The 2026 Winter Olympics are currently underway, and as racing enthusiasts, we’re all tuning in to watch the closest car racing we’ve ever had: the bobsled events. Bobsledding requires perfect cooperation between man and machine, the stage is often separated by hundredths of a second and crashes can (and will) happen. Yes, a bobsled is actually a car, and this sport is basically racing. In 2018, Subaru and Prodrive built a real car with a real engine, put rally champion Mark Higgins behind the wheel and unleashed it on the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympia Bob Run. That’s an Olympic sport I would pay money for!
If you don’t know the course yet, it’s actually the birthplace of bobsledding. It is a one and a half kilometer course in Switzerland that descends 130 meters along a mountain via a sinewy route with 19 bends. You’ve probably seen the famous Horse-Shoe Turn, pictured above, with a steep switchback that puts bobsleds (and Subarus) almost vertical. While negotiating the Horse-Shoe, bobsledders experience approximately 5G of force on their bodies.
Yes, throw professional drivers into identically prepared rally cars and push them at full speed down an ice toboggan run. I’m sure there will be a lot of sheet metal bending in the process, but it would be worth it.
Fun fact for car nerds: the last corner on the course is Portago Corner, so named after Alfonso, Marquis de Portago, who won a medal in the two-man bobsleigh event shortly before his death during the 1957 Mille Miglia, as depicted in the 2023 Michael Mann film ‘Ferrari’. The Marquis de Portago, born Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Ángel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, was a Ferrari F1 driver, jockey, pilot and bobsledder.
Anyway, back to the Subaru.
What about the car?
The biggest change from stock, and the one that made the most difference when driving on ice, was the addition of special anti-puncture rally tires. These are narrower tires than would have been on a standard STI of the era, but that comes in handy on snow and ice, especially when each tire is equipped with about 400 tungsten carbide studs. These little metal studs help the Subaru’s all-wheel drive system put every horsepower to the ground. Grip is of course extremely important on ice.
After sprinting from the top to the bottom of the course, hitting seemingly every wall along the way, Higgins turned the car around and drove straight back onto the course, slightly worse for wear. It’s been a while since a major automaker has done something as ridiculous and over-the-top as this stunt. Then again, this was something of a swan song for Subaru towards the end of WRX STI production, so perhaps it was the outrageous street-homologated rally car that pushed Subaru to do wild stunts, and not the other way around.
Hopefully the next generation STI that is made will be used by Subaru, perhaps with help from Prodrive, to pull off outrageous stunts again.
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