The Goodwood Festival of Speed is one of the premier motorsport events on the calendar. The Duke of Richmond organizes a spectacular showcase of some of the fastest and rarest cars in the world, and we get to enjoy watching them going up the legendary Goodwood hill climb which culminates in the time attack runs at the end of the event. This year, there were plenty of great cars on hand to wow the crowds as they blasted up the hill.
One of the highlights of the course was the McMurty Speirling that smashed the Goodwood hill climb record and put in a starting performance with Max Chilton at the wheel. But another awesome car was that of the Subaru GL Wagon “Family Huckster” that came thanks to the Hoonigan team and Travis Pastrana. This 862 hp monster was one of the highlights of the event, with its active aero alone being an incredible spectacle. It was one of the fastest cars of the whole event, with its best time of 46.20 seconds up the hill very impressive, and we can’t get enough of this car.
What The Family Huckster Is All About
The car itself was unveiled to the world earlier in 2022, and this is an insane project from Hoonigan, Pastrana and of course Subaru Motorsports USA. The car is set to star in an upcoming Gymkhana film and its public debut was actually at the Festival of Speed. It’s worlds away from the rather subtle Subaru GL that it started its life out as, with this car not subtle at all. Under the hood is a Subaru Boxer four-cylinder turbocharged engine, which makes an astonishing 862 hp.
That alone would make this car incredible. Then you add in the fact it is all-wheel drive. The car has a sequential six-speed gearbox, while it also has a long-travel World Rally Championship spec suspension, and of course it has this incredible active aero all over the car. The Subaru has an active rear wing for starters, but there are also hydraulic aero flaps on the fender flares which are either manually or automatically controlled, and these looked amazing in action at the festival. There is plenty of YouTube footage of the car blasting up the hill, sometimes sideways, and with the aero in action.
The Family Huckster In Action
Watching Pastrana go up the hill in this car is something we can’t get enough off. Into the first corner, he is already sideways before he really unleashes the power of that Boxer engine. You can see the aero in action, as he stamps on the breaks the rear wing pops up as does those fender flaps, and they go back down again as he comes off the brakes and accelerates out of the corners. The onboard footage of him working the wheel is fantastic, and he doesn’t hold back next to the wall either.
Sideways out of the final corner up to the finish line, Pastrana then blasts over the line before slamming the brakes on again, and we see that active aero in action. Pastrana is of course a showman and Hoonigan and Subaru USA wanted this to be a dramatic car, and it certainly is that. You don’t even see aero like that on a full-blown World Rally car. Plus, watching it weave through such a tight course with hay bales on either side plus a wall in places harks back to the early days of racing.
The GL Wagon Is A Very Special Machine
This was without a doubt one of the most dramatic cars on show at Goodwood. Of course, a car this big needs to be as light as possible. So the body is mostly formed of carbon fiber panels, which themselves are over a tubular space frame. Subaru wanted to keep the car authentic to the era of the GL. So there is even a radio from a 1983 GL Wagon in there, which while its hardly needed for Gymkhana, is one hell of a cool feature. In fact, everything about this car just oozes cool and wild.
The Family Huckster Was A Highlight Of Goodwood
The Speirling grabbed all the headlines at Goodwood. And for the right reasons too. It did after all break the hill climb record at the event, beating Romain Dumas in the Volkswagen ID. R and Nick Heidfeld’s run in the McLaren F1 car. But the Family Huckster was surely one of the other big stars of the show and a highlight in its own right. Its public debut at Goodwood was nothing short of spectacular. We can’t wait to see what it gets up to in the new Gymkhana video, which hopefully is not too far away.
Sources: 19Bozzy92 YouTube Channel, Hoonigan
