Just curious if anyone else here is coming from more powerful / higher horsepower cars to the BR-Z, and what your thoughts on the BR-Z are comparatively.
I too have been following the BR-Z / FR-S from the beginning. However, given my background...owning and daily driving a slightly modified 2000 Honda Civic EX for 10 years (through high school and college, modified before the fast and the furious craze). Before this my very first car was a 1988 Mazda RX-7, if you know anything about these engines, they arent exactly reliable...
Anyway, when it was finally time for me to get out of the Civic in the Summer of 2o12, I was ready for a high horsepower car with the classic sports car layout. I ended up buying a 2009 Pearl White Nissan 370Z, base model and was in love with the car. I didn't even drive anything else, the 200+ hp jump from the Civic alone was enough. I also thought the car handled very well at the time. I believe the 86's were due to arrive the next month, but I scoffed as I knew I had 100+ more horsepower, and what I believed to be a better handling more sophisticated sports car all around in the 370z.
However, one afternoon on my way to lunch, just two months into ownership of the 370z, I was run off the road by an elderly gentlemen into oncoming traffic. I collided with a VW Passat head on at 50+ mph. Will edit and add pics this evening. That was the end of the 370Z. Of course I had made the payment on it just hours before...
At this point, I was 28 years old, and had only lived in the state of Georgia my entire life. It was time for a change. My girlfriend and I, and our dogs moved out to Colorado. After living here for a year or so, I got the itch to buy again. I was looking for a 2o15 WRX base model, but they were not readily available yet. However, almost all dealers in my area had at least 1 2015 Launch Edition WRX STI available. I reasoned with myself that if I got the STI my payment would be higher, but I would be saving overall because at least I wouldnt "have" to modify it right away...
I test drove the Launch Edition, and despite my insistence on owning a rear drive, sexy sports car, the Launch Edition STI was now mine. Even though there were years in between drives, the STI made the 370z feel sloppy in every area. Maybe this isnt quite a fair comparison, and maybe the NISMO 370 would stack up better against the STI, but I still felt it shouldn't be possible. The layout of the Z alone, despite the AWD of the STI, should have made the Z a better handling car. This simply was not the case.
I loved the STI, and it would have been a track monster stock if I had ever taken it out. It was also very fun to drive daily, and very capable in the snow. My only complaint at the time was that the car was very stiff, and not kind on my bad back. However, even with the nice factory gold STI wheels, and exclusive blue interior of the Launch edition, and knowing the car was 1/1000, I never once got the same feeling looking at the car that I did with the 370Z. Because of this, the fact that I was now trying to buy a house, and the fact that the STI with insurance was costing me very close to $1000 monthly, I decided to sell the car after putting just over 15k miles on it. This was a very sad day.
Fast forward another year, and i still haven't been able to find a house that I like enough to buy. I've also now finished recovering from 3 spine surgeries, and my back is feeling much better. Apparently I had a broken piece of bone just chilling in my back since the accident in the Z. Anyway, with my back feeling better, and now once again being tired of only driving my girlfriends 2013 Altima when she wasnt using it, I was ready to buy a car again.
I finally convinced myself that I needed to at least drive a BR-Z. I have always loved the way they look, but have never been impressed with 200hp on paper. After the first test drive, I wasnt entirely convinced that I wanted the car. I loved the handling, the inputs, and the overall connection I felt to the road, but the car really felt slow. I expected this being that my last car was the STI. I decided to wait on the purchase, for once. Side note, I later relized that the a/c was on during my entire test drive.
I started calling around and realized I could easily get a limited model brz in my area for the price of the base or premium model. Each dealer only had 1 BRZ, so they were willing to deal. I finally settled on Valley Subaru because they added an additional year / 40k miles to the powertrain warranty, so 6 year / 100k mile powertrain. When my girlfriend got home from work, we made the drive to Valley Subaru...
On the way I started questioning myself, are you really going up here to potentially buy a car you have been shitting on in your head for the last 3 years? By the time we arrived, I convinced myself that I needed to drive a base model WRX as well, since these cars are basically the same price, pending options. I drove the WRX first. The car accelerated fairly quickly stock, but I was mainly interested in the tunability of this car, since the turbo was already there. Body roll was noticeable, but the car still handled very well, and would obviously be much more capable in the snow.
I then got in the BRZ and took the same route I had just taken the WRX. I made sure the a/c was off this time. The stiffer suspension / lower center of gravity in the BRZ was immediately noticeable. This is the feel I was looking for. What wasnt noticeable to the "seat of the pants dyno" was the 70 or so horsepower I knew I was missing compared to the WRX I had just driven. I decided then that I liked the BRZ better than the WRX, and there is now a 2o16 WRB BRZ Limited in my garage. I may be kicking myself when the 2o17's roll out, I read September, but couldnt get any info on arrivals from local dealers, and I couldn't wait. I am now paying 1/2 of what I was paying monthly for the payment and insurance on the STI, but I certainly do not feel that I have 1/2 the car. I can honestly say that I love the BR-Z more than the 2015 Launch Edition STI and the 2009 370z.
Never again will I let a # on paper be the sole basis for judging a car...
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