Test Drive: Subaru BRZ is exotic, affordable
— -- Oh, please, more like this.
Subaru's 2013 BRZ sports coupe, on sale late April, is such a ball that you seldom notice the few aggravations.
And because Toyota's Scion FR-S is the same car, furbelowed a little differently, it should be as sublime.
The twin sports coupes were jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru. Toyota, known for bland styling, handled the look — and did a wonderful job.
Subaru contributed the chassis and the engine. It's a new version of the brand's "boxer" flat-four-cylinder, trimmed to fit lower and farther back in the chassis for better weight balance, thus, better handling.
It's too low to accommodate Subie's otherwise standard all-wheel drive, making BRZ the brand's first rear-drive car since the 1950s, Subaru says.
For Toyota, the FR-S is the front-drive Scion brand's first rear-drive car.
The test car was a BRZ. The FR-S wasn't driven, but should be about the same.
Subaru says BRZ stands for boxer engine, rear drive, zenith — meaning high point.
The test BRZ had the six-speed manual transmission. Hard to imagine picking the six-speed automatic; seems as out-of-character as a hockey player with a full set of original teeth.
The manual shifts with a short stroke and firm, mechanical feel. It's a joy, reminding that you are stirring a set of gears, not flipping a silly switch.
There's no soft-engagement clutch. BRZ is for people who prefer to practice the art of driving, not people afraid of killing the engine in traffic.
Here's a hoot: Subaru engines are so inherently rackety that the Toyota-developed direct-injection fuel system actually improves the sound of the BRZ's powerplant. Direct injection typically makes an engine sound worse.
That Toyota system, called D-4S, also blends the conventional intake-port fuel injection that most cars have. Toyota says combining the two types of injection makes the engine smooth and efficient across a wider rev range.
Indeed, BRZ feels as if it accelerates too gradually and evenly to be quick. What an illusion. Even a light right foot yanks the buggy up to 60 mph so quickly that it's a major threat to your driver's license.
The engine drones when driving at constant speed, and that's one of the annoyances. But it roars like a hungry beast under hard throttle. Ergo, you prefer to rev it hard.
Even so, it managed a respectable 21 mpg in our suburban thrash-about, which was even more spirited than usual because of how much fun it is to drive the car that way.
Other delights:
•Styling: Not only is the graceful coupe a surprise from bland Toyota, it also is a knockout on the street, yanking heads around in double-takes the whole test period.
The gratuitous fender "vents" mar the art, but the car is eye candy otherwise.
• Exotic feel: Partly comes from the look, partly from the very unusual engine sound. But a good portion is due to how low-slung the car is. You really drop down into it, as you do some racing cars and expensive Italian jobs.
Inside, a horizontal row of switches is much like you'd imagine in a race car or super-high-performance machine. They're not the skinny toggles of a Mini Cooper, but engaging fat-blade switches that look and feel good.
•Price: Remarkably reasonable for look, feel and joy that you get.
BRZ will start at about $26,000, FR-S about $1,000 less, due to different standard features. Neither Subaru nor Scion would say much about that.
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