2017 Subaru BRZ Quick Review: The Flawless Very first Sports Car
Welcome to Critic’s Notebook, a quick and off-the-cuff car review consisting of impressions, jottings, and marginalia regarding whatever The Drive writers happen to be driving. Today’s edition: the two thousand seventeen Subaru BRZ Limited with Spectacle Package.
The Subaru BRZ has always felt like something of the odd man out in the Subie lineup. Unlike its 86/GT86/FR-S sibling, which fit into the disjointed Scion lineup as well as any of the oddball cars Toyota corporate attempted to cajole millennials into thinking were “cool,” the BRZ is worlds apart from the rest of Subaru’s fleet. It’s the only model without all-wheel-drive; the only two-door; the only one co-developed with another automaker.
But that distance from the rest of the cars wearing the Pleiades badge don’t make it any less of a hoot when you hurl it down a back road—especially when it comes with the Spectacle Package, like the one Subaru dropped off at The Drive’s office. Inbetween its Sachs struts and shock absorbers, and a center of gravity that puts your butt crack mere inches above the asphalt, the BRZ hustles down winding country lanes with a verve that brings to mind some of the world’s superb sports cars.
. at least, until you floor the gas pedal.
The Pros:
- The BRZ treats like a desire. It drives like the car Colin Chapman would have built if Japanese scientists had resurrected him and told him to build a car out of the joint parts bins of Toyota and Subaru, or else they’d disconnect the pumps and send him back to oblivion.
- It’s remarkably good in town, too. The engine may not make all that much torque, but what it has is right there; it plateaus inbetween Two,000 and Three,000 rpm, right in the sweet spot for bopping around local roads. Combine that with a sensitive throttle, and the BRZ feels zippy and spirited when bopping through traffic or attempting to strike the light
- It looks good. Sure, the details may not be as elegant as an Aston Martin or as aggressive as a Challenger, but the basic form of the BRZ is unspoiled, old-school sports car: long bondage mask, muscular fenders, compact greenhouse, taut tail.
- The fresh infotainment system is miles better than the old crap Subaru and Toyota used to shoehorn into these cars. Granted, it still looks like an aftermarket head unit when it’s powered down, but at least now you don’t want to pull a Mark Fields and punch the sucker out of frustration.
The Cons:
- This ain’t a long-distance cruiser. The cogs are too brief and tightly-spaced; sixth gear gets you twenty two miles per hour for every 1,000 rpm on the tach, which means you’re well in the boxer four’s drone zone by the time you hit highway velocity.
- The more you squeeze it out, the more you want more power. Not a lot, mind you. just an extra fifty or sixty ponies at the top end, to make pursuing the revs higher all the better. Even something like the RX-8’s 228-hp Wankel would be a hoot.
- You’ll have to explain to everyone who recognizes the badge that no, this is the one Subaru that doesn’t have all-wheel-drive.
Pay no attention to the way that screen awkwardly intrudes into the tachometer.
The Subaru BRZ, Ranked:
- Spectacle: Four/Five
- Convenience: Three/Five
- Luxury: Two/Five
- Hauling people: Two/Five
- Hauling stuff: Trio/Five
- Curb appeal: Four/Five
- “Wow” factor: Two/Five
- Overall: Trio.Five/Five
If you don’t buy your BRZ with one of these, you are an idiot.
The Bottom Line:
The Subaru BRZ may not be the car I’d buy for $30,000. but I’m damn glad that it exists. It’s a salute to all the less-appreciated aspects of automotive spectacle that are all-too-often neglected in favor of high-tech wingdings and heavy-duty horsepower. It’s proof that at least one (well, two) of the planet’s major carmakers haven’t lost glance of the virtues of cheap speed and simpleness.
The BRZ, truly, is the flawless very first sports car—the ideal vehicle for someone who’s just discovered that driving is more than a way to get from A to B. It coerces a driver to learn mechanism, rather than letting them go power-mad with every ripple of their ankle. Arm an inexperienced driver the keys to one of the other rear-wheel-drive cars you can get for the Toyobaru’s price, like a Camaro or Mustang, and. well, we know what tends to happen. Give them this Subie, however, and those awkward car demonstrate exit crashes are much more likely to turn into tasty drifts than into viral crash movies.
