400hp Subaru WRX Anhilates Transmission… Whoops!

Depending how twisted your send of humor is, this video could either be hard to watch or incredibly funny. For me, it’s a little of both, mainly because of the editing making it funny and the awkward laughter and crunching sounds coming from the transmission making it hard to watch.

To most fans visiting our site, 400 horsepower isn’t exactly a huge number, but for a stock WRX transmission, that’s a pretty big number, especially when the driver is slinging gears pretty hard, hitting the trans with a big shock load. That exactly what happens in this video, but not after the passenger ironically asks the driver how the trans is holding up.

Seemingly on cue, the next time the driver, identified only as “Dave” in the video’s description, hammers the car from a slow roll and bangs the 1-2 shift, the transmission explodes, clanging and banging as the car rolls to a stop. The awkward laughter and trying to play off the sickening sounds coming from he gut of his Subie’s tranny. He and his passenger share a moment of “Well… what now” before getting out to see if there’s any visible carnage under the car. Dave returns to the driver’s seat to see if there’s any chance the trans will hold together long enough to allow him to limp to a parking lot – I assume that’s what he was thinking anyway – but it will move only a few inches and the noises that come from the gearbox are absolutely terrible.

While the stock trans was obviously not up to the task of holding the power level the engine is cranking out, pushing your car until you find the breaking point, upgrading, and continuing to evolve your ride is what this hobby is all about. Sure, it costs money to break stuff, but that’s the only way to find those weak links and eliminate them. Hopefully the next weak link will be something less expensive than the whole transmission!