Subaru WRX STi by SR Motorsport at Nurburgring

By Anthony Crawford | April 24th, 2010

Mal Rose is an Australian race driver who knows Germany’s infamous Nurburgring better than most from down under. The 2010 Nurburgring 24 Hour will be the seventh time he has entered the race, and the first time in a Subaru.

And not just any Subaru, but rather, a Subaru Impreza WRX STI from the UK team Rimmer Motorsport, which has been race prepared by endurance race specialists SR Motorsport. He will compete in the SP3T class for turbocharged vehicles up to 2.5 litres.

That’s quite a serious change for Mal, who is usually piloting a V8 Holden, which last year happened to be the outrageous pink Donut King car.

The 20 kilometres-plus Nurburgring is infamous due to the number of lives it has claimed over the years. There is almost no runoff throughout the entire circuit, which means if you lose it here, you lose it big time. Speeds above 300km/h are standard practice down the straight sections of the course.

That said this is a race that attracts a huge number of drivers from all over the world. In the SP3T Class alone, there are no fewer than 35 cars running in this year’s race.

There are precious few Aussies who ever get called up for a drive at the ‘Ring’ with a serious overseas outfit, but Rose has both the qualifications and experience to warrant such a invitation.

In 1995 while racing Formula Ford, he was crowned Rookie of the year against drivers such as Mark Webber and Jason Bright and has been racing since 1983.

The Rimmer Motorsport Impreza STi should be a very quick car in the hands of Mal Rose, and we wish him well in this year’s race and hope to see him collect a class win.

When he’s not racing, Mal is busy with his successful V8 Supercar Experience business, which offers punters the chance to take a ride in a V8 Supercar.

ABMPSV

He raced there with Holden and Mitsubishi. In 2004 and 2005, Rose finished second in Class SP2 driving a Mitsubishi Mirage, before upgrading to a slightly-modified Holden Commodore V8 Supercar in 2006. The ’06 event didn’t go so well for Rose, with co-driver Adam Wallis crashing out of the race, but he bounced back to finish 5th in Class SP8 in 2007, 4th in 2008 and 7th last year after struggling with a slipping clutch. Good luck this year!
F1MotoGP

Last year the best Subaru finished 33rd and in category 5th. First was VW Scirocco, 2 Audi A3, 3 VW Scirocco, 4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

Andy

what are the power output (hp) limitations of the category? WRC cars can’t exceed around 240kW at the fly. what is this Sti limited to?

just ran a quick google search on last year’s S3s. the S3′s that raced last year were only making an extra 50hp over standard with a tweak of the factory ECU. obviously a lot of weight was removed, brakes attended to and the usual aero body changes. interesting to note the S3′s that race last year were converted from AWD quattro to FWD to reduce a further couple hundred more Kgs. the S-Tronic gearbox was also put in place for much quicker shifting.

the SR motorsport Sti seems to be sporting a massive frontmount intercooler. are there any changes to the turbo?

F1MotoGP

Here some of the cars on the starting list: Porsche GT3, Audi R8, Aston MArtin V8 Vantage, Aston Martin Rapide, Porsche GT3 Hybrid, Dodge Viper, BMW M3, Porsche 997, Ferrari 430, Nissan Z33, Porsche 911 RS, Lexus LF-A, Aston Martin GT4, Ginetta, Chevrolet Corvette, Nissan 370Z, Porsche Cayman, BMW Z4, Audi RS4, BMW 320d, BMW 330, BMW 135, Lotus Exige, VW Sciroco, Seat Supercopa, Volvo Heico, Audi TTS, Ford Mondeo, Volvo S60, Audi A3, BMW Mini Cooper S, Opel Astra, Mitsubishi Lance Evo X, VW Golf, Peugeot 207, Renault Clio, Honda Civic Type R, Honda S2000, Alfa Romeo 147. BMW 120d, BMW 335d, Ford Focus RS.
Shak

So do any of our local cars compete in this event?

MrQuick

Apart from that Donut King Commodore, I can’t remember any local cars that have been entered in the last couple of years.

Just getting the car all the way to Germany would be quite a money and time consuming process. I don’t see any reason why anyone would, considering the 911 GT3s are much better turn-key racers for a similar cost.

Holden or Ford Aus won’t ever do something like that, cost is too high for the lack of publicity, not enough value for money.

ABMPSV

Yes maybe cost high but how come from New Zealand quite a few entries there and if Falcon or Commodore are so good and beat Porsche at home that is an excellent investment!!

MrQuick

Oh, I’d love to see a Falcon or Commodore, but privateers usually won’t take such a step, apart from Mal, who from what I’ve heard made an good impression with the journos racing there last year.

Ford or Holden wouldn’t be competing against the Porsches anyway I think, because they’d have to run in the SP8 category as our cars aren’t GT3/GT4 homolgated. They’d be up against stuff like the IS-F, RS4 and the Vantages.

Lazy Toyota

Such a shame he’s not in the Commodore again. Will rewatch Mal’s big green hell again on the 15th in preparation for a day watching the liv web streams of the race.

The N’Ring is truly fearsome, sadly an Aston Martin enduro driver in the VLN series lost his life there just last weekend.
reV

Nice to see another WRX STI in the SP3T class. Go Rose!
ABMPSV

24 Nurburgring race he started 29th and after 9 hours he is 157th. Lexus is even worse started 24 and 28th an now 1-2 and 127th!! Porsche Hybrid leading.
reV

25th (STI) GRB. 39th (Rose) GDB.