Subaru WRX STI beats Tony Pond’s Isle of Man lap record

A standard Subaru WRX STI has taken the 21 year old record for driving the Isle of Man TT Circuit. Mark Higgins did it in 19:56.7, at an average 113mph.

Tony Pond was a rally driver in the 1970s and ’80s, and he was rather good. Good enough to give the likes of Jimmy McRae a spanking from time to time and to drive in umpteen works cars, from Ford to Rover via Datsun.

But Tony Pond is probably best remembered for piloting a Rover 827 Vitesse round the Isle of Man TT Circuit in 1990 at an average speed of over 100mph, the first time that had been done. And the last.

The last until this week, that is, when Subaru sent Mark Higgins off to the Land of the Three Legs, together with a production Subaru WRX STI, to take a crack at Tony Pond’s record.

Driving the WRX STI in standard tune – albeit with the addition of a roll-cage, race harness, extinguisher and some tweaks to the suspension to cope with the Isle of Man’s bumps, twists and turns – Mark Higgins got the Scooby round the Manx roads in 19:56.7, at an average speed of 113, pummeling Tony Pond’s 21 minute plus record. Bravo.

But we perhaps ought to give this a bit of perspective.

Tony Pond drove the front wheel drive Rover 827 Vitesse, a rather cumbersome piece of BL tat with one saving grace – a very sweet Honda V6 under the bonnet. To take that car round the Isle of Man in the time he did was nothing short of  astonishing, best illustrated by the fact that until this week no one had broken that record in twenty one years.

The front wheel drive Rover Vitesse could muster up 177bhp and get to 60mph in 8 seconds (or thereabouts). By comparison the Scooby has almost 300bhp, can get to 60mph in under 5 seconds, has four wheel drive and more computing power than the whole of Rover had in 1990.

So well done Subaru. But the real deal is still Tony Pond in the Rover 827 Vitesse.