2022 Subaru BRZ World Premiere First Drive

So much faster than the old one! Today we have a first look at the new 2022 Subaru BRZ. This new one is more powerful, more nimble, and in my opinion, it looks better too. From some angles, it looks a little Porsche, with a little touch of bangled BMW in the back, but in a good way. Of course, the most important part of any sports car is what you find under the hood. Here, Subaru has upgraded the BRZ with a new naturally aspirated 2.4 liter four-cylinder boxer engine with Toyota's direct fuel injection and port injection. The setup puts out up to 228 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels. That is 23 more ponies than the outgoing engine. For those of you who were hoping for a turbo, Subaru says that going down that road would have made the BRZ simply too expensive. But they also agreed that it needed more horsepower. This 2.4 liter is the compromise. And though it does share the same bore and stroke as the larger Subaru Ascent with a turbo, it is not actually based on that engine, according to Subaru. This is an all-new design. This new engine is also placed lower in the chassis to improve its already impressive handling characteristics. You can get the new BRZ with either a 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters or a close-ratio manual transmission. Interesting to note that the automatic has sport, snow, and track modes, whereas the manual only gets a track mode. Trunk space seems pretty close to the outgoing model. Not huge, but significantly better than the Miata. Subaru says that with the seats folded down, you can fit a bike with a wheel off or four tires mounted for a track day. Can we also take a moment to appreciate the sound of that trunk lid closing? This whole car just feels way more solid than the previous model. The interior is familiar to anybody who drove the old car, but with some nice updates. Including a digital gauge cluster with a g-meter and a lap timer. The display also changes based on your drive modes. The seats look great with dual-stage heat. Dual-zone climate control is also available. Automatic models come standard with Subaru's EyeSight safety system. The 8-inch infotainment screen has been upgraded with an interface that now matches the rest of the Subaru lineup. Switch into reverse and it doubles as a backup camera with improved resolution over the outgoing model. Unfortunately, today we have just a couple pre-production cars, which we are not allowed to drive. But thankfully, we know somebody who can. Okay, so here we are in the 2022 Subaru BRZ. This is, of course, a press launch, kind of. It's more of a world premiere. I have Scott Speed with me, who's going to take me around the track in one of these early production vehicles. Now, of course, this car has a four-cylinder naturally aspirated motor, and it is rear-wheel drive. Those are kind of what the BRZ is. It's a very different car than, say, the WRX. And we're here at Thermal Raceway in California to see how it does. So you've driven a bunch of cars. How does this kind of... What do you think are the best things about this car? Well, it's a race car, right? It's a true sports car. So low weight, great handling, and more importantly, very good balance, right? The oversteer, understeer characteristics of the car are very well done. And that's one of the main things that sets this thing apart from most cars in its class. Right. Now, what would you compare this to? Like, fuck, Cayman S? Nah, probably not quite there, right? I think you have to compare it to, basically, a much better Mazda. Yeah. You know, a much better MX-5, basically. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, like, it's like an MX-5 Plus. Double Plus. So how does this react when you unbalance it a little bit? Like, how does it dance on its toes? Well, because it's so light and the CG is so low, they're able to run a pretty soft suspension package on it while maintaining the stiff feel. And that's where you get the grip from. That's why it is so quick. Now, are we on production tires right now? Yep, this is as it comes off. OK. So you'll see here, once we go through some high-speed corners, how much grip it has. Already, I can feel it is so much faster than the old one. Wow, and so much more grip. Nice. Now, what do you think about the gear ratios on this? Does it feel like they're in the right spot, or is there one gear that's not quite right spot? They're really good, and the gate is done better as well. Like, the gate is smooth. Like, going from second to third, which is typically kind of a tough shift, with this car is great. And so this would be an example where you come out of this corner in second gear, when I go to third, like, with the car transfer, it goes into there really nice. And I'm not sure how the engineers made that, but it is incredibly intuitive. Now, you're in, like, track mode right now, right? Yeah. What does track mode do with the car? Track mode's turning off the stability control, and then I also turn off the traction control so I can get some kind of fun drifts off the corner. Nice, but it doesn't make it faster, really. It just makes it so you can drive more. It gives me more control. Right, right. So I can, basically, it allows me to get the car more out of control, knowing that I can still save it. Nice. Well, thank you for the lap. That was fun. I can't wait to drive the real thing. This is a 2022, so it's going to be a few months before we can get behind the wheel of one, at which point we'll get the zero to 60 and all the numbers. But for right now, that's our first look. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Great to see you. Of course, we'll have a full review of the 2022 Subaru BRZ just as soon as we can get our hands on a production car. It is too early to say what pricing will be, though I expect it'll be nicely equipped for under 30 grand. Final production cars are expected to hit dealerships in the early fall of 2021. What do you think? Did Subaru hit a home run with this new BRZ? Do you think they made a mistake not going with a turbo? Post a comment below with your hot takes. Also, take a moment to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you know the moment we drop our full review. I'm Ryan Douthit coming to you from a hotel in Palm Springs after a day at the track with the BRZ. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you again right here next week.