Say Hello To The Slightly Tweaked Subaru BRZ
Here it is, the new Subaru BRZ. Although ‘new’ might be stretching it a bit - the boxer-four-powered sports car twin to the Toyota GT86 has undergone an extremely minor refresh in its native Japan, before the subtle changes are rolled out to other markets.
As for what’s new, the answer is not a whole lot. We have new fins which “suppress the turbulence of air at the rear of the body to the rear wheel arch part,” tweaked dampers, and…that’s it.
There are no mechanical changes, with the 2.0-litre boxer-four engine and its modest output retained. This late on in the BRZ/Toyota GT86’s life, it’s fairly safe to rule out a turbocharged version, we’d say.
The RA-Racing has been given a reshaped roll cage and a new seat belt design, although that’s a Japan-only derivative. The other trim levels - in order of fanciness - are dubbed R, S GT and STI Sport.
The updated car costs anything from 2,480,000 Yen (£18,400) to 3,591,000 (£24,700), depending on the version you go for.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I can feel how new it is…..
Unpopular opinion: I wouldn’t like to have a more powerful version of this
Even just a bump to 220hp whilst remaining naturally aspirated would be amazing. The problem with this engine, though, is it’s low torque figure. Fix that massive dead-space in the low and mid range and the biggest issue with the car would be fixed for me.
Wouldn’t the extra downforce and other tuning bits slow it down a bit? Not too considerable but still really won’t go any faster around a track except by maybe a few seconds because of the extra grip
But lots of people would. As I’ve said before, they should offer a regular option and a turbo option.
Agreed mate.
A stock brz with a turbo just doesn’t seem right
I agree. It has basically the same formula as the MX-5. Light, nimble and most important: affordable.
If you really need more power like a forced induction than there is the aftermarket.
I can feel how new it is…..
I love the new styling
Well, it looks like. Uhhhhhh. The same power. Uhhhhh. Is this like. Uhhhhh. Right?
“Facelifts” that don’t change the styling? I guess flat engines aren’t the only thing Subaru and Porsche have in common…
I’m assuming you meant aren’t instead of are? But i agree, they went full Porsche with this “facelift” pool
When will the price drop of the oldest BRZ so i can buy one already sigh
The Scion FR-S are the cheapest of the three. I am still waiting.
And they still didn’t bump up the hp… They obviously weren’t listening to us
I’ll just quickly explain this for ya… the reason the power hasn’t been upped is because the car is co-developed by Toyota, basically, this is a re-badged GT86 with a couple of Subie extras, the philosophy behind the GT86 is that they try to proove that you don’t need a lot of power to have a fun car, so they fit it was an economic engine, that (if desired) can be modified to quite an extent, and all that they spend their R&R money on is handling, so it has great handling, and a little bit of power. If Subaru was to use the BRZ platform to make a sportier, faster, hotter sports car out of it (e.g. an STi model), its engine would not be co-developed by Toyota… although I’m sure that both Toyota and Subaru are saying “Mazda can do it, so can we”.
People miss the point of this car. IT’s meant to be lightweight, simple, and balanced. Want more power? Buy a different car. Its the same as people who complain about the mazda not having enough horsepower. The numbers aren’t important in this case. What is important, however, is the driving characteristics. This car is meant to be down to earth, and I hop it stays that way. There are few cars like it out there. It takes a lot in todays idiotic car market to produce an N/A, RWD, Manual transmission coupe. This car is the minority that ought to be cherished because there are hardly any good cars like it anymore. Want more power? More power is a novelty. There’s plenty of that on the market already.
Did they do everything they could on the weight front, though?
Mazda went to town designing the ND in a very single-minded way, and it’s significantly lighter than the outgoing model. They redesigned it from the ground up shaving grams off everywhere they could. Weight is the reason the ND posted similar 0-60 times despite being around 40BHP down. I really wonder if Toyota/Subaru could do more here…
Honestly, it would only need a smaller turbo if one at all. Either bump up displacement and/or tweak the tuning, and it would be great. It wouldn’t even need 300hp, maybe only 275hp at the high end to make this the car people (they think they want something else, but this is really what they would enjoy) want. Sure, things like a 458 swap and other things that give it wild power figures are jaw dropping, but it wouldn’t be viable to drive daily with that much power in such a small, nimble platform.