Subaru BRZ 2015 Review

Holding the line and resisting temptation must be a challenging task with a car like the Subaru BRZ.

Not for the owner, who may be faced with a titillatingly winding, remote stretch of tarmac and feel a tingling in the hands and the right foot, but for the manufacturer who created it in the first place when revision-time comes around.

Like the Mazda MX-5 which has never strayed too far from the purity of the original, minimalist concept despite obvious potential to wring more out of it, the Subaru coupe presents myriad opportunities to upgrade its potential: larger-capacity engines, turbocharging, all-wheel drive and even a convertible version are well within the possibilities facing the BRZ. And may, at some stage, come to fruition.

For the meantime, though, the joint Subaru/Toyota project is not stepping officially too far over the line. Toyota might be working on a lightened, tightened and enlightened road-going version of its track-focused 86 coupe, that is expected to be released in 2015, but Subaru, despite the BRZ having received some on-track attention from its Subaru Tecnica International (STI) division, isn’t saying anything about future hot BRZs for the road.

It is currently being left to Subaru’s local arm to think about what it could do to inject more fire into the BRZ – although it’s unlikely a super-hot version is on the cards even then.

So when Subaru did its first update on the BRZ, pretty much concurrently with Toyota’s 86, the changes were minimal. In fact, they add up to very little apart from a revision of the MacPherson Strut/double wishbone suspension’s dampers to give a smoother ride as well as better tyre contact on rough roads, and the addition of a shark fin radio antenna above the rear window.

Oh, and the previous silver highlights on the instrument panel are now in matt black, faux carbon fibre.

Remaining untouched are the pricing ($37,150 including on-road costs for the manual version tested here) and the driveline comprising the 2.0-litre (horizontally-opposed) four-cylinder engine producing 147kW at 7000rpm and a solid-for-capacity 205Nm of torque at a way-too-high 6600rpm.

Braking is by four ventilated discs, and transmission choices continue between a six-speed manual (with Torsen limited-slip differential) and a six-speed automatic.

Nothing in it apart from the changed dampers and, to be perfectly honest, there’s nothing even a skilled driver who does not have the opportunity to drive old and new back to back, is likely to detect.

The BRZ remains a tight, lively sports coupe on the road. Each major disturbance in the surface needs to be anticipated and each bend is to be relished. The electric rack and pinion power steering is about as close to perfect in terms of weighting and response as you can get.

The throaty buzz of the normally aspirated, square-configuration boxer tends to make the BRZ seem faster-accelerating than it is. But zero to 100km/h in 7.6 seconds is not too shabby, and the close-set ratios of the manual six-speed box make it easy to avoid any dead spots in the torque curve.

Even though the 2.0-litre’s 205Nm comes in very high, leaving a tiny power band between maximum torque and maximum kilowatts, the BRZ is actually pretty responsive across a wide rpm range. It’s quite refreshing in fact to feel a normally aspirated power band while experiencing the engine’s deep-breathing eagerness to pile on the revs.

The transmission is pretty raw in its operation too. It is difficult to avoid the odd distant clunk when first gear is being selected at a standstill, and successful harmonisation between shift and clutch actions only comes with a bit of perseverance.

That said, it’s easier to drive a manual BRZ smoothly than a manual Commodore SV6, and we suspect the auto version, while it is claimed to be more economical and punches out less CO2 (164g/km against 181g/km), would represent something of an emasculation of the BRZ’s charms.

Talking about fuel economy, our test BRZ was something of a surprise as it consistently bettered the official combined figure of 7.8L/100km with an average during a week of testing that worked out to just 6.8. And although 98 RON unleaded is recommended, the BRZ is also designed to run on an E10 mix (95 RON).

For all its mini-Maserati image, the BRZ, like its Toyota counterpart, tends to look a bit drab inside despite the carbon-fibre-look dash and the (optional) red-stitched cloth/Alcantara trim in our test car.

That said, the seats were nicely cosseting and well bolstered, and there was plenty of room for front-seat passengers once they dropped themselves down into the surprisingly low-slung coupe. Not so for the back seat, but then again the BRZ was never intended to be a family car – although the luggage space was surprising when the car was being used two-up, with plenty of room (true!) for a mountain bike, or other awkwardly bulky luggage.

In the end, the only thing we didn’t really warm to was the afterthought location of the Bluetooth controls, out of immediate sight on the right-hand A-pillar. The ergonomics in the essentially minimalist cabin are simple to come to grips with, the five-star ANCAP safety rating (the airbag count includes a driver’s knee bag) is reassuring and there is plenty of gear for the manual transmission version’s $37,150 drive-away price.

The BRZ gets 17-inch alloys conservatively clad in 215/45 tyres, the boot contains a full-size spare, the headlights are self-levelling bi-xenons (with LED daytime running lights), there’s dual-zone climate-control and push-start ignition.

It lags behind the $36,490 (plus on-roads) top-spec Toyota 86 GTS’s standard sat-nav, heated front seats and part-Alcantara seats, but makes up ground by the simple virtue of quoting drive-away pricing. Similarly equipped and on the road, there would be very little to separate the BRZ from the Toyota 86.

Has our enthusiasm for the rorty rear-drive Subaru coupe waned since its introduction in July 2012?

Despite the fact nothing has really changed in more than two years – not a bit.