Subaru XV rally car scores STI running gear

Ahead of the 2018 Sunraysia Safari Rally, Perth-based Maximum Motorsport has unveiled a Subaru XV rally car with a WRX STI engine.

The two-time Australian rally champion Rob Herridge, who’ll be contesting the Safari in the XV, says the car has been in the works for some time.

“The XV has been sitting in the workshop for a while now,” Herridge says.

“We’ve really taken our time planning what we wanted to do and although the actual build phase has only been a few weeks, there has been a long period of planning.

“We’ve paid particular attention to ‘packaging’ the extra weight of larger wheels and tyres and the extra fuel loads required.”

Maximum Motorsport, which is run by the Herridge family, has been developing Subaru rally cars for decades, and is therefore in a perfect position to develop the ‘XV STI’.

“It has been quite a short development cycle,” Herridge adds.

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“That said, we now have decades of experience building rally cars, plus we’ve contested the Australasian Safari four times and the Sunraysia Safari last year.

“So we have developed an understanding about the specific requirements of these endurance style events.

“This car is a combination of standard Subaru XV and components from the WRX STI rally cars we’ve built and run in national and state rally championships.

“We’ve used as many components from the Subaru family as possible and that has helped us package everything into the car.

“In fact, things like fitting the Subaru 2.0L turbo engine from the WRX STI into the XV were reasonably straightforward. We’ve done some in-house fabrication of components, but not a huge amount.”

Maximum Motorsport expects the XV to prove somewhat of a ‘giant killer’ compared to larger 4X4s which tackle Sunraysia.

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“The Forester has proven to be a great car and having completed four Australasian Safaris and leading last year’s Sunraysia Safari, it has shown that the Subaru Symmetrical AWD concept is competitive in these harsh conditions.

“We have learnt a lot competing in these type of events and we thought that we could tweak the Subaru AWD idea a bit harder with the XV.”

The Sunraysia Safari kicks off tomorrow (Tuesday August 7th) and runs for 5 days, over which entrants tackle the tough environment of Wentworth Shire in the South-West corner of NSW.