Travis Pastrana showed up at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed with 670 horsepower, a carbon-bodied homage to the original Subaru Brat, and absolutely zero interest in keeping his car pointed straight.
The rally legend’s latest weapon is the Subaru Brataroo, a one-off track machine that bears almost no mechanical resemblance to the quirky pickup truck that inspired its skin. During practice runs on the famous 1.16-mile hillclimb course, Pastrana attacked nearly every corner sideways, treating the manicured English estate like a rally stage through a forest.
This is what Pastrana does. He turns a timed hillclimb into performance art.
What makes this year’s entry interesting is the power deficit. Pastrana’s previous Goodwood rides have packed significantly more punch. His custom Subaru Airslayer STI made 862 horsepower when he set a blistering 46.20-second run in 2021.
The Family Huckster, an 862-hp custom wagon he campaigned in 2023 and 2024, posted times of 49.32 and 47.50 seconds respectively. The Brataroo makes 670 horses. That’s nearly 200 fewer than his previous machines, yet Pastrana is openly chasing a new course record with it.
Either the chassis and aero package are that much better, or Pastrana believes sheer commitment can close a 192-horsepower gap. Knowing him, it’s probably both.
Goodwood’s hillclimb is deceptively simple on paper — 1.16 miles, a handful of corners, hay bales lining the course, and a crowd of enthusiasts pressed against the barriers close enough to feel the heat off the exhaust. In practice, it rewards precision and bravery in roughly equal measure. The fastest runs in history have come from purpose-built machines like the McMurtry Spéirling, which used ground-effect fans to rewrite the physics of what’s possible on that strip of tarmac.
Pastrana isn’t bringing that kind of technology. He’s bringing a carbon-fiber truck with a flat-four lineage and a driver who treats tire smoke as a navigational tool.
His Goodwood tenure began in 2021 and he’s returned every year since, each time in a different bespoke Subaru. The manufacturer clearly understands what Pastrana provides: pure spectacle that no marketing budget could otherwise buy. A factory WRX ad doesn’t move the needle. Pastrana drifting a 670-hp Brat tribute car through Goodwood’s flint wall corner does.
The timed shootout takes place Sunday, where Pastrana will have to translate the sideways heroics into a clean, fast lap. That’s always been the tension with his Goodwood appearances — the practice runs are wildly entertaining, but the clock doesn’t care about style points.
His personal best of 46.20 seconds remains formidable. Beating it with less power would be a genuine statement about how far the Brataroo’s chassis development has come. Falling short wouldn’t diminish the spectacle, but it would raise questions about whether the Brat-inspired bodywork was chosen for speed or for the cameras.
Pastrana has earned the benefit of the doubt. Four consecutive years at Goodwood, each in a different machine, each faster or more dramatic than the last. The man treats a British aristocrat’s driveway like a World Rally Championship stage, and the crowd loves every second of it.
Sunday will tell us whether the Brataroo is a record-setter or just the best-looking car on the hill. Either way, nobody at Goodwood is looking away.
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