How to begin? I am probably older than many of the twins' owners. I am in my late 30s. I had a 2009 RX8 R3, which due to the expanding family and expanding gas prices (the thing got 16mpg) was replaced with a Mazda 5 minivan. Some time later, that was replaced with a Fiat Abarth because we had ended up with two other vehicles to take the family in and the Abarth ended up being my "good on gas car" (almost 40mpg on the highway if you stayed out of boost and sport mode). In the past I've had a 1997 Vette, and a 475hp Mustang GT with a Saleen blower. So I've had powerful cars, and good handling cars.
While the Abarth was fun enough, it always felt like it wanted to roll over on you (it never did, and probably never would, but it was eerie having that high of a COG). I had the opportunity to trade it in yesterday on a BRZ - the closest car (along with the Scion FR-S) to my dearly departed RX8 R3.
I was smitten from the time I pulled out of the dealership for the test drive. The dealer allowed me to go fast enough around corners to break the rear end loose (with stability control on of course), but all of the things I had missed about cars since I got rid of the RX8 were coming back to me. This thing is driving nirvana in comparison to the Abarth.
I've had powerful cars in the past, but for my tastes - a car that handles with scalpel-like precision is where I want to be. Don't have the budget for a Cayman so the BRZ was it - the dealership was selling it for invoice, and gave me a good value on my Abarth so I bought it (wasn't planning on it!)
Here are some impromptu / bad photos of the car - my tint will be installed next week, I'll take some proper photos after that. I am actually shocked how much better in person this car looks than in photos. Particularly with the dark gray paint. From some angles, it almost has Aston-Martin like lines to it.
Anyway, looking forward to learning more from this forum and its members! Thanks for having me!
