Higgins Impreza STI Isle of Man
I heard of the incident from EVO Magazine.
Apparently Subaru of America were trying to set a new lap record of the TT circuit in a road car as a promotional event and Road & Track magazine were there to cover the action.
Slightly more action than they were probably expecting as it turns out, although the journo in the passenger seat was an ice man in the face of almost certain injury.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiLnt6tiH3U
Looking at the video you realise how lucky Higgins was, very rarely do moments that get this big have a happy ending.
Even recoveries usually involve some sort of contact with the scenery to stabilise the tank slapper and make no mistake, this was the mother of all tank slappers, not only due to the difference in the angle between to movement of the car and the direction the car was pointing, not only for the speed (which was impressive) but also for the environment in which the incident happened, the type of scenery which can be described as extremely hostile to cars leaving the road at 130mph plus.
As Higgins himself points out, even he doesn’t know how he managed to save it but like all great rally drivers, he never gave up on the situation and kept fighting and would have kept fighting right to the end of the accident.
Fortunately his fighting to save the car was succesful in avoiding a potential lethal accident at worst and a very second hand STI at best.
Unintentionally Subaru North America came away with an even bigger story than they were planning because the Road & track video has now been viewed over 700,000 times at the time of writing.
And yes, the STI did manage to break the lap record of the TT course.
