As part of Subaru’s ‘do more with less’ content series, we approached our southernmost partners at Highlands Motorsport Park where we have our Subaru WRX Experience, to see what they’ve been up to over the past three weeks.
Turns out that although the Cromwell-based track’s professional drivers are not able to do their hot-lap jobs during lockdown, it hasn’t stopped Kynan Yu from transforming his backyard into his workplace. He and wife Kristan created an incredible ‘Subaru WRX Experience’ in their driveway with a bit of Kiwi ingenuity and aided by their 6-year-old daughter and ’driver’ Kaitlyn.
Check out their awesome video here!
Here’s how you can recreate it at home with your kids, using some form of wheels, some chalk, a few stones and a bit of petrol-head-fuelled imagination!
Custom design your wheels
Hunt out your wheels of choice and go to work transforming them into a high-horsepower Subaru WRX (get your design cues below). If you have an old suitcase that you don’t mind sacrificing to the cause, by all means use it. Otherwise, a pushchair, a trolley, or even a push bike will do the trick, with some creative cardboard or paper panels taped on the sides! If you're limited with what spare 'wheels' you have at home, the kids can get inventive with some boxes and colour in their designer Subaru, so they can either sit in the box to be pulled around, or bust out the bottom to run around the course themselves!
Shimmy through a slalom course
Lay out a line of evenly spaced stones or mark out the course with some chalk. Rev your engine and roar off the start line, weaving your way expertly through the slalom course. You could even time your runs to see if you can bring your PB (personal best) time down with a bit of practise. Top points for the best engine revs!
Play ‘avoid the moose’
Set out a ‘car park’ with two squares placed side by side. Race towards the car park, then call “left” or “right” when you are a few metres away to test your reactions and see if you're quick enough to 'avoid the moose' and get into the right carpark! You can do this by either having your Subaru 'tower' pull you along and the racer calls out the direction, or if the you're 'driving' yourself, get a sibling or parent to call out "left" or "right" as you approach the 'moose'.
Track laps
Get busy with your chalk and design a track on your driveway. If you don’t have any concrete surfaces, perhaps use some rope, or string, to mark out some lines. Make your favourite car noises as you race around your circuit. If you need some ideas for your corners and chicanes, check out the stunning Highlands track.
Highlands is temporarily closed due to Covid-19 and will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.
Find out more about the Subaru WRX Experience at Highlands, which is made up of three different packages of high performance driving experiences, using up to six Subaru WRXs that are based at the world class Cromwell track all year round.