[Turbowned]

I jumped for joy when I heard back in '08ish that Toyota planned to build a lightweight sports car again! The Celica and MR2 Spyder just never did it for me, and the Supra was too big and too expensive. I had just sold my MR2 Turbo, thinking it too big and not as much fun as the first-gen MR2's, despite being faster and a lot better-looking.

I think originally this car was slated to weigh about 2500lbs, make low-200's for horsepower, and cost around $20k. Perfect! As time progressed however, I kept hearing what seemed like more and more bad news. The projected weight kept going up, the power kept going down, and the price seemed doomed to go up as well. At the time I wanted nothing more in the car than seats and a steering wheel, power windows and other weight-adding features be damned! In late 2010 it was announced the car would be offered as a Scion, and my hopes for that were dashed. Toyotas come with manual windows. Scions do not. Damn you, Scion!

Fast forward to 2011. Concepts started to be substantiated with real power and weight claims. While not totally impressed, I was glad they managed to keep the weight below 2800lbs. 200hp was going to be enough; anything less and I'd be pissed! It still was only a blip on the radar, though. I was happy as a clam with my MR2 and had just finished dumping a ton of money into it in the form of a big brake kit, coilovers, bigger wheels with wider tires, and a fixed bucket Recaro seat.

Then I heard a little tidbit of information that made me want the car again: I read that the dashboard was designed so that a roll cage could be fitted without cutting up the dash. WHAT? REALLY? I have zero intention of caging the car, but the fact that Toyota designed the car that way told me that they built it with enthusiasts in mind.

Fast forward to the past 6 months and I've been glued to my computer every day, reading up on all the latest developments on the car. I can honestly say I know more about this car before purchasing than any other car I've bought. I've read more specs, watched more footage, done more research than anything. And I've driven every other car I would possibly consider as an alternative to this one.

Something strange happened along the way, too. I started working for Audi last year and they set me up with a brand new S4, all loaded up with features. It was a BIG step up from my tired MR2. Suddenly, I didn't care about the weight savings quite as much as before. Since the Scion comes mono-spec, I knew I would have to look to the Subaru version. This irked me a little because I've been a Toyota die-hard for years, but my best friend is a Subaru die-hard and I've helped him along the way with his two STi-swapped 2.5RS sedans. I also frequented the local NASIOC meets with him, moreso than I found myself going to Toyota meets because there were simply more people with cooler cars. I wasn't getting the stuff I wanted in the Scion, so I figured "what the heck, time to become a Subaru enthusiast". I would've stuck with Audis but their lightest sporty car is the TT and it now only comes with the dual-clutch automatic... boo!

To make a long story less long, I put a deposit down for a Galaxy Blue Silica BRZ Limited 6MT on March 4th and have been madly following every thread on this forum since. I took an hour from work to go check out a pre-production GBS BRZ, and have signed up for a local FR-S test drive event early next month - hopefully I'll get to drive the car before my pre-order arrives! Not having driven the car yet I guess I can't say I'm in love, but I sure as hell am in lust!