Subaru Tackled Mt. Washington Hillclimb In 5 Min 28.67 Sec

With rallycross star Travis Pastrana at the wheel, Subaru has just smashed the course record at Mt. Washington Hillclimb, the greatest hill climb contest in North America.

Airslayer STI, the same Subaru WRX STI that will be utilized in Gymkhana 2020, was used during the 7.6-mile (12.2-km) mountain pass. This year's record-breaking run was powered by 862-hp (874 PS/642.6kW) compared to 600-hp (608 PS/447kW) in the previous record-breaking run in 2017. That's a power gain of 262-hp (266 PS/195kW).

It took Pastrana 5 minutes 28.67 seconds to finish the hill climb, which was over 16 seconds faster than his previous record of 5 minutes 44. While this achievement is amazing in itself, the fact that Mt. Washington has mixed-surface roads and variable weather makes it much more astounding.

"This vehicle is the ultimate machine for it," Pastrana remarked after his record-breaking drive. A few weeks ago, I came away with a second-place result at Goodwood, and I was eager to show what the vehicle was capable of in the proper conditions. Since the weather was so nice, I knew I had a strong shot at the 5:44 time. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again."

Pastrana and the car will be traveling to Connecticut's Wicked Big Meet in September, which is believed to be the world's largest Subaru fan event.