This is Subaru’s BRZ coupe, the new rear-wheel drive sports car to partner Toyota’s FT-86. Our spy photographers caught the new BRZ on the road in Germany this week.
Although still shrouded in psychedelic disguise, you can begin to see more of Subaru’s new 2012 sports car. It’s a compact two-seater with a fastback raked rear, an integrated back spoiler, twin bazooka exhuasts and an elegant cab-backwards stance all visible in these new spy photos.
The BRZ arrives in UK dealers in spring 2012, priced at around £25,000, wobbling exchange rates not withstanding. The British importer expects to bring in around 500 a year, teeing this up as an exclusive, rare-groove sports car choice.
Subaru BRZ: the lowdown
We won’t see the BRZ – or Toyota’s version, the FT-86 – until the Tokyo motor show at the end of November 2011. Rumours are circulating that a last-minute, slightly more revealing concept car may be shown at the 2011 LA show a few weeks beforehand.
Both cars are based on what lead engineering partner Subaru calls the Boxer Sports Car Architecture, a new bespoke platform for the rear-drive coupes.
Both will be rear-wheel drive – no Subaru all-corner traction here – and both will be powered by the direct-injection FA20 four-cylinder boxer engine. Its horizontally opposed layout helps contribute to the coupes’ low 450mm centre of gravity.
How powerful will the Subaru BRZ be?
No official word yet, but we expect around 200bhp from the 2.0-litre four-pot which will be naturally aspirated. Subaru officials have vowed no turbocharger will be bolted on in this application.
That’s slightly at odds with Japanese media reports, which claim a 1.6-litre turbo is being prepared for a year after launch. As this is a different application, we guess that sits happily with the engineers’ claim.
Subaru has now confirmed the measurements of the BRZ. At 4191mm long and 1770mm wide, this is a compact two-seater a tad slimmer than an Audi TT.