NEXT STAGE - Part 1: Re-Building History - Subaru Launch Control

It's time for a change. It's time for a clean sheet, redesign. What we do for Subaru is we race what they sell and as they have new products come out, that's where our job comes in to then transform those into the next rally car. A new chassis, new platform, new everything. Yes, difficult task, but we're looking forward to it because sky's the limit, so to speak. There is always a challenge between delivery of ability. I want to do it right. We keep fighting every day. Once it goes to paint, it's all finished. And the car is ready to start for the first time. In the testing, it's trying to pull out all those bugs, all these potential issues we can. If nothing breaks, then people assume you didn't push the envelope. We're going to take the WRX and do all the same stuff that we were doing. And that means that WRX can kind of stand on its own as a great rally car, a great performance car. I think this car is going to be an absolute animal. It's got serious potential. The current car, the car that we're running right now, that car was developed to a rule set and a situation that was very different from the situation we're in now. It has had a tremendous amount of success over the past seven, eight seasons. It's time for a change. It's time for a clean sheet redesign. And there's a brand new WRX out there. And build an entirely new rally car with it, with the latest technology and a lot more learnings and a totally new design philosophy. Good morning. We're just about ready to see the first new WRX coming, 23 model. And as a normal part of what we do for Subaru, we have to design and build a new car. Now the rule set will change and we want to design something that is more than just competitive and gives us a little bit more breathing space. What we do for Subaru is we race what they sell. And as they have new products come out, that's where our job comes in to then transform those into the next rally car to go win more championships with. Our identity as a performance brand is really tied into rally in a big way. When we started getting into rallying in the 90s, we had never really been a motorsport brand at all before that. For the duration of Subaru's history in rallying, there have only been a handful of full redesigns to a brand new rally car. New chassis, new platform, new everything. When the team first started winning championships as Subaru Rally Team USA, those cars were starting from Group N platforms. But that proceeded fairly quickly in 2006, 2007 into open class builds, which were a little bit more advanced, more reliability, higher level of development, higher level of cost. That was followed by an entirely new development of the hatchback STI that proceeded from 2008 up through about 2014. And then from there, we moved on to what was the VT15R, which was an entirely new sedan, entirely new platform versus the hatchback that came before it. And that car debuted with a perfect season in its first full year, which was a very high bar to set for a brand new rally car. You have a period of four or five years to get the most you can out of that one, develop it as far as you can. From that introduction year all the way up to right now, where it's sort of ending or getting close to the end of its life. And it's an exciting time to kind of turn the page and try again with this one. Everything started with rally. Rally still runs through our veins. And so this one little car is very, very important. We're not sitting back. We have to go out on top with that car. When we started this program, you know, we were expected to deliver a rally car in about six months. We are not taking six months to build the car. We're taking much longer than that. And because of that being our request, we need some time to do this right. It's a pretty tall order. And the rules are changing at the same time. We have to adjust to the new rule spec. Today in the ARA championship, we have some pretty amazing cars. So at this point in the championship, we kind of have an idea of where everybody's standing going into the last few rounds. Brandon's in the driver's seat here. And Ken is kind of in the same boat as Travis. He needs to be winning if he wants to win the championship. So recently we've had to make changes to stay competitive. Brandon and I have been a half of a tenth of a second a mile apart on average this year, which means we're pretty much overlapping. Ken, when he puts in a good stage, has been a half second a mile quicker. We need to find that half second a mile. Fortunately, we got to make some adjustments to the car. The wing's a bit higher now, getting it above the roof a little and getting more downforce in the rear. And then we've also moved the weight in a bit. So just getting like the balance of the car a lot better. A couple of things and hopefully it translates to times on stage. So we've had to be very reactionary to stay competitive. Drastic changes like we've done the last few years. Just try to adjust to every new car that comes to the championship. The U.S. Open class has always been kind of like a wild west. You can kind of do anything. The rules were very brief. It is extremely difficult to be competitive because there is no firm line in the rule. People present things that are authorized to be used. They don't fit in the rule set, but they're approved and people go racing. In 2021, we saw Barry McKenna bring a WRC chassis to the U.S. for the first time. And he made modifications to fit with the U.S. rules at the time. But it was a WRC level of aero and it was a very high level of performance. The car that was professionally built by M Sport for him. It pushed us down that road a little bit and said, OK, well, the performance level is now going to go up again if this car is allowed to compete. There are a handful of people or teams in the world that can legitimately run a car like that. This is a national championship. And one of the things that we've always had an issue with here in the U.S. is lack of participation in open class from well-funded privateers or manufacturer level teams. The cost of entry is just too high for the average competitor. So the sports decided to make a change so people can reach where we're going to be competing at. More cars can compete at that level without having to break the bank to do it. Both ARA and Subaru are on the same page as far as moving in this direction because the cars that are competing right now are really, really fast and really, really expensive. And those things can become barriers to participation in the sport if they're allowed to continue unchecked. We will have to make some drastic changes to our car while we're developing a new car for that rule set. Yes, difficult task, but we're looking forward to it because it should be a level playing field. That's what we all want. And the new set of rules is completely defined by ARA? At the moment, it's not completely defined. So we're working through that process to get it defined as soon as we can. It's still fluid. We know the basic concept of the rules, the foundation of the rules, but the very fine print with things like aerodynamics is not quite done yet. We've had some back and forth with the ARA to try to figure out, you know, is this acceptable? Is that acceptable? We have to design the car to the millimeter. And if you don't have all those things defined, one thing is waiting for another thing and it's like creates a chain reaction that slows everything down. Knowing that we are starting from a new platform, knowing that the aerodynamic will be limited by the regulation, then what are the areas we need to focus on? But considering the reduction of power and the reduction of aerodynamic performance, we will need to focus a lot on the chassis side and especially on the suspension side. Considering that we'll have to fight against R5, we'll have to have a suspension design which is close to the state of the art of these cars, increased stiffness, reduced weight of all the components. And already that will be hard work and it will pay off. I want to do it right. It'll save us money in the end if we take our time now and do it right. That's the level these cars are at today. You can't rush it. By creating an open class that's more accessible and allows cars to be run more sustainably and a more reasonable level of cost and allows R5s or Rally 2 cars to be competitive without too much modification or development, that strengthens open class in a significant way. So that's going to be a good change for everybody in the long term. With the STI no longer being part of the portfolio, WRX is the Rally identity of the brand right now. I think a lot of people are afraid that that piece that we do, the Rally side, might be going away if Subaru is not producing an STI anymore. And clearly Subaru's response has been, no don't worry about it, we're going to take the WRX and do all the same stuff that we were doing. And that means that WRX can kind of stand on its own as a great Rally car, a great performance car. The current vehicle is less of an integrated design than the new vehicle will be where, okay we're starting from scratch so now we can make sure that the suspension plays well with the chassis and the engine and all the other stuff kind of works together. So this is the teardown stage. This is where we first start. Everything on the floor is removed. And all the shiny spots overall, like where the factory studs would be. We basically get as much material as we can out of the car, as much weight as we can out of the car, nothing to interfere with what we're doing. We've got it back down to a bare chassis and now we can move ahead and start putting in some hard points that matter, you know, big bits can go in now we've got that approved. So that'll be a huge to start laying the cage out in this car and seeing what's next. There's a time limit, there's a ticker going. A car is a more complicated thing than you think. Our effort is split in a lot of different directions and we can't anticipate everything. It's all hands on deck till that car gets done and then we'll be back on this to make up time that we've lost.