Category: Subaru

Categories
Subaru

Don’t you forget about me

Subaru BRZ video review

We all know it has taken two to tango in regards to the Toybaru back-to-basics rear-drive sports coupé project. And with the Toyota 86 currently hogging the limelight thanks to yesterday’s Australian launch we thought it was only fair to bring you some Subaru BRZ content.

To do so we’ve headed to YouTube and found a couple of clips from the United States. Of course, that means it’s called a BRZee instead of the BRZed—but don’t worry, it’s still the same car.

First up is a clip direct from Subaru where they invited a couple of punters along to a photo shoot and recorded their thoughts when they were given the chance to get behind the wheel. No surprises they had lots of nice things to say.

Second, we’ve got a review from Road & Track. They put the BRZ up against the Mazda MX-5 and a Hyundai Genesis Coupé. (If you you think BRZee is bad, wait till you hear what the Septics do with Hyundai!) It’s a good selection of cars to compare against too.

An exact date for the Australian launch of the BRZ has yet to be announced, but we expect it to take place in the next 4–6 weeks.

Continue reading “Don’t you forget about me”
Categories
Renault Subaru

Renault Megane 265 Trophy v Subaru BRZ

Renault Megane 265 v Subaru BRZ

Okay, it’s probably no surprise that the 265hp on offer in the Renault Megane 265 Trophy—one of the world’s best front-wheel drive chassis—can see off the 200hp found under the bonnet of the rear-wheel drive Subaru BRZ. But watch this video from Evo, filmed at Bedford Autodrome, and see if you think everything went according to script.

Continue reading “Renault Megane 265 Trophy v Subaru BRZ”
Categories
Holden Kia Mazda Mitsubishi News Subaru Suzuki Toyota

New vehicle sales report – March 2012

FCAI banner

Figures from the FCAI reveal 97,616 new vehicles were sold in March. Comfortably the best month of the year to date, it’s also a 3.9% increase on numbers from March 2011.

Seems we’ve still not come to our senses and continue to buy SUVs at a rate of knots. “SUVs continue to dominate Australian car sales, accounting for 28 per cent of all new car sales so far this year,” FCAI Chief Executive, Ian Chalmers said. “Combined with small passenger cars (23.6%) and light passenger cars (13.0%), these three segments make up 64.6 per cent of new cars sold this year.”

Toyota, Holden and Mazda were the three best selling marques. Although it’s a bit scary that Toyota sold almost as many cars as Holden and Mazda combined last month.

Continue reading “New vehicle sales report – March 2012”
Categories
Formula 1 Peugeot Subaru Video

If in doubt, flat out!

Colin McRae drives Jordan 196 F1 car

We thank Motorsport Retro for bringing our attention to this video of much loved Colin McRae at the wheel of the Jordan 196 F1 car (it’s actually a really nice looking car too).

McRae was at the peak of his powers at the time, coming off his 1995 WRC title win and seemed to enjoy his time at the wheel of Eddie Jordan’s racecar.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a free ride and McRae had to offer a seat in his rally car to Jordan driver Martin Brundle.

You’ll also enjoy seeing McRae drifting around Silverstone in his Rex. Noted exponent of the discipline Ken Block was probably still in nappies at the time!

Continue reading “If in doubt, flat out!”
Categories
Subaru

Subaru BRZ STi seems certain

Subaru BRZ Concept STi

Subaru’s global marketing manager, Atoshi Atake, has given the biggest hint yet that a BRZ STi will become a reality.

A concept model was released at the LA Motor Show last year and any fans generated from that exercise will gain heart from Atake’s comments to Auto Express: “We have already had many requests from interested customers regarding a faster version. Let me say this—we will certainly satisfy our customers. We are already working on a faster version.”

However, don’t expect the STi version to stray too far from its basic BRZ roots. “We want to keep turbocharging separate. It is for models like the WRX STI,” added Atake. “The same goes for four-wheel drive. We could not make the BRZ four-wheel drive even if we wanted to.”

A peak power figure of 186kW (250hp) is being bandied about for the STi model and represents a sizeable increase from the 147kW in the standard model.

Overall weight would likely be reduced thanks to measures like carbon fibre body panels and racing seats. Usual enhancements such as revised suspension and uprated brakes would complete the package.

[Source: Auto Express]

Categories
Subaru Toyota

Reality bites

Scion FR-S

The creation of the Toyota 86 and the mostly identical Subaru BRZ was designed to revive the enthusiast market keen to let rip in a relatively lightweight, back to basics, rear-wheel drive coupé. Given the global interest, and also right here in Australia, it’s fair to say things are going to plan so far.

Part of the car’s rationale was also to keep costs to a minimum. In its purest form the Toybaru won’t be a luxury cruiser, it will be a basic template for owners to build upon and tailor to their exacting needs.

At this point in time local pricing has not been announced, but it’s widely accepted you’re going to need somewhere in the vicinity of $40K to play ball. They might be less, but not significantly so.

In the United States the Toyota 86 is sold as the Scion FR-S and their entry-level pricing has just been announced.

$24,200.

It’s not the first time we’ve whinged about AU$–US$ pricing on AUSmotive, and with our still quite advantageous exchange rate it remains a bitter pill.

