Subaru secretly developing mid-engine sports car
Sales success in the US allowing quirky car-maker to explore new nichesSubaru is developing a range of radical new vehicles that’s said to include an all-new mid-engine sports car, according to new reports.
The news that the Japanese car-maker has a new sports car in the pipeline was revealed by US magazine, Car and Driver, following an interview with a source said to be close to the car-maker.
Already at the experimental prototype stage, the new mid-engined sports car could replace the firm’s BRZ coupe if Subaru’s technical sports car partnership with Toyota is not renewed.
According to the source, the new small coupe comes with a mid-mounted turbocharged boxer engine that drives the rear wheels. Two additional electric motors, meanwhile, drive the front wheels.
In effect, the powertrain is the same one that was teased in the Viziv GT Vision Gran Turismo digital concept shown at Geneva 2014, except this time it’s in reverse (the virtual car had a mid/front-mounted engine).
The Viziv concept, running a 2.0-litre turbocharged boxer engine and two rear-mounted electric motors and one front motor (to boost the internal combustion engine), generated a mighty 435kW/800Nm -- enough for a claimed 100km/h time on under four seconds.
It’s not likely any production version will offer that much power but running on modified BRZ architecture, the real coupe could weigh significantly less than the 1380kg kerb weight claimed for the Viziv GT.
If, that is, the Subaru’s experiment ends up birthing a sports car at all.
According to the insider, because the coupe is still at the experimental prototype stage, there’s still time to tweak the packaging of the powertrain to adapt it to power a sporty crossover or SUV, but the source says a coupe remains most likely.
The money to fund a new range of vehicles is claimed to have come off the back of record sales for the car-maker. Last year in the US sales were up 13 per. This means in 2016 the small Japanese car-maker is on track to manufacturer more than a million cars for the first time in its history.
Car and Driver predicts a concept to debut the new sports car will be shown in two years’ time to gauge customer feedback before the car is green lit for production.
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