Subaru originally announced the 2nd generation of the BRZ in the United States as early as November 2020, and the new car continues the design basis of the previous model, although it also maintains the FR Platform chassis architecture, but cites some of the technology of the brand's new generation SGP chassis, from the previous 2.0-liter horizontally opposed 4-cylinder engine to a 2.4-liter horizontally opposed 4-cylinder engine, also equipped with the EyeSight 3.0 active safety system, and also developed jointly with the new generation Toyota GR 86.
The original factory set the appearance of the running grid is better than the previous generation, and the overall shape is more washed
In terms of appearance, under the basis of the low center of gravity and narrow body design of the continuation of the original model, the overhaul BRZ in the appearance part in addition to having a more aerodynamic streamline design, with a new type of C-shaped LED headlight, which integrates the SRH active steering function in the headlight group, the automatic model is more out of the HBA far and near light automatic adjustment, plus the newly designed LED taillight group, the author believes that the overall visual has a refreshing feeling. Not only is the headlight set larger, but the overall front is also a sharper visual effect.
The most obvious difference from the Toyota GR 86 is the overhaul of the 2nd Generation BRZ with a 6-shaped water tank shroud and a grating grille design to enhance the dynamics, while the Toyota GR 86 is shown with trapezoidal water tank guards and black strips of inverted L-shaped air intakes on both sides. The large air intake design on both sides of the BRZ and the black painted front wing emphasize the dynamic visuality of the appearance. In the body size part, the 2nd generation of length, width and height came to 4,265x1, 775x1, 310mm, wheelbase was 2,575mm, mainly in terms of car length increased by 25mm, vehicle height decreased by 10mm, and wheelbase increased by 5mm.
In addition, the original factory also emphasizes the unique side deflection air hole design, with a strong and compact tail line and a new ducktail spoiler, which not only shows the three-dimensional sense of the body shape, but also effectively discharges the air turbulence generated during travel, coupled with the air diversion wing arranged in the chassis of the vehicle, to improve the aerodynamic performance of the car body. The new generation of BRZ, this time, has upgraded the five-piece lightweight aluminum ring to 18 inches, with matte dark gray for a matte texture, and the tire is the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 of the front and rear 215/40 R18. The test drive is also equipped with a new color "Star Chi Blue" introduced after the major revision.
The duck tail of its tail tail with the tail cover integrated upturned to replace the previous spoiler tail design, the author believes that the overall line is more fluid and simplified. The C-shaped taillights with black central trim and connecting sides in the center of the rear, although not the penetrating taillights that are currently seen in the car world, retain the brz's dynamic and sharp appearance. Under the rear of the car, in addition to the diversion fin design of the rear arch on both sides, a large bilateral single exhaust tailpipe is used.
Exterior sheet metal material part, the 2nd generation BRZ in addition to the body of the body frame using high rigidity ring cabin steel beams, hood, roof sheet metal and leaf sheet metal use lightweight aluminum alloy material, further control the weight of the body, and ensure more sensitive handling in the corners, reduce the body roll when cornering.
The interior is functional and textured, but it is still oriented to the demand for the driver's seat
In terms of interior layout, the BRZ still maintains a 2+2 seat design, and the cockpit interface introduces a 7-inch TFT color LCD screen digital instrument for the first time, which will have a welcome animation when it is launched, and the tachometer is located in the center of the digital instrument, which can display specific performance data such as gravity, power/lateral centrifugal force and fuel consumption. As for the new 8-inch multimedia video and audio touch screen, it also comes standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, supporting Bluetooth, voice recognition and USB jacks. Detail settings of the EyeSight system are also possible in the central control host.
The new 8-inch multimedia audio-visual touch screen also comes standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, supports bluetooth, voice recognition and USB jacks, and even retains more traditional Aux-in connectivity.
The 7-inch digital instrument can be displayed differently according to different driving modes, such as switching to Track mode will become a more obvious interface between the tachometer and gear, and there are battery voltage, oil temperature and other displays on the left side.
