Skip to main content

Nasty 560hp Subaru STI powered VW double cab bus will blow you away

What happens when you take a nasty looking Volkswagen double cab bus and swap the air-cooled powerplant for a Subaru 2.5-liter WRX STI boxer engine? Check out the drag video!

Take a rusted out old 60s style Volkswagen Double Cab bus with a pickup bed and swap the old air-cooled engine with a Subaru WRX STI powerplant and it becomes a drag star at Santa Pod Raceway in the UK. We are told that this Subaru-powered VW bus is putting out 560hp from the 2.5-liter STI boxer engine.

Watch the owner of this drag machine pull three impressive runs down the strip and manages to rip off a 12.91 second at 108.9 mph quarter mile run. As the driver pulls up for the first run, he does an impressive burnout that shakes the entire vehicle and rattles those front split windows.

The engine sits in the back of the ugly double cab bus and gives the VW plenty of traction even with those ugly stock VW wheels. The VW driver is able to get all the traction he needs to rip off some impressive hole shots out of the gate.

In 2004, STI received some major updates for its U.S. debut in Detroit in 2003. Subaru wanted to trump Mitsubishi’s performance model, the 271 horsepower Lancer EVO, and needed to come out with something very special. The all-new 2004 STI came with a new powerplant that was developed just for this car. It was an all-new 2.5-liter turbo engine that developed...read more.

This VW owner didn’t spend a ton of money on the bus’s exterior, but he must have done a good job with the engine and drivetrain swap. The Volkswagen double cab bus with the 2.5-liter Subaru WRX STI engine doesn’t look like much on the outside, but it’s sure impressive underneath.