This serious-looking Subaru is gunning for the TT record

Two years ago, rally driver Mark Higgins broke the four-wheel record around the Isle of Man TT course, achieving an astonishing time of 19 minutes 26 seconds, and an average speed of 116.4mph. Yep, average, not top speed.

For most people that would be enough, but just a couple of days after that he only went and broke the record again by shaving another eleven seconds off his previous best. And both of those records followed a similar effort in 2011, one which saw this incredible near-miss happen.

Quite clearly Higgins is blessed with – as they are referred to in some parts of the world – cojones grande.

Which is just as well because this year Higgins is hoping to go even faster, and this WRX STI is the machine that will be tasked with going quicker than every car that’s ever been round the fabled circuit.

No information about the car has been released as yet, although given that it’s a joint effort between Subaru and racing experts Prodrive, it’s certainly one to watch. The pair have rallying history, of course, while this car looks considerably more serious than Subaru's previous Isle of Man contenders.

The countdown to its attempt in June begins now.