Really? I drove a Cooper S and did not enjoy it. Then again I also drove an Elise and wasn't thrilled. This Audi is ruining me...

My backup plan is A. get an S2000 and supercharge it or B. dump $30k into my MR2 over the next few years

Based on that, are you not worried the BRZ won't thrill you?
It is going to be a helluva lot closer to a hot hatch and an Elise than it will be a large-ish turbo'd saloon.

:word: RWD mini cooper s is exactly what I want this car to be. Those things are really fun to drive.

I'm not worried. I've enjoyed driving my friends' Subarus, from a fit-and-finish perspective. I also enjoyed countless lightweight RWD sports cars. But I know it won't be as loud or as rattly as my MR2, and visibility/cabin space will be better than the Elise, so I'm not worried. Just for the record, the S4 is a large supercharged saloon... yeah, the V6T badge makes no sense...

It's interesting how this article by Nikkei has been interpreted..
I saw a report on Autotech daily today that paraphrased the Nikkei release but gave the impression that the cars would be delayed 7-8 months.

I'm pretty sure the intent of the original article was to say that some of the last cars scheduled for 2012 (Nov/Dec) would most likely be pushed back into 2013.. So maybe a month or two delay on the tail end.

But, some people seem to read into this thinking that May delivers might not happen until Jan of next year.. I do not think this is the case.