Cars

Attention to detail further hones Subaru's BRZ

It's a case of 'spot the difference' with the updated Subaru BRZ
It's a case of 'spot the difference' with the updated Subaru BRZ It's a case of 'spot the difference' with the updated Subaru BRZ

ONE of Drive's favourite cars, Subaru's rear-drive BRZ sports coupe, is getting the mid-life facelift treatment for 2017, writes William Scholes.

Subaru says it has updated every part of the car in order to refine the driving experience while enhancing its sports car appeal - a neat trick, if it manages to pull it off.

The tweaks are of the sort that will appeal to the obsessives who 'get' what the BRZ - and its sister car, the Toyota GT86 - are all about.

The BRZ is the antithesis of the modern sports car or hot hatch; they mostly insulate the driver from the finer parts of a car's dynamics and deliver gobs of turbocharged, torque-heavy power, whereas the Subaru is an essay in tactility and balance, with an engine that needs revved hard and a gearbox that encourages changes. But enough of the nerdism...

Subaru has chosen to give the BRZ a new front bumper design which apparently "limits airflow into the air intake", which in turn is claimed to improve the handling and ride.

Other exterior changes include LED headlamps, new rear lights and a different alloy wheel design.

Inside, a 4.2-inch colour LCD display has been added to the instrument panel, from where it relays information about G forces, steering angle, brake force, lap times and the torque and power curves.

The steering wheel is now even smaller and Subaru says the materials throughout the cabin are of higher quality.

The boxer engine gets stronger cylinder blocks and buffed and polished valve stems. The camshaft is lower friction and the rocker arms have been on a diet - as I said, this is detail stuff.

New dampers and a reconfigured stability control system should improve handling - not a department in which the BRZ was particularly lacking...