Image it: Sicily, 1906, a ragtag bunch of automobiles and a dusty and harmful path to glory.

The race is the brainchild of Vincenzo Florio, Jr., the scion of a household made rich by fishing, pottery, and winemaking. No flaneur, nor a playboy, Florio launched into his life’s work because the late Gilded Age world round him grew extra mechanical, extra highly effective, and extra chaotic because it slid towards industrialized battle.

Florio embraced the auto, the signature know-how of his period. Motorsports had already attracted a following when he pictured a race that may spiral by means of the mountains of Sicily. What it will turn out to be was legend.

From its first spin of wheels on dusty Sicilian trails within the spring of 1906, Florio’s race traced a harmful path across the island. Drivers sprinted from the beginning, spaced two minutes aside, roaring previous pack animals and carts, sliding perilously near loosely thrown bales of hay—solely later, slim guardrails—by means of a course so long as 92 miles of slicing hairpins and sweeping grades at then-outrageous speeds, up and round mountains, showering in dazzling sunshine or reducing by means of dense fog.

Greater than a century later, the echoes of Florio’s race nonetheless rebound off the steep mountainsides of Sicily, the place the Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS get to strive on the checkered flag for dimension. These four- and two-door “track-ready” and “tuned by STI” editions are new for 2024. Floated by ferry from Genoa, they’re right here not right here to repeat the previous. They’re right here to skitter throughout barely maintained pavement and dodge drizzle whereas they showcase their larger state of tune. 

With a great co-driver on the route map and the heater turned up, we begin close to the decrepit Floriopoli pits the place for many years the Targa Florio chase was set into movement. It’s dreary and foggy, however the WRX TR and BRZ tS are extremely attuned to coping with every kind of roads—even when the roads barely exist. 

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Targa Florio: An ungovernable race

So lengthy, in such poor situation, so taxing of drivers and automobiles, the Targa Florio was an ungovernable race, and that wildness would finally result in its demise. However in its 70-plus years of barely managed pace, the Targa Florio turned Sicily’s gorgeous mountainscapes and rollercoaster valleys into the final word take a look at of machine and other people. It bore witness that, by some means, modernity may conquer even Sicily.

The race would finally devour three completely different routes: the 72-km Piccolo, the 108-km Medio, and the earliest rendition, the 148-km Grande. The primary winner, Alessandro Cagno, took greater than 9 and a half hours to run three laps of the lengthy course at a mean pace of 30 mph. 

The course of the springtime race modified erratically by means of the years. Mussolini commanded the development of a street between Caltavuturo and Collesano in 1932, after Florio requested that it’s constructed. So expert was race legend Tazio Nuvolari—nuvola is “cloud” in Italian—that he received the Targa Florio within the yr earlier than that street was constructed, after which received within the yr of its completion, each instances in an Alfa 8C. 

No race had the extremes of the Targa Florio. Even in its shortest kind drivers would slew by means of greater than 800 turns throughout a single lap. Pavement solely changed the tamped dust roads after the battle. Unimaginable to be taught, between the space and the frequent course shifts, the Targa Florio relied on quick-witted drivers with automobiles that wouldn’t break down. It could confound even probably the most expert drivers. Ferrari—Enzo—received it in 1920 in an Alfa, however Fangio and Ascari by no means would, even because the route grew shorter and shorter.

By the Seventies it was right down to 45 miles in a lap, and the supercars of the day picked off almost 80-mph laps. Drivers prepped by threading by means of regular site visitors within the days earlier than the race: it was the “completely insane” norm, in line with challenger Helmut Marko. There by no means had been sufficient marshals, the street surfaces by no means might be groomed like these on the Grand Prix circuit, and spectators sat alarmingly near the route. 

Drivers had been in excessive peril. Any crash on a distant stretch of the course may depart the injured ready till medical groups may arrive, as in 1971 when Brian Redman’s early crash left him in a hospital in Cefalù—his teammates unaware of his second-degree burns—to be joined by Alain de Cadenet, who had been struck by elements from a automobile forward of him.  

A 1977 accident that killed two followers and injured one other 5 meant the top of the basic Targa Florio. It resumed in 1978, transformed to a rally on a shorter and safer route, its excessive previous extinguished.

