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Subaru WRX STI Diamond Edition is the most powerful ever offered

The U.S. is no stranger to seeing Subaru create special-edition WRX STI models that are significantly more potent than what it sells here. Just in the last few years, we saw the W208 and the Type RA-R with over 320 horsepower, compared to the 300 in the standard American STI. That latter one particularly stung, since our Type RA just had 310 horsepower. But what we're not accustomed to seeing is Subaru's home market of Japan being cut out of a special-edition STI, which is exactly the case with the 2018 Subaru WRX STI Diamond Edition. This special STI was developed by Subaru South Africa of all places. And it's a serious machine. It makes a whopping 349 horsepower and 342 pound-feet of torque, which means it's the most powerful WRX STI offered by Subaru to the public. The car also features Brembo brakes with 6-piston calipers up front and 2-piston calipers in the back. The car stands out from regular STIs with its florescent yellow body kit. The car was created by Subaru South Africa to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Subaru Technica International, the company we all know as STI. Because of that, the Subaru branch is only offering 30 for sale. Prospective customers can register for a chance to have one of the cars at this official website. Also interesting is that this isn't the only ultra-limited edition STI from Subaru South Africa. The company did the same thing for the fifteenth anniversary, and only sold 15 examples of that car. It had a remarkable pun for the name: Subaru Impreza WRX STI STImulating Edition. Really, we're not making that up. Related Video:

Climb to the Clouds returning thanks to Subaru title sponsorship [w/video]

The Mt. Washington Hillclimb, otherwise known as the Climb to the Clouds, hasn't been done since 2011. That year, Subaru Rally Team USA driver David Higgins set a new record for the event first held in 1904, running the 7.6-mile vertiginous course in 6:11.54. The race will be return in 2014 with the help of that very carmaker, Subaru of America having stepped in to the title sponsor role for what will be the Subaru Mt. Washington Hillclimb.
Taking place from June 26-29, 75 modern and vintage cars will spend three days racing up the 6,288-foot-high mountain. It's not as long nor as high as Pikes Peak, but it does have something that the Colorado competition doesn't: gravel; about 13 percent of the Mt. Washington Carriage Road still hasn't been paved.
If you want to know what a record-breaking run up the northeast's highest peak looks like, check out Higgins behind the wheel in the video below.

The art of WRX-ing in the rain

There it is again, the quiver of the STi's blue rear spoiler. I noticed it yesterday on the Autobahn north of Frankfurt. Although the speed limit was 120 kilometers per hour, I was cruising in sixth gear around 200 kph when the STi's signature rear appendage began to dance in my rear view mirror. Now I'm redlining fifth gear on the front straight of the legendary Nurburgring's north loop and it's back. Only this time the quivering blade is in a deluge of water coming off the Subaru's 18-inch Dunlops. It's a rooster tail worthy of Miss Budweiser and it's a constant and sobering reminder that I'm lapping the 13-mile long Nordschleife in a freezing and unrelenting rain. I'm driving a 2017 German-spec Subaru WRX STi, not the updated 2018 version that'll get revised front end styling, tweaked suspension tuning, larger Brembo brakes and 19-inch wheels and tires. At 240 kph, close to the 2.5-liter boxer four's 6,700 rpm redline, I shift up to sixth gear and change lanes to avoid the standing water on the left side of the track. It's my third lap. I'm getting over-confident. The all-wheel drive WRX STI is dealing well with the tricky conditions and the Ringmeisters of the past that tamed this track since it was first built in 1929 - Ascari, Fangio, Clark, Caracciola, Nuvolari, Rosemeyer, Chiron, and Ickx - are talking to me inside my head. And they're egging me on. Pushing me to go faster. I'm sticking to wet line and staying off the tall curbing that marks most apexes. Bounce the Subi off a curb and I'm sure to star in the next Nurburgring crash video to hit YouTube. I'm also desperately trying to stay off of the new pavement, which dots the circuit and has a coefficient of friction in the wet similar to snot. Then I make a huge mistake on the entrance to Bergwerk, a tight right hand corner that comes up quickly after a long, fast section and the left hand kink that Nicki Lauda got so wrong in the 1976 Grand Prix. The Nordschleife has 160 corners. Most are blind. Many are off camber. All are lined with walls and Armco barriers. Even the straights are kinked and crowned. And there are two very fast downhill compressions and three jumps that max out a car's suspension travel. There's no runoff room. No margin for error. And remembering the course in this weather in just a few laps is impossible, I don't care how much Gran Turismo you've played.