These Are The Coolest Cars From The 2024 Sno*Drift Rally

I spent last weekend in Northern Michigan at the Sno*Drift Rally, a yearly stage rally that has been run in its current national format in Montmorency County since 1997. It's the only winter event in the American Rally Association's calendar where the cars don't wear studded tires, and all 118 miles of the rally are conducted on (closed-off) public roads in a single county, which saves competitors time and fuel when traveling between stages.

This year 43 different cars entered the rally, ranging from brand new state-of-the-art WRC cars to homegrown rally machines based on decades-old economy cars. More than half of the entries were Subarus, most of which were blue, but there was still a ton of variety. Click through to see some of my favorite cars and details from the 2024 Sno*Drift Rally.

It was near-impossible to get clear photos of the pair of WRX ARA24s that Subaru Motorsport fielded at Sno*Drift, especially once driver Travis Pastrana showed up and started taking selfies with fans and signing their merch. Engineered from the ground up for the ARA series, these WRX rally cars have a tubocharged boxer engine with 320 horsepower and a carbon-fiber widebody.

One of my favorites from the event, this Hyundai i20 is a Rally2 car, one of the support series for the World Rally Championship (WRC). It uses a turbocharged 1.6-liter engine and a 5-speed sequential transmission, and in 2022 an i20 fielded by Hyundai's in-house team came first place in its championship.

As you might expect, this Escort Cosworth was one of the most popular cars at the event. Its period-correct rally mods looked incredible, and the team was really sending it. (They even had a close call with some deer!)

The Cossie's interior was even more well done, with only the upper dash and a few other components being retained from the road car. Just check out that carbon-fiber floor, the partially digital instruments and all of the buttons and switches.

Without a doubt my personal favorite car at Sno*Drift was this very well modded Forester. Not only did it look incredible, it was fast as hell and slid around every corner, getting some of the biggest cheers of the weekend — many of the loudest of which were from my friends. And they came first in their regional class and seventh overall!

This new Integra was fielded by the Honda of America Racing Team (HART), a group of Honda employees that have built race cars for a bunch of different series. It sounded very good and looked pretty awesome, especially at night as it has LEDs along the greenhouse. Hopefully next year they'll race a Type S!

There were two different Neons at Sno*Drift, but this was the only SRT4. I've already thought the Neon has been aging pretty well, and they look really good in rally garb.

There were also two E36 BMW 3 Series at the rally, but this one was the only M3. It was one of the loudest cars at the event; we could hear it coming long before we could see it, and we kept hearing it long after it was out of view. The two Bimmers produced some of the longest slides, too.

The other E36 had an excellent plate and was covered in fun bumper stickers, and the team was handing out markers for fans to sign their names onto the bodywork with.

Some of the most fun cars to watch race were the front-wheel-drive ones, and this CRX was one of the coolest. It's proof that you really don't need something that fast or expensive to go rallying.

Another awesome front-drive car was this Golf — not even a GTI! I'm a sucker for huge lights and mudflaps, and this VW has great examples of both.

I've always loved this generation of DSM sports car, and it seems very well suited to rally duties.

This Mitsubishi-liveried Colt was the oldest car at the rally, and definitely one of the coolest.

Every car at the rally had a different approach to lighting setups. Most used modern LED light bars, and I really liked the vertical rectangles on this Polish Ford Fiesta Rally3 car.

Older round light pod setups like the ones on this WRX are even cooler, though.

Just in case you forgot where the tow hook is.

There's just something about beat-up bodywork that makes rally cars look even cooler. If I was entering into amateur rally, a BRZ like this would be at the top of my list for cars to choose.

I love seeing cut-up bodywork, too. A bunch of the cars had exhaust tips like this, with a metal triangle and some mesh — if you know what that's for, please let me know in the comments below!

The Jeep Trail Rated badge on this Impreza really made me chuckle.