{"id":912077,"date":"2026-09-27T22:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T22:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912077\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T22:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T22:16:12","slug":"subaru-secretly-built-the-ultimate-drift-hack-into-its-all-wheel-drive-super-sedan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912077\/","title":{"rendered":"Subaru Secretly Built The Ultimate Drift Hack Into Its All-Wheel Drive Super Sedan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many aspiring rally drivers grew up watching their hero Colin McRae execute a perfect handbrake turn in a muddy Welsh forest. They may have dreamed about replicating that fun during their next exciting drive in their road-going Subaru WRX STI<\/a>. Even Subaru<\/a> understood those aspirations and built a clever device into the vehicle’s drivetrain.<\/p>\n

The car’s Driver\u2019s Control Center Differential (DCCD) could momentarily open the STI’s center differential whenever the driver pulled the handbrake lever. The result was about as easy as Subaru ever made it to slide an STI without also adding a “drift” button.<\/p>\n

Pull The Handbrake And DCCD Knows About It<\/p>\n

\"2010-2012
\n 2010-2012 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Sedan Silver Front AngleSubaru<\/p>\n

A mechanical handbrake is just about as old-school as any automotive component gets and seems comically simple compared with the rest of a WRX STI. Pulling the lever operates a cable that applies a shoe to the rear brakes for holding the vehicle steady while parked. However, in the STI, a switch also sends vital information to the DCCD controller. The signal goes to a control module that releases the center differential’s clutch. The same system also monitors other signals, including wheel speed, braking, throttle position, and cornering behavior.<\/p>\n

The early US-market WRX STI, which launched for the 2004 model year, featured a planetary center differential with an electronically controlled clutch. If no current reached the DCCD coil, its normal torque distribution would be 35% to the front and 65% to the rear. The system could progressively apply current to the coil to increase the clutch’s influence and adjust the system closer to a 50:50 distribution. When the clutch released, the planetary center differential would return to the standard 35:65 distribution.<\/p>\n

If a driver pulled the parking brake while the vehicle was in motion, the center differential would normally resist any speed difference between the two axles, but here the DCCD controller released that clutch instead. As a result, the rear wheels slowed dramatically because of the handbrake, while the front wheels kept rotating and steering the car. And that made this simple device perfect for executing a handbrake-induced slide<\/a>. The electronics “knew” they didn’t need to sort out this strange traction event, so they didn’t need to fight it by tying the axles together more firmly.<\/p>\n

Subaru was perfectly aware of what its engineers were doing and removed any potential ambiguity. In its technical release information, the automaker said that this device would allow the vehicle to drift<\/a> when the rear wheels locked, giving plenty of ideas to new owners who read that paperwork.<\/p>\n

AWD Normally Makes A Handbrake Turn Much More Complicated<\/p>\n

\"2025
\n 2025 Subaru WRX ARA25 Rally Car on Goodwood Forest StageChaydon Ford\/Subaru Motorsports USA<\/p>\n

In the halcyon rally days before AWD was mandatory to win, competitors found it much easier to execute a perfect handbrake turn. In that case, they just yanked on the bar, since there was no center differential and no need to manage how the front and rear axles coordinated. But in an AWD car, the driveline connects the two axles, and the center differential controls it, allowing the front and rear axles to rotate at different speeds when needed.<\/p>\n

The AWD system also needs a way to limit excessive differential action so the tech can distribute torque where and when it’s needed. And things aren’t going to work for a normal handbrake-turn maneuver because the move creates a speed differential between the front and rear axles. The driver wants the rear wheels to slow or lock while the fronts continue rolling, and ordinarily, the center differential lock would turn into a mechanical party pooper.<\/p>\n

The handbrake wasn’t the only control tied to the DCCD because the controller could reduce LSD clutch engagement during ABS operation and conventional braking too. The system could also adjust clutch engagement to limit tight-corner binding and vary engagement based on wheel speed and cornering information. In other words, the DCCD was an active drivetrain management system that could continuously change the vehicle’s behavior based on what the car and driver were doing. It even had a dial that let the driver adjust the system manually.<\/p>\n

