Drifting Subaru over gravel, All Wheel Drive, and Boxer engines. Mention those three things to any car enthusiast and Subi will be the first thing on their mind.
With amazing rally heritage, this car manufacturer champions its trademark Boxer engine in all of its models. But why did Subaru choose such an odd type of engine?
Well, there is a method behind the madness; laying flat with horizontally opposed pistons, a boxer engine, especially a four cylinder one is very smooth due to the fact that its internals are inherently balanced, meaning that the sideways inertia from the pistons and connecting rods is “cancelled out” by the piston on the other side of the engine.
Another benefit of Boxers is that the engine sits lower in the car, thus taking the center of gravity further down, which improves handling, and reduces tire wear.
Engine bay packaging is also easier, since the engine block is shorter, so fitting an AWD system is much less of a hassle, due to the compact dimensions of a Boxer configuration.
The most notable examples of this engine are the EJ series, mainly the EJ25 and EJ20.
Drifting Subaru Video