Travis Pastrana put on a show with the Hoonigan Huckster on the storied hillclimb at last weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, but his run ended with the extensively modified 1983 Subaru GL Wagon in a haybale. The event’s traditional climax is the timed shootout. While victory carries some prestige, it’s not really a cutthroat competition when vehicles attempting the modest ascent span over a century of history.
Pastrana, a freestyle motocross legend turned rallycross star and mogul, fully grasped that the shootout was meant to be a spectacle for attendees and viewers around the world. It was hard not to be awed hearing the fury of the turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine. With an 862 horsepower motor, the car got going quickly enough that it had to brake for the first corner. Pastrana had no qualms about going all-out and dipping a wheel or two on the grass.
The Vermont SportsCar-prepped monster is covered in active aero elements and is quickly going to become important very soon. When the Huckster slows, it fans out its fender flares and the rear portion of the wagon’s roof to serve as airbrakes. The GL Wagon’s carbon-fiber body panels are draped over a WRC-spec tubular spaceframe.
Disaster struck 24 seconds into the run. Pastrana seemingly carried too much speed into the hill climb’s first left-hand corner. The flaps were down as the Huckster slid off the pavement into the hay. The wagon was able to be reversed out and continued on, but the chance at victory was gone. The Subaru finished 5th in its debut in 2022, prior to its starring role in Gymkhana 12.
Romain Dumas and the Ford Supervan 4.2 took the victory with a 43.98-second, finishing 2 seconds clear of Scott Speed driving the Subaru Project Midnight, another VSC-prepped machine. At Goodwood, winning isn’t everything. It’s a celebration of motorsport’s past, present and future.