Back for Another Look
 

New to the forum, first post. I've been a Porsche guy for over 30 years. I love them. But I learned pretty quickly how expensive Porsche's are to maintain when you track them. So I started looking for an affordable track car that I can daily. I test drove a 2017 BRZ and loved the handling, steering, road feel etc, but I hated the power delivery. The torque dip was a deal breaker...Ended up buying an E90 BMW to track and daily.

With the new BRZ just announced I'm considering taking another look. I really prefer the styling of the new car. Tastes are specific to the individual but I think the designers hit it out of the park. Assuming all the other characteristics that I liked carry over, I'm hoping the power delivery problem (torque dip) is fixed.

I was able to screen grab the "in dash" hp/torque display. when compared to the "old" 2.0L the new 2.4 looks much improved.

Attachment 195948

Time will tell if I end up being a BRZ owner or not. All depends on the "butt dyno" when I test drive it.

Welcome to the forum brainf18!

I'm sure you are aware that those two displays are not graphing anything but are only a static "guesstimate" of what the engine is supposedly or hopefully doing. If marketing rather than engineering created those statics, all bets are off as to their relationship to reality.

That said, no one has driven the new model at this point so nothing concrete to base a decision on other than aesthetics.

No arguments there....I'm going off the assumption that the "old" dash dyno was pretty accurate so logic says (and I'm hoping) the new one should also be accurate.

Time will tell if I end up being a BRZ owner or not. All depends on the "Butt dyno" when I test drive it. If it pulls nicely then I'll write a check. If it gasps for air like the last one...I'll walk.

Many owners change the headers and add a tune, which can reduce or eliminate the torque dip. Was there a specific reason why you didn't go this route on the 1st gen?

Welcome to the forum! Hope it works out for you! These cars are a blast to drive, and the next one should be a performance improvement. I understand the previous “torque dip” was tuned in due to emissions standards in Europe, and the new car won’t be sold there, so the dip might indeed be a thing of the past. An OFT tablet is about $500 and can eliminate or substantially improve the dip, in case you run across a deal you can’t refuse on a first gen.

Yes...the 1st Gen torque drop and "not quite enough power" were the main reasons I did not purchase back in 2017.

I understand the 2.0 "can" be modded to fix these issues, but that's not my thing. I prefer to purchase a car that comes well sorted from the factory. Thus my love of Porsches. You can literally drive them off the showroom floor directly to a track.

If the 2.4 BRZ has a linear power band then I'm in.

Yes they are, power and torque vs rpm!

The one in my car is a quite accurate representation of the power and torque curves, there's no reason to think the new one we're seeing is inaccurate.

I'm looking forward to driving the '22!

Those dyno graphs only show the curve as far as i know.
And the curves are pretty accurate.
Numbers wise no it might not show anything remotely accurate but who cares if you just want to quickly look at it in the car.

The new one still has the dip which some people seem to think is gone completely. You can see the dip int he same place as the old one, its just been significantly reduced and is much flatter. Im sure that is going to make the 2.4 feel much stronger in the midrange in addition to the added torque.

The "dip" has gone from a very seat-of-pants-detectable -17% to an undetectable -3%. It's as good as gone...

Good as gone is what I'm hoping for! Fingers crossed...We'll see if Sub/Toyo got it right this time around

Yeah, I'm thinking this car is gonna be the one...

I've only owned one Porsche, a 2.9 987.2 which I drove alongside my '17 BRZ PP last year on the road and at the track. The Porsche was only my 2nd German car, I had an '85 535i back in the day. My general impression is that the Germans like to make extremely capable cars that can be tossed around with abandon at the track, but that feel absolutely normal and even BORING on the street. The Japanese on the other hand seem to make cars that are FUN even at 3/10ths driving around town on the street. I loved my Cayman, but in the end my BRZ was the car that made *every* drive FUN, whereas the Cayman was very business-like until track time, when it came alive.

Anyway, I don't think you'll regret the downgrade to a '22 BRZ ;)

I am going to agree that having both it is the BRZ that brings smiles every day while driving. Somehow all my cars get worked on, no matter who builds them so German or not at he track all seem to need some help to suit me.

I suppose this might be summed up in the phrase: slow car (driven) fast.

I was over on Rennlist and was browsing through this thread with lots of great photos, this post highlights the ethos behind cheaper Japanese sports cars:

https://rennlist.com/forums/987-981-...l#post15611812

I'm sure that part of it is that the Germans tend to give their cars slowish steering racks even on sports cars because autobahn cruising speeds of 120mph+...

The steering was my #1 complaint on my 987.2. Car mags heaped praise on the last hydraulic steering Porsches, but I never warmed up to it. Too sloooow, but also heavy and with a surprising amount of kickback. I did not like the variable ratio, it felt noticeably nonlinear around 45 to 90 degrees input at the steering wheel. Give me faster, linear steering that responds quickly from zero degrees! And the car has WAY too much caster, like 8.5 degrees. I prefer minimal caster for lighter and, to me, BETTER feel at the wheel as it's not so corrupted with weighting from caster. Also, my Cayman had the standard largeish-diameter steering wheel. Combination of all these effects and the steering was rather school-bus-like to me compared to the BRZ. If I could have duplicated the BRZ's steering in the Cayman, I probably would have kept the Porsche!

Another weird "anti-fun" aspect was throttle response. I had sport chrono, and if I ever forgot to hit the "sport" button the car felt like a Prius for normal around-town driving. With "sport" button engaged, it still felt less alive than the BRZ! I guess without sport chrono you're just stuck with the uber-slow and boring throttle response.

Damn, that guy is living his best life there, looks like! I'll have to get over there sometime...