2024 Subaru WRX TR take a look at drive overview, Sicily

2024 Subaru WRX TR take a look at drive overview, Sicily

2024 Subaru WRX TR take a look at drive overview, Sicily

2024 Subaru WRX TR take a look at drive overview, Sicily

Subaru WRX TR: hear the rallying cry

That previous lives on as we peel off into the hillsides, my co-pilot and I behind the wheel of a pink $42,775 Subaru WRX TR. It’s raining now and the burnt sienna mountains have gone into hiding behind the clouds. The Sicilian solar of the day earlier than has disappeared. Solely the pink and blue automobiles in our caravan stab by means of the gloam. Fa schifo.

It’s OK for those who’re within the WRX TR, although. TR initially stood for “monitor prepared—the low-content variations for individuals who needed to dump the radio and swap out wheels. This yr, it nonetheless stands for probably the most track-ready model although appreciable creature comforts have labored their means into the combo.

Subaru revealed the WRX TR earlier this yr with its sport-tuned suspension and its carryover powertrain—a turbo 2.4-liter flat-4 whistling out 271 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque from 2,000 to five,200 rpm. It’ll gun to 60 mph in about 5 seconds, because it nonetheless weighs about 3,340 kilos. 

The WRX TR solely comes with a 6-speed handbook that sends energy to be cut up 50:50 by a viscous coupling, with torque vectoring dealt with by anti-lock braking throughout the entrance finish. It’s a delight to snick away by means of the gears: the TR has lengthy however gentle shift throws, which I train ceaselessly as cruel Fiat Panda drivers keep in scorching pursuit as we nibble corners gingerly. They don’t elevate however nonetheless maintain us again.

It’s greater than misty as we slip by means of the esses that carve into the millennia-old ridges of Sicily. Earthquake heaven, it’s a driving heaven too—when it’s dry. The roads are alive with ridges, ripples, Fiat-sized chunks merely gone or sunken like a topographical map of the land earlier than the street was constructed on it. The street rash checks the WRX TR into the boards like newbie league hockey gamers with unresolved work points. Thank these stiffer springs and damper charges for the way in which the TR softens up when it’s not being pummeled like Jake LaMotta, and sueded Recaros for protecting me caught in place when it’s.

Urgent deeply into damaged, moist corners solely rears understeer’s ugly head. The WRX TR will get 19-inch 245/35-size Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires, which in drier situations could be as much as their grippy activity. However as we speak we’re pressured to rely extra on the TR’s Brembo6-piston entrance calipers and 13.4 inch discs (up an inch from the non-TR), and 2-piston rear calipers with 12.8-inch discs (up 1.4 inches). When it slides towards the facet of the street, not even nice pedal modulation helps. 

It’s simply pissing rain now and I shiver uncontrollably. What should it have felt like for these actual Targa Florio drivers? I get a style of it after I push the WRX broad by means of one nook and it takes a half-step into the marbles because the floor greases up from the mist. Good factor these thick tires trip proud over the dear rims. I’d hate to attract any extra consideration to my prosciutto-fisted driving. (It’s slightly higher than ham.)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

On the Museo Vincenzo Florio, a historical past lesson

Just a few dozen kilometers shy of exhaustion, we break for a moss-glazed parking zone in the course of the city of Cerda. There, in a discreet however jammed-full collection of rooms beneath the Caffe Miro’ di Tedeschi Vincenza, Antonino Catanzaro has curated the Museo Vincenzo Florio. It takes up the basement of an outdated lodge, in what was as soon as an Alfa Romeo crew storage. 

From 1960 to 1977, Catanzaro noticed all of it as an observer and a monitor information. He donned a black cape and a drum that he beat to warn individuals of the oncoming racers. The outfit may have doubled as a city crier’s garb when warning of Black Dying. Above the visible din of the Museo assortment hangs a portrait of him drumming within the Florio’s site visitors, painted within the type of Leonardo’s grasp, Piero della Francesca. 

By a translator he tells us concerning the artifacts he plucked from the facet of the street, and from the mail—fabulous illustrations, worn and damaged automobile elements, outdated driving fits displayed on blank-eyed mannequins, dead-eyed guardians of Florio’s historical past. 

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Catanzaro’s devotion to the Targa Florio borders on the non secular.One of the vital prized artifacts is a 1926 plaque made for Bugatti to honor its 1-2-3 sweep. The unique “targa,” or “plate” in Italian—the phrase loaned to Porsche for its Targa-paneled automobiles. To get to it, you have to step round an homage sculpture of the Bugatti that dominates the room, made from iron by a neighborhood artist. 

His assortment spans the Targa’s historical past, by means of the period when it turned too harmful even for Sicily, and changed into the rally race. Subaru ran its Impreza WRC automobile and received it in 1995 and 1999, the yr that Catanzaro opened the museum.

