was
JDMized...your comments are always so constructive. Thank you so much for your usual entertaining feedback. Would have loved to have taken more shots but I had about 3 min to shoot the car...so that's the best I could have done.
I love race cars and the detail you have shown on these pictures guys. Thank you for the hard work!
Read the article it says its the handrake not the shift lever