Can Jam Subaru Forester Drift Taxi Subaru Forester Drift

This is the drift taxi Subaru Forester that you may have seen around Can-Jam Motorsports.

And there are a lot of rad reasons why rad people might end up with a rad car like this Subaru Forester Drift Taxi. But at the core, it always starts with ‘exposure’. You’re in the right time, in the right place, with the right atmosphere, stage set… and then ‘flick’… all the dominos start falling & you’re in this thing. Well – Roel Mallari is living to spread that joy. He’s that 1st domino.

Roel Mallari was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.

He grew up playing with legos and locking-up the back wheels of his bicycle to slide marks on the streets of the 6. Like most Filipino youth, Roel was encouraged by his parents to go into the medical field as a nurse or doctor. But his experience with legos and getting sideways translated into something more. After high school, Roel started working at a tire shop and bought his way into the seat of a Nissan 240sx. Naturally, his 240sx led him into drifting for fun. In 2012, Roel capped out on the tire shop & got himself hired with the team at Cam-Jam. And it didn’t take long for Roel to get behind the 5 stars.

Roel caught the eye of a Subaru Forester that had been sitting outback at Can-Jam (get it… Outback??).

It was easy for him to envision the Forrester modded-out… and it wasn’t long until he worked a deal & made it his daily. But missing the enjoyment he got from drifting his rwd 240 around, Roel and the Can-Jam team did a RWD swap. His comfort kicking-out the rear end of that 1st generation SF chassis grew… along with added mods like a WRX turbo, STI trans, and Nissan r200 diff.

During a Canadian Sport Compact Series event in 2018, Roel wrecked the Forester.

Most ‘drifters’ would just rebuild as much as possible & not worry about the scars. But Roel & the team saw this as an opportunity to start something new with their Forester experience.

After seeing Chris Forsberg drifting 4-seats-deep with passengers, Roel made his move…

He found a 2nd-generation Forester, known as the SG chassis, and decided to go all-in with Can-Jam Motorsports. They put together what looks like a hundred point roll cage to safely hold 4 racing seats, and built the Subaru Forester Drift Taxi. Now he offers ride-alongs for anyone who wants that first domino flicked. Even with a helmet on, the violence of the fully-built EJ25 pushing 600whp screams like nothing I’ve ever heard. (Check out this S3 Magazine Youtube channel for a ride-along.)