I'll bite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
I don’t want to clutter their thread with too many arguments, but Porsche is known for their handling because of their flat engines.
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No. Their cars primary characteristics are dominated by their rear-engined and mid-engined layouts and 50 years of development on the same chassis, not by the flat engines. They didn't even choose flat engines, they just inherited them from VW. Don't read too much into it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
The BRZ has a lower center of gravity than a Cayman.
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Yes, because of the lower ride height (nevertheless, the Cayman has ducts that stick down to make the ground clearance even worse than BRZ). If we drop a car by 1", we lower its CG by 1". If we drop the engine by 1", we lower the CG by what... 0.20"? So how much do you think that engine placement matters?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
The handling that the car is known for is directly tied to this setup.
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No. The handling is more directly affected by the very wide track, the long wheelbase, and most importantly, the fact that all of the press cars had stock tires which don't develop enough grip to move the suspension much. So the press cars corner very flat because a) they don't have grip and b) the track is huge.
I respect that the flat-4 has a lower CG, and that's great. But the marketing is all about the red herring: let's focus on the CG so that nobody asks why in the hell you put a heavy-ass, expensive, complicated 2.0L way out in front of the front wheels when you could have just used a tiny, light, cheap inline-4 instead.
Love the car for what it is (looks, lightness, big track, etc.), but since this is a car forum and we are all car guys... please, please don't perpetrate the marketing BS.
Anyway, I am very excited to see the results of this (or a K series) swap, because I too want to do this. I'm on my second BRZ now and I just can't get over the missed potential with the engine. The rest of the car is perfect!