Subaru Previews Production-Ready BRZ and »

05.02.12

TOKYO — Hanker rumored, but now it's official: Subaru will lift the covers on the final motion-ready BRZ sport coupe in late November at the 2011 Tokyo Vehicle Show.

Finally, the world will get to see what this keenly awaited, compact, back-drive 2.0-liter sport coupe, co-full-grown with Toyota, looks and feels like.

Although the media and cyberspace are already sprightly with BRZ-related content, until that Tokyo reveal on November 30, Subaru still won't show us the BRZ in all its exaltation.

Instead, the company continues to hide behind this teaser pic, but under the hood, it's confirmed the BRZ will run with a unsurpassed and exceptionally low-set 2.0-liter naturally aspirated absolute-4 engine, with "square" bore and stroke of 86-by-86mm and Toyota's D-4S rule-injection heads.

The transmission will be a six-speed (manual or coupй) and Subaru is promising that the unique rear-drive chassis, with front struts and build double wishbones, will offer "pure handling cheer." The Japan BRZ measures 167 inches long, 70 inches to the utmost and 51 inches high, so it's shorter, wider and drop than the new Impreza. Its wheelbase is set at 101 inches.

Subaru, in the meantime, must have set a new industry document by announcing the "next" version of the BRZ before the stock JDM car has even been released.

This is the BRZ Concept STI , which Subaru announced last week and, quite confusingly, appears next week at the 2011 Los Angeles Vehicle Show, some two weeks before Tokyo.

That STI Concept, Subaru assures us, carries some visual and spec differences over the model BRZ, so more toned-down styling for the Tokyo car looks like a disposed.

On Subaru's stand in Tokyo, the BRZ will also be sharing space with the S206, the latest in a big run of skunkworks-developed Imprezas for die-hards in Japan. The mean will be the outgoing Impreza WRX STI sedan.

The S206 is expected to be another limited-print run, right-hand-drive special for Japan with peerless turbo, chassis, suspension, brakes, wheels and irritate treatment to up the ante. The talk is of 320 horsepower, but full specs will be announced in Japan on November 24.

Then there's Subaru's Broadminded Tourer Concept, essentially a downsized redo of the Mixture Tourer Concept that starred under the lights at Tokyo in 2009.

Two years on, the svelte Italianate styling and big gullwing doors have previous, for a more solid, Audi-like look. The former car's complex 2.0-liter turbo powertrain with match-motor hybrid has also been ditched for a simpler, greener 1.6-liter turbo constituent with single-motor hybrid.

Source: Inside Line