2018 BRZ tS - The Thread for Potential Owners

[Side]

"It's not an STI, it needs more power, but if the goal was to fully optimize this chassis they have succeeded." -Matt Farah,

"Subaru's talented engineers have set their sights on making the BRZ tS the most agile, best handling BRZ they could, and, I have to admit they have widly succeeded at that." -Matt Farah, Road & Track Article

These are two of my favorite quotes so far. Unsurprisingly, both are from Matt Farah. I would love to see a Matt Maran Motoring or Regular Cars review of this car.

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by Side

These are two of my favorite quotes so far. Unsurprisingly, both are from Matt Farah. I would love to see a Matt Maran Motoring or Regular Cars review of this car.

I would REALLY like to hear the guys from Regular Car Reviews do the tS. But I'd also really enjoy the perspective from Savage Geese.

[Veloist]

Originally Posted by Side

These are two of my favorite quotes so far. Unsurprisingly, both are from Matt Farah. I would love to see a Matt Maran Motoring or Regular Cars review of this car.

I agree, can’t wait to hear the YouTube reviewers from those guys & similar.

As for me, this quote was quite assuring:

From Autoblog:

After driving both the STI Type RA and BRZ tS at Thermal, we found the former to be more like skiing, while the latter felt more like snowboarding. The BRZ feels more fluid, requiring less precision to carry more speed around corners. It offers a lot in the way of feel, especially through the seat of the pants, and it only gets more fun as you learn its tendencies. If we came to California more interested in trying the STI, we left with dreams of buying an STI-tuned BRZ.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by Side

These are two of my favorite quotes so far. Unsurprisingly, both are from Matt Farah. I would love to see a Matt Maran Motoring or Regular Cars review of this car.

I really enjoy Matt Farah, but I kinda wish he hadn't beaten the dead horse (at least in the written piece). For example:

[...] I cranked the go pedal up the hill and immediately went “Yuck,” audibly, to myself, when experiencing a full-throttle, three-gear pull with a mild uphill incline.

I feel like in that exact situation, if I were starting from a stop and driving up a "mild uphill incline" then I'd take 2nd into maybe 5-6krpm or whatever (since 2nd is pretty short) past the dip, shift, and just keep leaving the revs high enough to avoid the dip, and it'd do sufficiently well. It's not really a "yuck" feeling. But if I keep the revs high in the powerband then it usually works out fairly ok.

But then I haven't driven cars like he has. I suppose that kind of creates the problem of all these reviewers repeating that it's a slow car. :iunno:

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by spike021

But then I haven't driven cars like he has. I suppose that kind of creates the problem of all these reviewers repeating that it's a slow car. :iunno:

Yeah, he gets to drive a lot of high end stuff.

I mean, from an objective standpoint... the car really isn't anything great in a straight line. It can feel pretty gutless at times. It's just the way it is.

The thing is though, that we've known this for over 5 years now. At this point, you should know what to expect. If you go into it thinking that somehow it's going to be significantly quicker than it was in the past, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Personally, I think an extra 30 or 40 at the crank would be magical. Luckily, that's easily attained with a header and tune. That's what the whole point of this vehicle is - a blank canvas.

The same people who are complaining about car manufacturers not making vehicles like they used to are the same people that the complain about the fact the 86/BRZ only makes 200hp. Perhaps they forget that pretty much all cars from the golden era they endlessly refer to pretty much all made 200-300hp.

[SPCorBUST]

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[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by TommyW

So better handling on a car that already handles well but no moar power? Really people?

So, do you want more power or not? It looks that you haven't decided yet or maybe just missing your Porsche?

[JSube]

I haven't driven the tS, but I think the chassis improvements have to be legit from what I've read and that's the judgment call you're making on the price. However, I still think the Performance Package cars fill a value niche (yes, I do own one, so take that FWIW) and provide the Sachs dampers & Brembos. And if you're of the opinion you don't want to redesign the car with FI (like I am) you add the $3K ACE A350 pkg our favorite 86 vendor offers and you have a fix on the power issue- linear delivery and more of it. A Subaru version of VTEC.

Jonny Lieberman can be a love him or hate him type of reviewer, but he's right about the tires. If it were me buying the tS I'd just thank Subaru for providing the first set of track tires and find a cast off set of Primacies for the street. Way more fun.

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/subar...-drive-review/

[trippinbillies40]

These guys need to learn to drive. Tracking my 17 PP on Bridgestone RE71Rs was super easy to swing the tail out when I asked it to, and those are far stickier than the PS4s. So, wing aside...

Either the wing is generating way more downforce than what Subaru says, or the difference in handling with spring rates and the front bracing has pushed the car way more towards understeer, which I also highly doubt.

In the video where they're at the track in Florida, he keeps saying "see, I'm flat out at the apex and the back end won't come out." Yet you can barely hear what he's saying due to the catastrophic understeer brought on by him charging way too hard into the corner. Of course the back end isn't going to come around in a 200hp car when you're pushing the front tires sideways. A little slower in, earlier on the gas coming out: enjoy your big bag of doriftos.

[TommyW]

Originally Posted by nikitopo

So, do you want more power or not? It looks that you haven't decided yet or maybe just missing your Porsche?

As far as I'm concerned the power is fine as I didn't buy it for power. More is always better but for what the car is the power isn't a problem IMO. It just seems that the cars handling is already nicely balanced and if there were to be improvements that drove the cost up that actually made an impact that power increase would have been a priority over even better handling. Unfortunately I doubt we'll ever see a turbo 86 from the factory for many reasons.

[yurikaze]

Here’s another review, this one quite positive.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2...or-500-people/

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by weederr33

SmokingTire One Take on the tS:

This is what it happens when you add an additional weight of 200lbs for better accident protection, better daily driveability and because of some "performance" parts. Add to this an additional weight of 150lbs because of the HEAVY driver and then you have ... "The car is slow, it needs more power."

I guess it would be better to offer in US a bigger NA engine the same way they are doing for Subaru Forester. In Japan and Europe they offer it with a 2.0 lt engine and in the US they offer it only with a 2.5 lt engine.

[JSube]

Originally Posted by trippinbillies40

These guys need to learn to drive. Tracking my 17 PP on Bridgestone RE71Rs was super easy to swing the tail out when I asked it to, and those are far stickier than the PS4s. So, wing aside...

Either the wing is generating way more downforce than what Subaru says, or the difference in handling with spring rates and the front bracing has pushed the car way more towards understeer, which I also highly doubt.

In the video where they're at the track in Florida, he keeps saying "see, I'm flat out at the apex and the back end won't come out." Yet you can barely hear what he's saying due to the catastrophic understeer brought on by him charging way too hard into the corner. Of course the back end isn't going to come around in a 200hp car when you're pushing the front tires sideways. A little slower in, earlier on the gas coming out: enjoy your big bag of doriftos.

On track oversteer also easy to induce on my RS4s. Also, Matt tips the scales at well over 150, I'd have to guess...

[yurikaze]

Left Lane review:
https://www.leftlanenews.com/first-d...iew-99741.html