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Originally Posted by Ikaros
Wow thanks for the post I learned a lot from it. But can we actually compare two cars that is more than a decade apart? They might have found new ways to make some parts stronger without adding weight and they could have found ways to lighten some of the electrics. I know this might bot relate directly to cars but look at how much laptops have changed in the past decades they have gotten more powerful but at the same time lighter and more compact. I haven't followed Toyota or Subaru's advancement over the years in depth but they should have made some advancement right?
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Well yes there is advancement in the technology. For example, the newer Subaru have a large steel bar welded into the B pillars that makes their roofs significantly stronger in rollovers. That started in 2000 with the Legacy and 2002 with the 2nd gen Impreza, but the first gen didn't have it. Supposedly the FT86 chassis will have it too.
As for comparing the cars, you'd be surprised how much has stayed the same over the years. The basic suspension and chassis design from the '93 Impreza carried over to the revision for the '02 model year all the way to '07. That means suspension components, drivetrain bits and all sorts of goodies were compatible for ALL those years.
In terms of the FT86 chassis we know of two things that will be the same: The bell housing bolt pattern and the engine mount bolt pattern. The FA20 has the same shortblock supposedly as the new FB20 Subaru motors, which means its got the same bellhousing pattern, which was also the same as the EJ motor bolt pattern allowing you to use EJ motors in this car if you wish. The engine mounts have been stated on many occasions to be in the same location for this car so you can use other motors if you wish.
But in terms of the actual chassis design, there are some photos of the cutaway of the chassis in that leaked brochure but they are too small to see
Hopefully soon we will get a high-res image of that to get a better look at the chassis and see what was exactly done with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Longhorn248
They can call it a "world car" all they want, but there is tons of evidence to show that the U.S. version of cars always have differences from the international versions. Different regulations and crash test requirements make companies redesign certain aspects and in some cases exclude cars from being imported here. There's a reason that the highly efficient cars in Europe are only slowly starting to make their way to this side of the pond, and it's not because people hate getting good gas mileage.
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Yes, there will always be minor differences. For example, the 2012 Impreza has a rear foglight hole but the foglight is only sold on European models and not in the US. The bumper remains the same minus a plug in the hole.
The truth is lately European standards have gotten tougher than U.S. standards in most categories which has influenced bumper design quite a bit. So we won't be seeing as many cars in the future with multiple different bumper skins/bumper beams for different markets, I don't think the FRS or BRZ will have different bumpers.