June 13, 2014
Higgins, a former British Rally Champion, has done it again in a Subaru WRX STI what others could only dream of
Mark Higgins is that British Rally Champion who had broken the lap record around the
Isle of Man TT course in a previous generation Subaru WRX STI back in year 2011. Many had tried to break that record ever since but no one has ever succeeded, until a few days ago when he broke his own previously set record.
This time he was driving a new generation Subaru WRX STI, only minor modifications were made to the car for safety reasons. Higgins managed to maintain an average speed of 116.47 miles per hour and completed the 37.7-mile course in the record time of 19 minutes and 26 seconds. On the Sulby Straight, he had even hit the top speed of 162.9 mph.
Higgins improved his own record which he set in 2011 where he averaged 115.36 miles per hour, but then he was driving an
older generation of Subaru WRX STI. At that time, Higgins managed to break a long standing record which was set by Tony Pond in a Rover-827 Vitesse in 1990 when he averaged 102 mph.
This time the new generation Subaru that Higgins was driving, was a standard US-spec WRX STI, powered by a four-cylinder
2.5-litre boxer engine producing 301 bhp. Installation of a roll at the rear, updated brake pads, new dampers and springs, a single racing seat, and on special request from TT organiser, a straight-through exhaust which made the car sound as loud as possible were all the minute modifications made to this car for record attempt.
After breaking his own record, although Higgins was happy but wasn’t totally pleased as he explained that it was quite a wild lap but still he had plenty of time out there. He said he probably had dropped about 10 seconds when he was going over the mountain, according to him, he definitely had dropped some power there, and he couldn’t get it into top gear going up-hill.
