On one hand I don’t get the underpowered but surgically superior handling small cars. They’re just not fast. The Miata. The Toyota 86. The Subaru BRZ. All low powered four cylinders.
But a backroads spin in my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider, with only 110hp, reminds me of all that is right and salutary about a nimble sports car on a windy road. My apologies to these little sports coupes. So what we have here in the “Coming Soon” section on the CarMax website is a 2020 Subaru BRZ TS – of which only 300 were imported into the US. All in white. A true unicorn. And it’s not even on sale yet!
The 2020 Subaru BRZ TS is more than visual changes – it’s all about handling and braking. According to Motor1 – “The meaner version of the coupe uses Sachs dampers and coil springs with a tuned setup from STI. There is also a flexible V-brace in the engine bay. For sharper steering response, there are draw stiffeners on the chassis and sub-frame. Up front, Brembo four-piston brake calipers clamp onto the rotors, and there are two-piston stoppers at the back.”
The Subaru motor remains a 2.0 liter, 205 hp boxer four cylinder and all BRZ TS’s are 6 speed manual transmissions. The combo will only get you a 6.3 second 0-60 mph run, pitiful by today’s standards, but again it’s about the handling. The car sold new just last year for about $33,000, so truly amazing it’s selling at this premium, but then again it is just one of 300 in the USA! Skip the MaxCare – this car is under dealer warranty and no reason to expect reliability issues. Find it here in Fort Worth, Texas.
If you want to save a few thousand dollars, and don’t mind being a little less exclusive, the Toyota twin of the Subaru BRZ TS is the 2019 Toyota 86 TRD SE – only 1,418 imported into the USA. As with the Subaru, there is an emphasis on handling and braking in true sports car fashion.
The Toyota, though, adds a “dual cat-back exhaust, which cranks up not only the volume of the exhaust note but its intensity as well. It sounds deeper and fuller. Pulling a symphony out of a four-cylinder boxer without any forced induction is a challenge, but it’s one that Toyota met enthusiastically” – per Cars.com. I am suspicious though, that the reviews mention red and yellow stripes along the sides of the car, which are not on this model. What gives? This 2019 Toyota 86 TRD SE sold new for about $33,000, same as the BRZ, and is available here in San Diego, California.