2017 Subaru BRZ Quick Review: The Ideal Very first Sports Car – The Drive
2017 Subaru BRZ Quick Review: The Ideal Very first Sports Car
Welcome to Critic’s Notebook, a quick and off-the-cuff car review consisting of impressions, jottings, and marginalia regarding whatever The Drive writers happen to be driving. Today’s edition: the two thousand seventeen Subaru BRZ Limited with Spectacle Package.
The Subaru BRZ has always felt like something of the odd man out in the Subie lineup. Unlike its 86/GT86/FR-S sibling, which fit into the disjointed Scion lineup as well as any of the oddball cars Toyota corporate attempted to cajole millennials into thinking were “cool,” the BRZ is worlds apart from the rest of Subaru’s fleet. It’s the only model without all-wheel-drive; the only two-door; the only one co-developed with another automaker.
But that distance from the rest of the cars wearing the Pleiades badge don’t make it any less of a hoot when you hurl it down a back road—especially when it comes with the Spectacle Package, like the one Subaru dropped off at The Drive’s office. Inbetween its Sachs struts and shock absorbers, and a center of gravity that puts your butt crack mere inches above the asphalt, the BRZ hustles down winding country lanes with a verve that brings to mind some of the world’s fine sports cars.
. at least, until you floor the gas pedal.
The Pros:
- The BRZ treats like a fantasy. It drives like the car Colin Chapman would have built if Japanese scientists had resurrected him and told him to build a car out of the joint parts bins of Toyota and Subaru, or else they’d disconnect the pumps and send him back to oblivion.
- It’s remarkably good in town, too. The engine may not make all that much torque, but what it has is right there; it plateaus inbetween Two,000 and Trio,000 rpm, right in the sweet spot for bopping around local roads. Combine that with a sensitive throttle, and the BRZ feels zippy and vigorous when bopping through traffic or attempting to hit the light
- It looks good. Sure, the details may not be as elegant as an Aston Martin or as aggressive as a Challenger, but the basic form of the BRZ is unspoiled, old-school sports car: long fetish mask, muscular fenders, compact greenhouse, taut tail.
- The fresh infotainment system is miles better than the old crap Subaru and Toyota used to shoehorn into these cars. Granted, it still looks like an aftermarket head unit when it’s powered down, but at least now you don’t want to pull a Mark Fields and punch the sucker out of frustration.
The Cons:
- This ain’t a long-distance cruiser. The cogs are too brief and tightly-spaced; sixth gear gets you twenty two miles per hour for every 1,000 rpm on the tach, which means you’re well in the boxer four’s drone zone by the time you hit highway velocity.
- The more you squeeze it out, the more you want more power. Not a lot, mind you. just an extra fifty or sixty ponies at the top end, to make pursuing the revs higher all the better. Even something like the RX-8’s 228-hp Wankel would be a hoot.
- You’ll have to explain to everyone who recognizes the badge that no, this is the one Subaru that doesn’t have all-wheel-drive.
Pay no attention to the way that screen awkwardly intrudes into the tachometer.
The Subaru BRZ, Ranked:
- Spectacle: Four/Five
- Convenience: Trio/Five
- Luxury: Two/Five
- Hauling people: Two/Five
- Hauling stuff: Trio/Five
- Curb appeal: Four/Five
- “Wow” factor: Two/Five
- Overall: Three.Five/Five
If you don’t buy your BRZ with one of these, you are an idiot.
The Bottom Line:
The Subaru BRZ may not be the car I’d buy for $30,000. but I’m damn glad that it exists. It’s a salute to all the less-appreciated aspects of automotive spectacle that are all-too-often neglected in favor of high-tech wingdings and heavy-duty horsepower. It’s proof that at least one (well, two) of the planet’s major carmakers haven’t lost look of the virtues of cheap speed and simpleness.
The BRZ, indeed, is the flawless very first sports car—the ideal vehicle for someone who’s just discovered that driving is more than a way to get from A to B. It coerces a driver to learn mechanism, rather than letting them go power-mad with every ripple of their ankle. Mitt an inexperienced driver the keys to one of the other rear-wheel-drive cars you can get for the Toyobaru’s price, like a Camaro or Mustang, and. well, we know what tends to happen. Give them this Subie, however, and those awkward car showcase exit crashes are much more likely to turn into tasty drifts than into viral crash movies.