Mitsubishi<\/a> offered a comparable feature in its Lancer Evolution<\/a>, which came to the US for the 2003 model year. In that car, when the driver pulled the parking brake while moving, the center differential switched to a free state, making it easy to lock the rear wheels. Mitsubishi introduced that system on the Evolution VII<\/a>, and it was no surprise that both Mitsubishi and Subaru were highly successful in rally racing.<\/p>\n

Subaru Made DCCD Even More Sophisticated<\/p>\n

\"2006
\n Front quarter view of the\u00a02006 Subaru Impreza WRX STISubaru<\/p>\n

Happy with its original invention on the first US-market STI, Subaru doubled down for the 2006 model year. It introduced an extensively revised system, changing the basic torque distribution from the previous 35:65 front-to-rear bias to 41:59. The company also added a torque-sensitive mechanical limited-slip mechanism that worked with the existing electronically controlled LSD. A steering angle sensor gave the controller another way to compare what the driver was asking for with what was happening on the road.<\/p>\n

With this new system, the mechanical LSD added an element of nuance. When the driver applied the parking brake, the DCCD controller would release the electromagnetic clutch LSD. At the same time, the mechanical limited-slip mechanism remained part of the center diff and continued to provide some limiting force. This meant the center differential wasn’t completely free even after the electronic clutch force was removed.<\/p>\n

The electronically controlled portion of the center diff lock would still release precisely when the rear brakes were applied. But this system didn’t instantly switch to a fully open, 0% lock setting, and the later mechanical\/electronic DCCD vehicles had another source of differential limiting that the first version didn’t have.<\/p>\n

Subaru continued to offer the trick system on its WRX STI products for another decade. By the 2016 model, the vehicle had a mechanical and electronically controlled limited-slip center differential with a nominal 41:59 torque split, three automatic modes, and six manually selectable differential lock settings. Then, the company changed its approach.<\/p>\n

The Final STI Switched To An Electronic-Only DCCD Control<\/p>\n

\"2020
\n Subaru Impreza WRX STI Final EditionSubaru<\/p>\n

In 2018, Subaru removed the mechanical center LSD element and made DCCD fully electronic. The nominal torque distribution remained, as did the three automatic modes and six manual locking selections, but Subaru made the change to provide quicker, smoother center differential response. The 2020 Subaru STI also had<\/a> a temporary release function. After the driver manually selected an initial LSD torque setting and stopped the car, pulling the parking brake temporarily would minimize that torque. The display showed the driver’s chosen setting, and releasing the parking brake would restore it.<\/p>\n

So, the parking brake itself was still a part of the DCCD control logic all the way up to the end of the US-market STI. By the end, however, Subaru’s documentation made no mention of a moving handbrake drift, unlike earlier days when it was seen as part of the action.<\/p>\n

Rally Thinking Hidden Under A Road Car<\/p>\n

\"1993
\n Colin McRae is probably best-remembered for his antics in the 555 Subaru Impreza WRX.\u00a01993 Subaru Impreza WRX Rally Car Dirt RacingSubaru<\/p>\n

Such a focus on handbrake-turn technology is not a surprise, given Subaru’s extraordinary success on the special stages of the World Rally Championship<\/a>. It began competing in 1990 with the Legacy and debuted its Impreza-based rally car in 1993. The company claimed three consecutive WRC manufacturers’ championships from 1995 through 1997 with support from iconic drivers like McRae<\/a> and Carlos Sainz.<\/p>\n

The production STI, which debuted in Japan in 1994, was definitely influenced by this rally experience, shaped in an environment where traction wasn’t simply about keeping the car pointed straight ahead on dry pavement. The handbrake function is perhaps the purest example of rally-style capability bleeding into a production car.<\/p>\n

Even though the intent and technology were definitely there, Subaru still didn’t go all out with this particular functionality. It didn’t include an animated drift graphic on the dashboard, introduce a theatrical special mode, or launch a marketing campaign to tell owners what they could do. Instead, the company simply engineered the function into the car and was perfectly happy if owners wanted to test out its capabilities in their own time.<\/p>\n

Sources: Subaru, Mitsubishi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many aspiring rally drivers grew up watching their hero Colin McRae execute a perfect handbrake turn in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-912077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}