Subaru WRX Project Midnight Is Here to Break Records, Hearts

This is the quickest, fastest WRX-based vehicle ever

written by Steven Ewing^{Director, Editorial Content
Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of editorial content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com, CNET, and was the U.S. correspondent for Top Gear magazine. Steven has also contributed to Automobile magazine, Car and Driver, The Drive, Jalopnik, Porsche Panorama, and dozens of other publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook, and drive his 2000 BMW M Roadster.}
edited by Kathleen Clonts^{Copy Chief
Kathleen Clonts has worked in the automotive industry since 2014 and has copy-edited thousands of vehicle reviews and stories about cars and the auto industry in that time. Kathleen is the Edmunds editorial team's copy chief and previously worked as the senior copy editor for Automobile magazine.}
7/9/2024
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Subaru's latest race car is a 670-horsepower WRX engineered for ultimate street speed.
The lightweight chassis and carbon-fiber body make this car nearly 1,000 pounds lighter than a standard WRX sedan.
Project Midnight will make its debut run this weekend at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Subaru is bring its brand-new (and totally rad) race car, the WRX Project Midnight, to the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend. And it appears the automaker is taking the "Speed" part of the event quite literally. Not only was its latest race car developed with sheer road-going speed in mind, but at the Goodwood hill climb, it'll be piloted by none other than storied motorsports driver (and generally cool dude) Scott Speed. How appropriate.

Project Midnight is, effectively, Subaru's followup to the 2020 Airslayer racer. But while that car was designed to do stunts in Gymkhana videos, slide its rump 'round rally stages and generally be a sort of on-call hooligan, Project Midnight is laser-focused on outright paved-road speed.

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To accomplish this, Subaru worked with the team at Vermont SportsCar — a company well known for building fast Subies — to give the new WRX a major overhaul. The super-wide aerodynamic body is made of carbon fiber, and the massive wing is an bigger version of the one found on Subaru's ARA24 gravel rally car. You'll find 18-inch OZ Racing magnesium wheels at all four corners, wrapped in 280/650R18 Yokohama Advan racing slicks.

Thanks to that new body, as well as lightweight suspension components, Subaru says Project Midnight is not only 300 pounds lighter than the Airslayer, but roughly 1,000 pounds lighter than a standard WRX road car. This racer tips the scales at a scant 2,469 pounds.

Power comes from a turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four engine, with the wick turned way up to produce 670 horsepower and 680 lb-ft of torque. Subaru says the engine can rev to an insane 9,500 rpm. Oh, and it'll spit flames from its hood-exit exhaust. Heck yeah.

Edmunds says

We look forward to verifying that last claim for ourselves as we watch Scott Speed whip Project Midnight up the Goodwood hill this weekend.

by Steven Ewing

Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of editorial content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com, CNET, and was the U.S. correspondent for Top Gear magazine. Steven has also contributed to Automobile magazine, Car and Driver, The Drive, Jalopnik, Porsche Panorama, and dozens of other publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook, and drive his 2000 BMW M Roadster.

edited by Kathleen Clonts

Kathleen Clonts has worked in the automotive industry since 2014 and has copy-edited thousands of vehicle reviews and stories about cars and the auto industry in that time. Kathleen is the Edmunds editorial team's copy chief and previously worked as the senior copy editor for Automobile magazine.

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Subaru WRX Project Midnight Is Here to Break Records, Hearts

This is the quickest, fastest WRX-based vehicle ever

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