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By
ALISTAIR KENNEDY
19 December 2011
Subaru
has revealed the production version of its long-anticipated BRZ
sports coupe at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.
Stylish and affordable, the Subaru BRZ is built at Subaru’s Ota
plant in Japan as a joint venture with the company’s part-owner,
Toyota, and will compete directly against the all-but-identical
Toyota 86.
The division of labour between the two companies saw Toyota look
after the product planning and styling with Subaru taking on the
engineering development and production. Each company will then do
its own sales and marketing.
We
were given a sneak preview of a pre-production version of BRZ
during a trip to Japan a few months previously when Subaru invited
us to see the new Impreza and XV models. The little coupe is a
real eye-catcher with a profile that, with a bit of imagination,
reminds us of the Porsche 911.
The front is dominated by a large, hexagonal grille with sweeping
headlights and the rear is tall and square with an additional
brake light positioned between twin large tail pipes.
Subaru BRZ is a four-seater although the rear seats are basically
there for emergency use rather than for long-distance passengers.
The boot is quite small, but the rear seat backs fold flat for
extra storage space.
Power
for the BRZ will come from a Subaru 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer
engine using Toyota’s D-4S direct injection system. Maximum
power is 147 kW and there’s up to 205 Newton metres of torque.
The engine will be centrally mounted and lower than any other
Subaru model to produce a very low centre of gravity, a major
factor in the excellent handling characteristics that are being
claimed.
Transmission options will be six-speed manual and six-speed
automatic with steering wheel mounted paddle shifts.
The
combination of high tensile steel in the body and aluminium bonnet
and wheels has kept the BRZ’s kerb weight down to 1220 kg,
another pointer to the excellent driving qualities that can be
expected.
Although Subaru Australia was initially reluctant to commit to
bringing the BRZ to Australia, largely because its rear-wheel
drive setup is at odds with Subaru Australia’s commitment to
all-wheel drive vehicles, but has now bowed to public pressure and
has announced that the attractive little sports coupe will be
coming here some time in 2012. Pricing and specification levels
have yet to be decided but our guess would be that it will be –
as with the Toyota 86 – somewhere around the mid-to-high
$30,000s.
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Marque Publishing Company
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