Quick question car fans. When you think of Subaru, what two characteristics do you immediately associate with it? If you said the sure-footedness of all wheel drive and conservative style lines, move to the top of the class.
But if you wanted to earn some bonus points, you would have added the following exception when it comes to Subaru's BRZ.
That's because the cute, new coupe breaks those two long-held conventions when it comes to Subaru since it features rear wheel drive and racy good looks.
Much of the break out from Subaru's longstanding playbook-aside from the sleek SVX that was produced in the early 1990s- has to do with the lineage of the BRZ. It's one of those models which shares its platform and body panels with a number of nameplates. In this case the model bears the badge of Toyota, Scion, and Subaru which builds all of the variants in its main plant in Gunma Prefecture.
In Europe, Toyota calls it the GT86, in North America Scion tagged it with the name FR-S, and Subaru went for BRZ, which stands for Boxer Rear Wheel Drive Zenith.
But no matter what it may be called, the coupe is built for some spirited driving thanks to Subaru's 2.0 litre, 16-valve boxer engine which produces 200 horses and 151-pound-feet of torque.
For those keen on the zero to 100 km/h time, the BRZ manages the feat in 7.7 to 8.4 seconds, depending on which drive train you select-more on that in a second.
It is also listed as having a top speed of 211 km/h.While that's not in the same league as a Porsche 911, neither is the BRZ's sticker price which is a relatively affordable base of $27,295. Plus, the BRZ seats four, two more than the 911. So, take that Stuttgart.
Power is delivered to the rear set of rubber by either a six-speed automatic or six-speed manual.
On the outside, the BRZ has many of the good looks of grand tourers of past-such as Toyota's legendary 2000GT-with a long bonnet flowing back into a sleek passenger compartment and stubby rear deck.
Shod with 17-inch alloys, the BRZ has a stick-to-the-track look.
Helping out with the race ready theme are dual exhausts, fender styling cues that borrow a bit from Aston Martin, and a spoiler perched upon the rear trunk lid.
Inside the cabin, the front seats feature sizeable lateral bolsters for your thighs and shoulders to keep you firmly in place when cornering hard.
The three-spoke steering wheel has some subtle grab points, and brushed metal pedals are a nice nod to performance.
Overall, the BRZ is a compact coupe which looks the part of a performancefocused auto at a fair price that should see plenty of them on the road.
It just remains to be seen which of the three marques-Toyota, Scion or Subaru -end up selling the most.
