CarBrandLogos archive · Subaru · 2012

SubaruBRZ

Two companies agreed that a cheap rear-drive coupe was still worth building.

Photo: Elise240SX · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Subaru history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Subaru BRZ, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The BRZ exists because Toyota wanted a small, light, rear-wheel-drive sports car and did not have the engine or the spare engineering capacity to do it alone. Subaru had a flat-four, which sits low enough to help the centre of gravity, and factory space at Gunma. The two built one car together and sold it under both badges, as the BRZ and as the Toyota GT86 and its later successors.

2017 Toyota GT86 PRO D-4S 2.0 Front · Vauxford · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

The brief was deliberately narrow. Modest power, skinny tyres, a short wheelbase and no turbocharger, on the argument that a car which can be enjoyed at legal speeds is more useful than one that cannot. Reviewers argued about whether it needed more power for the entire first generation, which rather proved the point that the chassis was doing the interesting work. The second generation, launched in 2021, answered with a larger naturally aspirated engine rather than forced induction.

2017 Toyota GT86 PRO D-4S 2.0 Rear · Vauxford · CC BY-SA 4.0

2011 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show IMG 4546

In production

It is an unusual thing for Subaru: front-engined, rear-wheel drive and without the all-wheel-drive system the brand is built on. It has also become the default entry point for grassroots motorsport in several countries, which is close to what both companies were after.

2011 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show IMG 4546 · Shelby Asistio from Los Angeles, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0

At a glance