Continuing our unintentional focus this week on cars of the early 2000s, today’s Good Find Friday car is a Monster energy-liveried 2004 Subaru WRX STI formerly piloted by two iconic American rally drivers: Ken Block and Travis Pastrana. Note that everything I know about rally racing I learned playing the Dirt video game series, and descriptions below are my best shot at providing context to this car and not an attempt at authentication. With that caveat, let’s dive in.

Ken Block was a celebrated American rally driver, entrepreneur, and action sports icon. Co-founder of DC Shoes, Block transitioned to rally driving in 2005 with Vermont SportsCar and quickly earned Rookie of the Year honors in the Rally America Championship. He gained international fame through his Gymkhana video series, showcasing incredible car control and creativity, which amassed hundreds of millions of views and inspired numerous video games.

Over his career, Block competed in the World Rally Championship, Global Rallycross, and X Games, earning multiple wins and medals. As the founder of Hoonigan Racing, he combined his racing prowess with innovative marketing, redefining motorsport entertainment. Sadly, Ken passed away last year in a snowmobile accident, but his daughter Lia continues the family’s racing and rally tradition.

Travis Pastrana is a professional motorsports athlete known for his accomplishments in motocross, rally racing, and action sports. He became the first to perform a double backflip on a motorcycle at the 2006 X Games, where he has earned multiple gold medals. Pastrana has won AMA Supercross and Motocross championships and is a co-founder of Nitro Circus, an action sports collective. He competes in rallycross and is known for recreating Evel Knievel’s iconic jumps, pushing the boundaries of extreme sports with innovative stunts​.

Today’s car has a race provenance that includes the FIA Production World Rally Championship (PWRC). The race series was established in 1987 as a support series within the World Rally Championship (WRC) for privateer teams competing in production-based rally cars. It offered a platform for emerging talents to showcase their skills using Group N vehicles with limited modifications. By emphasizing production-based machinery, the PWRC created a level playing field and highlighted the durability of road-based rally cars under demanding conditions. It nurtured future WRC stars and delivered thrilling competition on the same challenging stages as the premier WRC category.

Built by Vermont SportsCar as a Group N entry for the PWRC back for the 2007-2008 series, this 2004 Subaru WRX STI represents a piece of rally and X-games history and is currently offered for auction by Cars and Bids with 10 days left to bid.

Vermont SportsCar, founded in 1988, is a premier North American motorsport company specializing in designing, engineering, and preparing high-performance rally and rallycross vehicles. As the home of Subaru Motorsports USA, it has achieved multiple American Rally Association championships and records, including the Mt. Washington Hill Climb. VSC still exists today and supports race car fabrication, prototyping, and testing, catering to racing teams, private clients, and special projects like stunt vehicles and films​.

The exterior of the car looks to be wrapped in a recreation of the Monster livery the car wore at some point in its race history. It appears similar to the period Rally America livery, sans some blue accents but the date of rewrap is an open question as of this writing. The front end of the car was notably updated when built to reflect the front-end styling of the 2006 and later “hawkeye” front end Impreza WRXs.

A rear spoiler, carbon fiber lighting pods, roof vent, tow hooks, skid plates, mudflaps and hood/trunk supplemental straps round out the body changes.

The interior is notably stripped down to race configuration, with Sparco racing seats, full FIA-spec roll cage, Momo steering wheel, Fire suppression system, intercom system with headsets, rally computer, spare tire mount and other professional rally fixtures and accessories.

15-inch gold-colored Speedline wheels stand out against the black finish, and with its Öhlins coilovers, adjustable control arms and uprated brakes the car must handle amazingly. Surely the ride and experience is quite intense for the street.

Engine-wise, we’re looking at a bit of a mystery. Apparently it’s not the rally-spec motor the car used in PWRC events, but a later build by an employee of Vermont SportsCar at some later time. It apparently does have a rally history, however. Hopefully you’ve got access to race fuel, as the car is tuned to run on MS 109 fuel. LIke the suspension, the engine is likely pretty intense with launch control and anti-lag built-in. The transmission is a JDM-spec 6-speed.

Apparently the car has some scratches and chips in the wheels, wear in various locations and some underbody rust here and there. It has also had a TMU branded title issued in its past.

If you’ve ever had a dream of owning your own rally car, this seems like it could be an amazing acquisition and its having been piloted by two of the most well-known American rally racers in history certainly adds a heck of a lot of value. How much value is anyone’s guess. Currently the car sits at $70,000 with quite a few days left for that number to increase.

The last Ken Block rally or race cars to have disclosed sales prices were a 1978 Porsche 911 SC “Safari” Car that sold on Collecting Cars for £241,000 and Ken’s 2016 Ford Focus RS RX rally car that sold for $200,000 at Barrett-Jackson back in 2020. Both cars had documented race history, as this car does. An ex-Ken Block 2004 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS was bid to $146,000 almost a year ago on Bring a Trailer, but it was a no-sale.

I’m going to guess that this car brings similar money to the BAT sale from December of 2023. The seller has promised to donate 5% of the sale price to Ken’s charity and the winning bidder will get a 1-day voucher to rally school. Both are nice perks, with the latter being essential if (like me) you have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to driving flat-out on loose gravel in the woods.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. We also provide importation services. Give us a call or drop us a line!