This Frankenstein build, dubbed "Minipreza," combines the guts of a Subaru with a Mini Cooper's exterior and is now certified to hit the track.

This Frankenstein build combining components from a Subaru with a Mini Cooper's exterior hails from the UK, where it has been officially logbooked and is now allowed to compete in motorsport events ranging from street sprints to hill climbs and more traditional track days. This project is anything but traditional, though. As popular as engine swaps and restomods might be in 2020, this car has been dubbed the "Minipreza" though it's actually riding on a fully custom chassis that required plenty of work to mate with a drivetrain and body at its home shop called Scoobybits. We've already seen a mid-engined Mini but this one takes things to a whole new level with an all-wheel-drive swap, to boot.

In a Facebook video that shows the little screamer blasting around during early testing, it's clear that the car's setup will make it quite a potent performer, thanks largely to a 1,433-pound curb weight. The build started with a Subaru WRX from the generation affectionately known as the "Blobeye" era (which followed up on the "Bugeye" era and preceded the "Hawkeye" years) that had its floorpan shortened and a custom roll cage fitted before the custom fiberglass body styled after the classic Mini Cooper could be added on.

Under The Hood

Under the tiny hood lurks a 2.0-liter EJ205 Boxer-four that benefits from an STI's VF24 turbocharger and produces a claimed output of 300 horsepower. An STI six-speed manual gearbox routes power to all four wheels. Alternately nicknamed the "Mubaru" thanks to the mish-mash, the build was recently featured as a "Link ECU Build of the Week" on the company's website, which shows how Link ECU's own G4 WRX plugin ECU made setting up the wiring harness relatively simple.

With a power-to-weight ratio more in line with a Porsche Turbo, this "Minipreza" should be able to push cars with much bigger horsepower figures to their limit while enjoying the fun of all-wheel-drive traction.

Sources: Facebook, Linkecu