Tim Schrick is today on the way in france
and drives the new Subaru BRZ with
rear wheel drive instead of all wheel drive.
A small coupé easy to handle.
I did not think that 2012 again something like this comes on market.
At the development was one thing very important,
the driving enjoyment.
200 hp, rear wheel drive and
only 1200 kg dead weight speaks for themselves.
The affordable price of 30.000€ too.
But the limited slip differential will cost extra charge.
This car has almost no direct competitor.
And certainly not with this price.
Here are some comparisons:
We have here the Volkswagen Scirocco 2.0 TSI for 27.000€.
210 hp from a 2.0 liter front engine and front wheel drive or
the BMW 125i coupé for 33.000€ with front engine and rear wheel drive.
18 hp more than the Subaru but no limited slip differential.
Front engine and rear wheel drive also offers
the Hyundai Genesis coupé.
You get even a limited slip differential for the same price,
but 200 kg more weight too.
At Septemper comes the new one with 275 hp.
Subaru makes the most direct competition itself.
Toyota brings at September the new GT 86 on the road.
Both models are nearly identical
and will built in the same factory in Japan too.
What looks likeable for me is
that the car has the same tyre size on all four wheels.
And that let me hope that the car is good balanced and had a good controllability.
Turbo, supercharger? Not here.
Under the hood works a 2.0 liter aspirated engine in Subaru Boxer-layout.
Boxer engine means that you have two cylinders are be opposed to itself
and in the middle you have the crankshaft.
The big advantage is that the center of gravity is very low.
Four cylinder Boxer engines also has the advantage
that they have no free mass forces and so they needs no balancing shafts.
With the aspirated engine runs the Subaru BRZ 230 km/h (143 mph).
0-100 km/h in 7.6 seconds
when you push it up to 7500 rpm.
You can not sit in here from an turbo diesel-powered car
and then say: nothing goes forward.
That would be something to superficial view.
You have to keep it separately.
Aspirated engine and supercharged engine.
And for a aspirated engine it runs pretty well
and you can feel the adjustable camshaft and then the acceleration.
But the engine awakes not until just over 4500 rpm to live.
So when you want to accelerate
you have to shift one gear backward what is the most normal of the world for me.
And then you can feel the 200 hp.
Optional to the six speed manual gearbox
you can order a automatic transmission.
But who wants Daniela Katzenberger
when you can get Scarlett Johansson.
You can change gears really fast and precise.
And it's a lot better than in the Subaru WRX STI.
There i had a little strange feeling at shifting.
The car is a lot more that i was thinking.
BRZ stands by the way for
"Boxer Rear wheel drive Zenith".
Boxer means the engine,
rear wheel drive the propulsion concept
and Zenith means that the japanese engineer
are convinced from her work and it can't get better.
You can feel when the front wheels are going to slip
when you turn in to fast.
You have a real communication between you and the car
that you can feel the exactly status at any time.
For tim preferably instable.
This one was hot.
It's a real simple and clean drivable car with no surprises.
There happened nothing unexpected.
And that's what i like.
You can drive anywhere along
and you have any time of world.
The front axle is not aggressive, you can't see any camber.
And it works so out of box.
I drove it now only on dry streets
but when it rains it must be the fulfillment.
That comes also from the good weight distribution.
53% on front axle, 47% on the back axle.
Is there nothing wrong with it?
From the sound i had promised myself a little more.
Who knows not the typical sound from the impreza from great Britain
with these huge exhausts who makes
Something like that.
They are really loud and here in this car
is no bass.
But somewhere are surely some guys to see to it that it sounds right.
And i think a oil temperature gauge is missing
because the oil temperature is more important to get on high rpm
as the water temperature.
Subaru does a lot for the sportiness of the BRZ.
Thanks to the flat boxer the center of gravity is very low.
The vehicle body is very stiff
what makes a very compact ride feeling.
I like it when anybody say we want to build a light car
and we want rear wheel drive and limited slip differential.
And a limited slip differential is good
when you come into a roundabout
to test if the limited slip differential works.
And i think it works.
This car is a car to have fun. And it does.
That is exactly that what i expected from cars with sporty demanding.
That car makes incredible fun, is really good balanced
and i not thinking of anything what i would change
if it was my car.
And that happed so good as never before.
And the last car which i find really cool
was the Porsche Carrera GT who cost 450.000€.
It's not hard to make a petrolhead happy,
but why does it nobody anymore.
A BRZ, a curvy mountain road
makes one liter of happiness hormones.
I'm totally flat, i thought 2011 and 2012
anyway nothing more comes on the market,
Lotus will be always heavy, get electronic stability control, the world goes down
and then comes Subaru or Toyota with a car
where makes so fun where you think
when it will rain here in france.
Dear friends of dynamic driving,
up to start selling in Germany you must still have patience.
At autumn 2012 will it come.