This Rear-Wheel-Drive Subaru WRX Is A Smokey Drift Machine

When you want to drift but Subaru is life, you get creative.

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Christopher Smith

By: Christopher Smith

Jul 25, 2019 at 3:37pm ET

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Are you struggling to make it through the week? It’s Thursday afternoon in the USA as this article posts, and as much as we hate to admit it, sometimes a good smoke is needed to get us to the weekend. Being this is Motor1.com, you know we’re talking about tire smoke but why is a Subaru WRX taking center stage here? The boosted rally racer is all kinds of fun, and it can execute wicked all-wheel-drive donuts to such a degree that even astronauts would get sick. But it’s not what you’d call a proper smoke machine for the kind of release we’re after. That is, unless you give it a rear-wheel-drive conversion.

That’s exactly what this 2008 WRX is hiding beneath its purple wrap. Christian Ngo is the owner, and in this video from Hoonigan Daily Transmission on YouTube, he confesses the Rex is his dream car. He also confesses that he loves drifting, and while you can have some sideways fun in an all-wheel-drive machine, it usually involves high-speed powerslides on dirty surfaces. Ngo wanted to enjoy his car while engaged in some proper, tire-shredding sideways action on tarmac, so he set about making that happen.

Gallery: Rear-Wheel Drive Subaru WRX

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Obviously this WRX turns just the rear wheels. The transmission is stock, but the center differential was swapped with a unit that properly disconnects the rubber upfront. To achieve those cool-looking opposite-lock shots, a wide-angle steering kit was installed for more input and travel. The engine isn’t stock either, and while we aren’t privy to exact details, this WRX has plenty of power blow up the hides in slow-motion donuts and burnout. Yeah, that’s the satisfying smoke we’re looking for.

It doesn’t absolutely obliterate tires like the Hellcat-swapped Mazda MX-5 we recently saw in Hoonigan hands. But we have mad respect for anyone who takes the plunge on building their dream car.

Source: Hoonigan Daily Transmission