Subaru’s top-secret record-breaking hopeful spotted

Subaru has been caught carrying out secret shakedown runs of a road-legal WRX STI racer that it hopes will set a new lap record this May at the Isle of Man TT.

The images, posted on US car website Road & Track late last night, show the racer testing. It’s clear from the images that the WRX STI has been heavily modified with a big aero package, full roll-cage and stripped out interior.

Look closer and the unusual ride height also hints at a completely rethought suspension for the difficult, bumpy and undulating road circuit.

Developed by UK-based Prodrive, the new road-legal racer rekindles Subaru’s relationship with the British motorsport outfit.

Prodrive and Subaru collaborated for 19 years in the WRC -- a partnership that saw the Japanese car-maker win the WRC drivers’ and manufacturers' title three times.

Now stepped back from rallying, it’s become something of a tradition for the Japanese car-maker to attempt to chip away at the outright lap record for a car at the Isle of Man.

Subaru, in fact, set the current lap record (for a car) back in 2014 with British rally champion, Mark Higgins, behind the wheel.

Averaging an incredible 187km/h, fearless Higgins managed a best time in another WRX STI of 19 minutes 26 seconds.

Flat out for more than 80 per cent of the lap with little run off, the road circuit is claimed to be one of the world’s most challenging places in the world to set a fast lap.

Despite narrow roads, big jumps and all manner of trees, rocks, walls, lamp posts and even the occasional sheep, Higgins still managed to hit 258km/h at points in his 221kW 2.5-litre STI (video below).

Subaru claimed in 2014 that the only modifications made to the car that set the record was a full roll-cage, internal fire extinguisher, new springs and dampers and a set of grippier Dunlop Derezza tyres.

It’s expected, from the look of the new record breaker, that this time round the Japanese car-maker might have turned up the power, hence the huge new aero package.

Even with substantially more power it’s unlikely a car will ever come close to the outright motorcycle lap record of 17 minutes 3.7 seconds set by John McGuinness in 2015, when he lapped the circuit with an average speed of 214km/h.

Expect Subaru to announce more on its big-budget lap record attempt before this year’s Isle of Man TT race, which begins on May 30.