Subaru Baja Turbo Available Fall 2005

Subaru has announced it will be launching the new Subaru Baja Turbo in the fall of 2005. It will sport a 210 horsepower engine and 8.4 inches of ground clearance, compared with the current Subaru Baja specifications of 165-horsepower and 7.3 inches of ground clearance.

The Baja Turbo version is also reported to include more aggressive cosmetics, including a black finsh, six-spoke alloy wheels, sleek factory Subaru roof rack, red-outlined Baja badges, a roof-mounted antenna, functioning hood scoop, although smaller than the hood scoops on the Subaru WRX and Forester 2.5XT.

The 2.5-liter engine is a modification of the WRX STi engine, with 11.6 psi of boost compared with the STi's 14.5. A standard five-speed manual transmission is also reported to be available as an option.

Subaru originally marketed the Baja to the active-outdoor-lifestyle set and the new Subaru Baja Turbo continues in this direction.