A race car based on the Subaru WRX is entering the upcoming 2023 Nürburgring 24-Hour. The race is scheduled to take place from May 20 to 21, 2023, at the world-famous Nürburgring circuit in the Rhineland-Palatinate state in Germany.
The Subaru WRX NBR Challenge 2023 race car
The car will be competing under a team formed by Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru’s performance-oriented subsidiary. Note that this is the 14th time that Subaru will enter the 24 hours of Nürburgring. This time around, it will participate in the said race under the SP4T class, which consists of turbocharged cars with up to 2.6 liters of displacement.
The STI team is then made up of an all-Japanese pool of dealership service technicians representing various Subaru outlets from their home country. Taking the helm of the endurance race team is Hideharu Tatsumi as general manager, Takuya Sawada as team manager, and Naoki Shibuya as project leader.
Team STI’s cars are then piloted by four drivers. There’s Dutch professional racer and Subaru factory driver Carlo van Dam, German racer and television host Tim Schrick, GT300 racing driver Hideki Yamauchi, and racing driver Takuto Iguchi.
With regards to the race car itself, it is a heavily modified version of the 2023 Subaru WRX sedan. Known as the Subaru WRX NBR Challenge 2023, it features plenty of additions including a large rear wing, a front splitter, additional front ducts, and a rear diffuser.
Check out that massive rear wing
STI likewise upgraded the race car with larger ball joints for its front end for better reliability and durability. The muffler was likewise enlarged to meet race regulations, and they installed a stiff draw tower bar bracket for added rigidity.
The company did not indicate anything about engine modifications for their WRX race car. As such, we can assume that it uses the stock 2.4-liter turbocharged mill that the standard WRX uses.
On the stock commercially available Philippine-spec Subaru WRX, the said engine can make up to 271 horsepower and 350 Nm of torque. Power is then sent to all four wheels via Subaru’s Symmetrical all-wheel-drive system. Locally, the WRX is available with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) or a six-speed manual transmission.
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