You’ll be able to see a number of the Targa Florio from the angle of a fan like Catanzaro in “A Sicilian Dream,” the docu-drama launched a number of years in the past (stream it: de Cadenet narrates partially). Or you can also make an appointment to fulfill him and stumble by means of college-level Italian within the museum’s horde, as we did on the midway level of our journey into the previous. 

2024 Subaru BRZ tS take a look at drive, Sicily

2024 Subaru BRZ tS take a look at drive, Sicily

2024 Subaru BRZ tS take a look at drive, Sicily

2024 Subaru BRZ tS take a look at drive, Sicily

Getting greasy with the Subaru BRZ tS

Sicily and Sicilians may attraction the pants off Porky Pig, I resolve, after a cease for lunch at Osteria Nicuzza. Whereas we down rigatoni in brown butter with potato, proprietor Roberto leans over my desk to seize a cabinet-card picture. In it, his dapper grandfather Luigi sits whereas Robrto tells how he left Sicily for Newark, New Jersey, in 1905—and the way the household got here again to Sicily a technology in the past. Given the selection…proper?

From that far waypoint on our map, I swap into the BRZ tS. It’s nonetheless Subaru’s entry-level sports activities automobile, although this STI-tuned version prices $36,465. Because it was new a decade in the past, the BRZ has completed issues in another way from all different Subarus. It drives a flat-4, certain, however does so by means of the rear wheels solely. Its 228 hp churns towards the rear by means of a 6-speed handbook right here, and given the automobile weighs a trim 2,846 kilos, it scoots to 60 mph in about six seconds.

This yr all the 2024 Subaru BRZ lineup will get fashionable security know-how together with automated emergency braking, even the manual-equipped automobiles, which merely stall when avoiding accidents. However solely the BRZ tS will get a revamped suspension with Hitachi dampers, Brembo brakes, and 18-inch wheels with 215/40 R18 85Y Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires. The dampers let extra oil circulate by means of them for higher trip high quality, whereas the Brembo brakes clearly carry out higher with their gold end—er, with about an inch extra in diameter versus the inventory automobile. 

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

We trundle by means of cities with inches-wide sidewalks and open storage doorways with mechanics who dangle unlit cigarettes whereas they scan the Subarus as they samba by means of city. The rain relents briefly so we will dial in pace to see how the BRZ handles the tS upgrades. 

It’s higher as a result of it offers up nothing good from lesser BRZs. The trip appears softened, however given the street high quality, it’s a shrug-emoji day throughout. The brakes click on in with confidence, although, and the BRZ’s inventory 6-speed shifter coordinates with them famously. 

In some other circumstance, the larger and stickier tires would make themselves recognized—on the monitor we’ve famous how the uprated BRZ grips longer and higher, till it doesn’t—however inside a number of kilometers of our remaining cease the rain begins once more, wetting every thing again to a shiny gray-black.

Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS)

Chasing the Targa Florio ghosts

Our BRZ tS glides into Castelbuono, the place the city sq.’s aromatic with the odor of the elastic, fruit-studded panettone from the Fiasconaro bakery, and the place a busful of schoolchildren on a day journey crowd the doorways for samples whereas we crowd the bar for an off-hours cappuccino. In Rome that’d be a cultural transgression of the primary order however in Sicily, they shrug it off with a smile.

It’s grey and threatening once more as we pull north out of city. The final fifty kilometers deliver extra heaves and minor skids among the many myriad of donkeys, potholes, goats, and Fiats. The chorus repeats itself much less typically as we get into the extra distant stretches and their extra distantly spaced villages.

My Targa Florio revival ends in the dead of night, greater than a decade because the final model met its shut, almost a half-century because the final of the unique and nearly 125 years because it first buzzed across the valleys of Sicily. The fog has begun to roll in once more, and rain dampens the pomp of parking an unscarred automobile again with the valet. I can breathe a sigh of reduction. I’ve chased the Cloud himself and are available by means of with no nick.

The BRZ tS and the WRX TR go to heroic lengths to guard drivers, however they don’t excise the foolish thrills of discovering precisely the place the rubber not meets the street. Throughout this revival no information had been damaged, and no historical past was made. I solely traveled by means of it. Nonetheless, I’m sure the ghost of Vincenzo Florio tipped his hat in an approving nod.

Subaru flew me to Sicily and fed me a mean of 1 cannolo each three hours in order that I may write this story and—miracle of miracles—nonetheless slot in an airline seat.