The Subaru BRZ remains an excellent, pure example of what a sports car should be. It’s fun, exciting and frankly is one of those cars that sees you grinning like a Cheshire cat whenever a corner arrives. It’s not overly quick and lacks a turbo, but from behind the wheel, you’re always in a winning position in terms of satisfaction.
The BRZ is a co-production with Toyota who of course give it the 86 nomenclature. The strange thing is you’ll see a lot more Toyota 86’s than Subaru’s effort. Why that is the case I don’t know, but I can tell you they both drive exactly the same. I’d argue some of the unique cosmetic changes Subaru throw in actually make it a more attractive car.
Let’s face it, despite having four seat belts you’re rarely going to force any human back there. The broad dashboard has one major bonus over the Toyota 86 and that is an infotainment system that offers Apple CarPlay and Android auto.
The BRZ is powered by a flat-four-cylinder that sounds like it’s full of gravel, but in a good way! Power is sent to the rear wheels and for this review our car was fitted with a six-speed manual.
The BRZ is getting on a bit now but I still jumped at the opportunity to take it for one more victory lap. The fun that the car gives the driver comes down to a couple of key attributes. Because you do seat so low the sensation of speed is elevated, this is no dragster with a 0-100km/h dash figure of 7.4 seconds.
But there’s something special about that flat-four and manual combination that’s hard to beat. It just has that typical go-kart feel, more toy-like in many ways rather than some blistering sledgehammer.
The BRZ is set up for some cornering fun, but it does occasionally show a tendency to wallow or bounce a tad via the rear-end. Not a good thing if you’re a purist, but necessary to prevent too much of a jarring ride.
Overall it’s just old school fun, with direct natural steering and a comfortable six-speed manual gate.
The outputs sit at 152kW and 212Nm of torque. As mentioned power is sent to the rear wheels, which will step out, especially in track mode.
The BRZ starts at $32,990 for the manual or $34,990 for an automatic, but WTF would you do that? The premium pack adds leather and Alcantara to the seats which are heated. The BRZ has a claimed fuel economy figure of 8.4L/100km which I actually matched, for once.
Because you have some issue with Toyota.
At the end of the day it’s really comes down to tastes or even brand loyalty when it comes to buying this car. It could do with a cup holder or two, sure it would be nice if it went faster but hey it’s the kind of car that will become a legend, irrespective of what badge is on it. It’s an 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Chris was EFTM’s Motoring Editor for many years, driving everything from your entry level hatch to the latest Luxury cars through to the Rolls Royce.
He has been in the media for 20 years, produced three Olympic games broadcasts, attending Beijing 2008 & London 2012.
Strangely he owns a Toyota Camry Hybrid, he defiantly rejects the knockers.
Chris is married to Gillian and resides in Sydney’s North West. They have Sam the English Springer Spaniel and Felix the Burmese cat to keep them company, and recently welcomed baby Henry to the family.
He has now left EFTM, and writes freelance and runs his own Facebook Page “Bowen’s Garage”
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