[Source: WCF]

Categories
Holden Hyundai Kia Mazda Nissan Subaru Toyota VFACTS reports

New vehicle sales report – February 2012

FCAI banner

Last month Australians signed off on 85,723 new vehicle sales, that’s almost 5000 more than February last year. A bit over half of all vehicles sold were classified as passenger cars. Fair enough. But around one quarter, that’s one in every four sales, is now an SUV. Shame on you people!

FCAI Chief Executive, Ian Chalmers is just happy that punters are splashing their cash. “The SUV market has clearly made a strong connection with auto customers by meeting their diverse needs,” he said. “This is demonstrated by overall SUV sales being up 23.8 per cent (4,505) since last month and 26.6 per cent (9,578) compared with February last year.”

Toyota was miles ahead of its nearest competitor, Holden, on the overall sales charts. While Mazda is having a turn as the third best seller nation wide, a position that generally rotates between them, Ford and Hyundai.

Continue reading “New vehicle sales report – February 2012”
Categories
Audi Holden Hyundai Kia Mazda Mitsubishi Nissan Renault Subaru Toyota VFACTS reports Volkswagen

New vehicle sales report – December 2011

FCAI banner

Australia registered over one million new vehicle sales in 2011 the latest FCAI press release reveals. The final tally of 1,008,437 represents the fourth time the country has passed one million sales in a calendar year.

Despite dropping more than 27,000 sales (-2.6%) on 2010 numbers, FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers reminds us this is still something the motor industry should be proud of.

“2011 full year sales are an exceptional result given the effects of natural disasters both at home and abroad throughout the year,” Mr Chalmers said.

“The uptake of new vehicles was impacted early in the year by economic uncertainty, closely followed by natural disasters in the key markets of Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

“Sales were further subdued by Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, with a resulting shortage of export vehicles from that country a secondary outcome of the extreme loss of life experienced by the Japanese people.”

The top three highest selling brands in 2011 were Toyota (181624 sales), Holden (126,095) and Ford (91,243).

Illustrating the continuing demand for smaller cars in the local market the Mazda3 was the highest selling model in Australia last year with 41,429 sales. Traditional volume seller Holden Commodore (40 617) was close behind and the Toyota Hilux (36,124) maintained its recent grip at the top of the sales charts.

More detail and 2012 forecasts from FCAI after the break.

Continue reading “New vehicle sales report – December 2011”
Categories
Subaru

Official: Subaru BRZ confirmed for Australia

Subaru BRZ

Last week we reported on the strong rumour that the rear-wheel drive Subaru BRZ would be joining its Toybaru cousin in Australia. Now, Subaru has made it official by announcing their plans to abandon their all-wheel drive only model philosophy and import the sports car.

No pricing or timelines have been announced just yet, but Nick Senior, Managing Director, Subaru Australia, explains the reasons for their decision, “the passion and persuasion of the FHI engineers involved in the project was telling. They have poured their DNA into this car, so it drives like a Subaru.

“Dealers have been astonished at the level of interest. Indeed the first BRZ has already been sold in Adelaide, despite no pricing or specification being released.”

You can read the full statement from Subaru Australia after the break.

Continue reading “Official: Subaru BRZ confirmed for Australia”
Categories
Subaru

Subaru BRZ coming to Australia in May 2012?

Subaru BRZ

Subaru Australia is set to announce plans to bring the rear-wheel drive BRZ down under, CarAdvice reports. It’s understood a limited number of BRZs will be offered from May next year. That means the six-starred Toybaru may beat the Toyota 86 to the local market.

Subaru has traded off its all-wheel drive only offerings for over a decade, so the BRZ will force a slight shift in their marketing campaigns. Marketing is marketing and we’re sure the Subaru PR dept will develop a way to ensure the BRZ doesn’t harm its all-wheel drive pedigree.

[Source: CarAdvice]

Categories
Subaru

Will the Subaru BRZ really drop its top?

Subaru BRZ convertible rendering

While we approve of the supercharged Toyota 86 rumour, this one we’re not so sure about. There has been talk of a convertible Subaru BRZ for a few weeks now and that suggestion was enough for self-tiled ‘automotive manipulator’ Theophilus Chin to get creative and produce this rendering of a topless BRZ.

Okay, we get that Subaru, and probably Toyota as well, will want to milk the Toybaru collaboration as much as possible to recoup development costs. But a heavier, less functional and poorer handling addition to the model range doesn’t really fit with the mission statement of the BRZ/86.

[Source: Theophilus Chin]

Categories
Motorsports Subaru

VIDEO: Subaru BRZ GT300

Subaru BRZ GT300

The Toybaru project has been all about bringing passion and fun back to motoring. Relatively lightweight, rear-wheel drive and at an affordable price. What’s not to like?

We suspect both Subaru and Toyota have deliberately under-engineered these cars to a degree, which will allow aftermarket tuners to tailor cars to specific customer requirements. Naturally, the manufacturers will want on in this aftermarket action, too.

What better way to promote one’s abilities than through the wheel-to-wheel action of high level motorsport. As such, here is Subaru’s first effort at reeling the aftermarket dollars in with this promo clip for the BRZ GT300. As its name suggests it will race in the Japanese Super GT category.

Visually, at least, we think the BRZ has made the transition from road car to racecar with spectacular success. Check out the video after the break and see if you agree.

Continue reading “VIDEO: Subaru BRZ GT300”