| perryair |
07-10-2015 01:05 PM |
brz and the fun factor
so i've been back and forth quite a bit over the last few years about what to get for my next ride. the time is likely coming over the next month or two so have been re-testing the cars i'm interested in again and i came to a conclusion that while it has a ton of shortcomings, the brz is hands down one of the funnest times that you can have behind a steering wheel.
a few weeks back my local subie dealer let me take a brz up into the hills behind the dealership and wring it out - you know that you're not going super fast, but between the size, noises and rev happy nature of the car it 'felt' like you are just flying along and everything is extremely immediate, from throttle response to steering, it does exactly what you want to do exactly when you want it to be done. torque dip be damned cause all of the driving that i did when i wasn't just cruising between stop lights was above 4k anyways.
i tested an ecoboost premium performance pack mustang manual yesterday after driving an ecoboost standard automatic a month ago and i'll say this - i almost preferred the auto because the mustang's hp curve dies after 5k and driving a stick i tend to keep the rpms high when hooning (or semi-hooning) around. the loss of hp up high directly made that car feel less fun and almost made it 'feel' slower than the brz even though its carrying about 2x the torque and a hundred more hp (and 700 lb of weight).
i had the exact same experience a few months back in a 228i where while you know there's tons of power, it hits you so low that 1 second later when you're at 5k rpms you can feel it starting to run out of breath. not fun!
so maybe at the end of the day, the ability to fit more than 2 adults and a gym bag may make the decision or other little practical considerations like having a shirt holder or seat coolers or seats that lock when you slide them forward or the ability for a person to put their feet underneath the passenger seat without it getting locked under the seat but if fun has anything to do with it, i'll have a brz in my parking lot soon.
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