Exchanging your Ferrari V8 for your Subaru Rally Car is one way to repair the head gaskets

It was a fun project for Albert to make a Ferrari-powered Subaru, which took a few years from start to finish. It began as a late-breaking pandemic project, with Albert buying the engine from a supercar scrapper for “just over $11,000”. While it’s a Ferrari 4.5-liter V8, it’s not the 458 Italia. It’s actually a Ferrari California engine, which explains how affordable it was. According to Albert, that cost is comparable to a fully built EJ25 engine that would normally be housed in a Subaru engine bay.

He figured out how to fit it over the course of two years and lots of prototyping. For the swap, he kept the Subaru all-wheel drive system and gearbox which meant he had to adapt the Ferrari engine to the Subaru six-speed transmission. As a result, the engine had to come out beyond the front axle due to Subaru’s way of driving the front wheels from the gearbox. Normally the short boxer engine would allow this to work well but the Ferrari V8 would only fit with modifications to the hood.

The end results are something completely unique and crazy. It looks great, well-balanced and fun to drive. Somehow Albert maintained the stock weight distribution with a rear cooler and got the car into Rally Olympus to shake it up. She already fell apart, but she will come back stronger and ready to compete in more actual rallies. Good luck.