The double front seats are covered in leather and suede, which is commonly found in racing seats, and accentuated with red stitching elements. In addition to the automatic model with more steering wheel shift paddles, the entire car series adopts the traditional hand brake setting, mainly the automatic model has a front seat center independent cup holder, the manual model is not, and the driving mode selects some automatic models also have 2 more. The BRZ rear seat cannot be dumped to expand the volume of the rear compartment, and when the luggage compartment is opened, its full-size spare tire is directly exposed, and it occupies more or less the space in the luggage compartment, mostly for small carry-on baggage.
The rear seat has a basic double ISO-FIX fixing buckle, and when the luggage compartment is opened, its full-size spare tire is directly exposed, and it occupies more or less the space in the luggage compartment, mostly for small carry-on luggage.
In terms of safety, the manual version is also equipped with the SRVD rear vehicle detection and warning system, the BSD blind spot detection system, the LCA lane change assistance system, and the RCTA rear vehicle side traffic warning system. The 2nd generation automatic version of the test drive, for the first time, added the EyeSight 3.0 system including ACC active distance control fixed speed, PCB collision prevention automatic braking, LSW lane deviation warning system, LDW lane departure warning system, LVSA front car departure warning system, PCTM collision prevention throttle control A total of 6 major systems, and added RAB reversing automatic braking system.
ACC active distance control fixed speed for the speed range of 0 to 200 kilometers per hour, because it is not equipped with electronic hand brakes, so when the current car stops, the system will start the braking system to slow down and stop the vehicle, once the vehicle stops for more than 3 seconds, the driver needs to immediately step on the brake pedal to maintain the vehicle stationary, but compared with the previous generation has been moderately reduced the fatigue of driving long-distance driving.
Maintain the flexible posture of the rear drive, and the original factory is set as a good modification foundation
Compared to the original BRZ, which is equipped with 2.0 natural intake power, the overhaul BRZ expands the exhaust capacity to a 2.4-liter horizontally opposed 4-cylinder natural intake engine, codenamed FA24, using a D-4S in-cylinder direct injection and manifold injection dual injection system, maintaining a front-facing rear-drive layout, and uniformly equipped with a Torsen LSD limited-slip differential, and the output data of domestic models is 235 hp/7,000 rpm, and the maximum torque is 250 Nm. M/3,700 rpm, the original emphasis on torque increased by 15%, synchronously available 6-speed manual, 6-speed manual two-speed automatic two options. The original factory emphasized that in addition to maintaining the D4-S fuel multiple injection technology from Toyota, that is, direct injection in the cylinder and double injection of the intake manifold, the improvement of the intake and exhaust system has also made great progress in torque, and through reduced running resistance, the brz has a more responsive power response and smoother speed climb. The expansion of the exhaust capacity is mainly due to the original factory to change the cylinder bore to 94mm and the stroke to maintain 86mm, so it is different from the previous generation of bore stroke 86mmx86mm.
In terms of performance acceleration data performance, the manual version is different from the automatic version, the manual version of the stationary acceleration breaks the hundredth of 6.3 seconds, the speed of 226 kilometers, the automatic version of the stationary acceleration of the hundredth of 6.9 seconds, the speed of 216 kilometers, the acceleration is slightly slower 0.6 seconds, the speed is about 10 kilometers. In addition, the distance from braking at 100 km/h to complete stopping is 3.2 meters less than that of the first generation brzels to 36.8 meters.
In the chassis part, although the new brz maintains the front-engine rear-wheel drive exclusive platform FR Platform, the original team introduced the experience of developing the SGP modular chassis in the past, including enhancing the anti-twist rigidity of the rear, improving the anti-bending rigidity of the front side of the vehicle, the structure of the inner frame, and the use of structural point adhesives, etc., so that the front side of the body can be increased by nearly 60% and the anti-twist rigidity of the side of the car by 50%.
As mentioned above, BRZ has different driving mode choices in the manual version and the automatic version, the whole car series has Normal, Track, TCS Off, VDC Off a total of 4 driving modes, of which track mode can delay the TCS tracking system intervention time; and TCS Off can help cut off the wheel power after the vehicle is stuck in mud pit sand, or snow; VDC Off is the VDC body dynamic stability control system can be completely turned off on the full speed track The 6-speed manual model will further turn off the LSD limited-slip differential.
