My 'Just For The Hell Of It' Subaru BRZ Hoon To The Coast Was The Perfect Way To Find Awesome Roads

It had seemed like such a simple plan: take the driver’s hero that is the Subaru BRZ, and thrash it all the way to the coast on as many twisty B roads as possible. But as I trundled down the M11 early on in the drive, my motorway exit looked like a car park - turns out there was an air show taking place, and half of the county was trying to drive there. Just my luck.

But I wasn’t about to have my morning ruined in a hurry. Once I finally got off of the motorway, I pulled into the services - by coincidence, with an identical WR Blue BRZ pulling up beside me - and tried to find an alternative route towards the best bit of road on the entire mini adventure.

I soon figured out a route and back-tracked. And boy am I glad I did; the B1053 was the road in question, and while it’ll likely mean nothing to you, trust me, it’s a gem. The sort of place you need to take anyone who says that UK roads are too congested for sports cars to make sense any more.

Even though I was having to drive in the opposite direction to my coastal destination - West Mersea, Essex - I didn’t care. The road seemed perfectly matched for the BRZ. It was tight and twisty, so at no point did the 2.0-litre boxer engine feel underpowered, and I was more than happy to change at the top end of each gear to extract every last one of the 197 ponies available. Meanwhile, the challenging changes in gradient and camber made it a joyous place to throw the little coupe around.

The brilliant handling came as no surprise - I’ve spent plenty of time in the near-identical Toyota GT86 - but a drive like this is a welcome reminder of what’s so great about these JDM siblings.

The direct steering is one of the most natural-feeling electric power setups out there, and is exactly the sort of weight you want when pitching hard into a corner.

That rear-drive chassis, meanwhile, strikes the perfect balance between grip and fun, being as capable as you need it to be, while allowing for low-traction naughtiness at the rear. I’m far from being a driving pro, but while at the wheel of the BRZ, I took endless pleasure from booting it on the exit of corners, deliberately getting the rear wheels out of shape. The car has a wonderful knack of inspiring confidence; I never felt like the BRZ was going to bite my head off, no matter what liberties I took with it.

I’ve said before that at least the option of a more powerful GT86/BRZ would be brilliant, but on that day, on that road, I wasn’t wanting for any more poke.

As much fun as I was having belting from corner to corner, time was getting on, and I needed to start making a bee line for my seaside destination. Fortunately, that meant blasting back down the B1053, something I didn’t mind doing at all.

The day reminded me that we all should have more adventures in cars, even if they’re only little ones

That remained the high point of the trip, as much of the rest of the journey was made up of some uninspiring roads with a little too much traffic. However, a few of Mersea’s roads offered a final handful of twisty treats when I got to the island, before I at last reached the sea.

Parking up with the ocean in the background to take a few snaps, I was contented with my morning’s work. Even though the day hadn’t gone as planned, it reminded me that we all should have more adventures in cars, even if they’re only little ones. And if you want a good tool for the job, you could do a lot worse than the Subaru BRZ: it’s a brilliantly accessible car that’s one of the few remaining JDM coupe heroes out there.