A short while ago I did a story about competing in my first ever stage rally. I got cold and muddy, but despite racing a near bone-stock 2009 Honda Fit – which at 117 hp was about as powerful as a slug – I had the time of my life. Only I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to drive Subaru’s race-winning machine, a car so insane it finished over an hour ahead of me that weekend.



I wonder no more, because deep in a snowy New Hampshire forest at Team O’Neil’s rally school, I had the chance to drive it. The only stipulation? I had to promise I wouldn’t crash. It is worth $250,000, after all.



During the LSPR round of Rally America, five-time champ David Higgins flew past Yahoo's camera guy with such vigor a rock flew up and clonked him in the head. Despite my best efforts in the Fit, I couldn’t even shower him in mud. The car that did the clonking is based off a production Subaru WRX STI, which typically retails for around $35,000. So what makes this one worth so much more?



At roughly 360 hp, a 55-hp bump over production, it certainly isn’t horsepower. But the torque jumps from 290 lb-ft to a colossal 500 lb-ft; it also features an anti-lag system unleashing that torque from near-idle, and it arrives with a six-speed sequential racing gearbox. A hydraulic handbrake gets bolted in, and the trick suspension system probably costs more than an entire WRX itself. And that’s just the start.



This is a proper racing car, one capable of traveling from a standstill to 60mph – on gravel – in just 3.3 seconds. (Let that sink in for a minute: It’s almost as fast as the new 660-hp Ferrari 488 GTB is on pavement.) It drives in a way you’d swear was impossible, and from behind the wheel, it feels worth all $250,000 and then some. But before we get into that, let’s remind ourselves where Subaru’s rallying heritage began.



Technically it all started in 1980, but it wasn’t until 1989 that the Subaru World Rally Team, run by David Richard’s Prodrive organization, became official. In the mid-‘90s, with Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz at the helm, the iconic blue Impreza wearing yellow 555 decals became mythical – yielding a cult-like following, similar (to a lesser extent) to that of Ferrari in Formula One; to this day, a good Subaru is a blue Subaru – one with gold rims.



However, as Wall Street tumbled in 2008, so did Subaru’s involvement in the sport; a lack of results in 2006 and 2007 didn’t help the argument for staying in the chase either. But with Subaru’s sales now soaring to record levels, why, then, hasn’t it returned to the top-level World Rally Championship?



Simply put, Subaru doesn’t have an eligible engine. The current WRC rules adopted in 2011 say engines must be 1.6-liter turbos, blocking the company’s beloved 2.5-liter Boxer from competition. VW, Citroen, Hyundai, Ford and soon-to-be Toyota can justify building an engine to this specification because they have relevant cars in their fleets. At present, it makes no business sense for Subaru.

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But all is not lost. Subaru has been crushing the opposition on U.S. soil for many years, and Higgins has been the man doing the pounding. Rallying in America lacks the following of WRC in Europe, but nonetheless it remains an important marketing tool for the Japanese automaker.



My preparation for driving the ultimate Subaru at O’Neil’s was to slide around some cones in a near bone-stock production WRX. My instructor offered some handy tips on how to handle rally cars on ice. We crammed one of their 3-day schools into a mere few hours; then Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew showed up in their ’14 racer, and promptly told me to climb aboard.



And so here I am, fastening my belts. The cabin is bare metal, with only the essentials remaining. The roll cage is painted ice white, along with the interior body panels. It feels meticulously maintained, so clean you could lick it, and somewhat sterile – almost like a dentist’s office, minus the smell of latex. This car has one unwavering objective, to be the fastest rally car on the planet. And with a strong tug of the lever, I select first gear, hold the revs above 2,000 rpm and gently release the clutch.



We’re off.



I find myself sawing at the steering wheel. It’s not because the car is behaving awkwardly, rather I’m searching for the edge of grip. By turning the wheel sharply I expect the tires to give way, showing me the limit of adhesion in a safe, controlled manner. But I never find it. We’re on studded snow tires on ice and I’m tackling the slalom section at a comparable speed to that of a production car on dry tarmac.

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This simply frazzles my brain.

Next, Higgins, who’s brave enough to sit shotgun in the passenger seat, instructs me to peel off the slalom area and onto a 2-mile icy stage through the forest. Having had difficulty getting the production cars to turn on the slippery surface earlier that day, I’m staggered by how easily the car rotates. You’re not constantly forcing the machine into a slide to combat understeer, like in most rally cars. It just corners, even without a concerted effort from the driver. The steering rack is so quick and precise, too, that you rarely turn past 90-degress off center, and when you shift up and down the gears, you don't need to use the clutch.

Oh, and it's fast. Like, properly fast, punching you back in the seat harder than a Corvette Stingray does on dry tarmac – and yet we're on ice. I come out of a tight first gear hairpin and hit the gas. All four wheels spin, the engine chirping and popping as I snap through the gears. The backend slides wonderfully, and despite rocketing at 80 mph through a snow-covered track with trees either side I feel remarkably in control. The car inspires confidence, and at the speed I’m traveling, it feels easy.

Only I’m traveling at a fraction of the speed Higgins does, as he shows me later that day (see video below) in his new for 2015 open class Rally America car – one that costs around $400,000 and has just won the first round of the Rally America championship at Sno*Drift. I’m barely touching this car’s capability, and yet what I discover blows my mind – more so than driving an IndyCar, or an F1 car, or any purpose-built sports car. In these conditions, a car shouldn’t be able to do what this does. We’re on snow and ice, cornering at speeds that should bury me deep into the heart of a large oak tree. And yet it doesn’t, and I’m well aware that I could, if I had been given more than just a handful of minutes behind the wheel, travel an awful lot faster still.

For $250,000, no other car makes you feel this alive. A production-based GT3 sports car – awesome but not awesome-r – will run you $400,000. And Subaru’s rally car is street legal, as all rally cars must be.



With fewer regulations to follow here in the U.S., this WRX STI open-class machine is right there with anything Europe has to offer, despite working with a smaller budget. It’s also more powerful than a WRC car. Having now driven it, I fear my addiction to rallying remains permanent (the amount of time I’ve since spent scouring the classifieds for used rally cars only affirms that fact).

Watch any on-board video from any top rally driver and try to imagine how mind-blowing the cars must feel. Now times that by ten and you’re not even close. What’s more, I can confirm that Subaru’s rally car does indeed launch ice rocks with tremendous force. The camera guy wouldn’t admit to it, but he didn't have to: his bruises said it all.