The BRZ auto version has more Sport Sports and Snow than manual, with a total of 2 driving modes, providing a total of 6 driving modes. Sport mode will maintain the engine at high speeds, and even the instrument version will switch to a tachometer-based display mode, while Snow mode can keep the gearbox at low speeds when slippery roads prevent tires from slipping and idling.
Judging from the author's actual experience of driving the automatic version, the author personally prefers the performance of the Normal mode, because although the speed in the Sport mode is raised, the timing of the upgrade is relatively delayed, but there is no linear acceleration feeling, so in the Sport mode, the author prefers to cut to the M manual mode to control the gear through the shift paddle. It is worth mentioning that even in D mode BRZ can also manually control the gear through the paddle, and even sometimes postpone it to about 6,000 rpm to automatically upgrade, as for M manual mode, it can be pulled all the way to 7,000 rpm without upshifting, in fact, under manual mode control, this gearbox is left to the driver with a high degree of autonomy in shifting.
In addition to the paddle shift, the author believes that the BRZ automatic version of the gear lever is also deliberately made very "manual" feel, a pull down will find that it has a similar sequence of gear strokes, the itinerary is quite mechanical human-vehicle communication ceremony. And in the power part of the BRZ naturally will not disappoint the driver, although the automatic version of the car weight from the past 1,286 kg, increased to 1,313 kg, compared to 29 kg more, but the new generation of power is also 34 more horses, the author believes that this part of the power and torque of the increase is quite sensible, even greater than the increase in weight, deep throttle will have a fairly high frequency horizontal opposing engine sound, with obvious acceleration feeling.
However, the BRZ's power output curve is obviously still the traditional natural intake orientation, so not only is the sound wave pulled up by the speed position at low speed not as charming as the high rotation, most of them will have a more obvious low torque after 2,500 revolutions, but compared to the overall output curve of the turbo engine BRZ is still linear, after familiar with its characteristics, as long as the gear is properly controlled through the gear shift paddle, even if the corner should maintain rapid acceleration dynamics, a slight downshift before entering the corner can easily bring a smooth and powerful back feeling.
The steering wheel has good directionality, but unfortunately, the information fed back to the steering wheel by the road sense is not as much as expected. As far as the chassis setting of brZ original factory is concerned, its body rigidity is obviously higher than that of the previous generation, and the front-facing horizontal opposition plus the rear-drive combination also brings the counterweight of the front and rear axles 53:47, which is very good when driving, and the advantages of the congenital rear-drive two-door sports car are well played, and the low center of gravity design of the horizontally opposed engine makes the overall driving have a sense of stability like Taishan.
The suspension under the original factory setting has a high stroke and the reaction will not be too hard, corresponding to the situation of some "pull level" multi-road undulating conditions, in fact, there will not be too much superfluous vibration that interferes with the driving control, and the roll suppression is also quite excellent, the author believes that the original factory setting is to find a balance between comfort and hot blood. Of course, the sliding sense of the rear-drive chassis at the rear of the car and the flexibility of the flowing water, the author believes that it is the dynamic essence of BRZ; even switch to track mode, the rear of the car will really give more sliding feeling, properly operated under the sway can also bring a graceful dance posture, PS4 tires although sticky but not yet PS4S level of grip, may also be the original deliberate in the factory state can be easier to slide the rear of the car setting. The brake part of the author believes that the original brake of brz is also quite stable, but if the more sharp braking force is required, the brakes and tires can be further upgraded, and the original shock absorber also reserves a lot of space to reduce from the perspective of wheel arch clearance, and reducing the suspension is expected to bring less cornering roll.
The pure pleasure of the rear drive flexibility
In summary, the author believes that although the new generation of BRZ has not changed significantly compared with the previous generation, it can be said that under the traditional low center of gravity, rear drive, double door and other formulas, it is upgraded on the basis of the excellent foundation of the past, and even the new generation brz is still an excellent modified car target, in the era of intense electrification, it is actually rare to maintain such a pure internal combustion engine driving pleasure. It's just that compared with the previous generation, there is a lot more than the price, plus there will be twin Toyota GR 86 imports, whether the BRZ value is worth this price, I think it will be left to everyone who wants to buy it.