Subaru’s Goodwood record reads like a case study in close-but-not-quite: two second-place overall finishes for Travis Pastrana, back-to-back first-place ICE finishes for Scott Speed and WRX: Project Midnight in 2024 and 2025, and zero Hillclimb Shootout wins. The Brataroo 9500 Turbo is the machine Subaru Motorsports USA is counting on to finally close that gap when the 1.16-mile hillclimb opens July 9.
The Brataroo is a purpose-built Gymkhana weapon dressed as a tribute to the 1978 Subaru BRAT, built by Subaru Motorsports USA and Vermont SportsCar. It came to global attention through Gymkhana: Aussie Shred, a film that has since crossed 12 million YouTube views and collected multiple Telly Awards. On screen, the car does everything a Gymkhana car is supposed to do: high-speed slides, large jumps, a water crossing. At Goodwood, the brief is different. Pastrana will be asking the same machine to put down a timed run against some of the quickest racing hardware in the world.
The mechanical case for taking it seriously starts with the drivetrain. A turbocharged 2.0-liter Subaru Boxer produces 670 hp and 680 lb-ft of torque, numbers that put the Brataroo well inside serious competition territory for the Shootout’s internal combustion category. What makes it unusual for a hillclimb entry is the aerodynamic system. Subaru describes it as the most advanced active aero package ever fitted to a Gymkhana vehicle, developed specifically to manage the car’s attitude during large jumps. Whether that system translates to meaningful downforce on a point-to-point hillclimb is a question Pastrana’s run will answer more honestly than any press note can.
Pastrana’s Goodwood record gives the entry real credibility. He finished second overall in 2021 behind the wheel of the Subaru WRX STI Airslayer, then matched that result in 2023 with the Subaru Family Huckster. Speed’s Project Midnight runs added consecutive first-place ICE finishes to the program in 2024 and 2025, each time stopping just short of the overall podium’s top step. Subaru has been consistent enough at this event to earn a pattern; the Brataroo is the attempt to turn the pattern into a result.
Pastrana’s own framing of what counts as success is worth noting. “Hopefully we can put down a time capable of fighting for the fastest ICE finish, or at least be sideways enough to put on the best show of the week,” he said. That’s a measured read on the competition, which at Goodwood typically includes purpose-built hillclimb cars, current-generation Formula cars, and factory prototype entries that have no speed limit when climbing Lord March’s driveway. The ICE category win is a realistic target. The overall win means beating machinery with significantly fewer mechanical compromises than a car designed to jump and slide.
The original BRAT, which Subaru sold in the United States from 1978 through 1987, was a compact pickup built for utility rather than performance. The Brataroo keeps the name and the visual DNA while inverting every performance assumption the original carried. Forty-eight years of engineering gap makes for an interesting backdrop to a hillclimb run.
Subaru Motorsports USA runs July 9–12. Pastrana has finished second at Goodwood twice. The Brataroo has 670 hp and something to prove.
Source: Subaru. Images courtesy of Subaru.
