This is a sports car with a primary purpose of letting the driver fully enjoy their driving. There are many sports cars in Japan, however the particular Japan sports car is famous with its light body. One of the lightweight sports car is Subaru "BRZ" / Toyota "86", which is a model which developed by the cooperation of Subaru and Toyota. It is a model that you can enjoy the powerful running performance as it is a combination of a very light vehicle weight of 1200 kg and a maximum output of 207 horsepower displacement with 2 liters horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engine.
Even though it has been 6 years passed since it was released in 2012, but the charm as a sports car has increased compared to the year it released because the feature of car improved almost every year. This time, I tested drive the top model of the car line up, Subaru "BRZ STI" on the Japan highway.
Tuning by Subaru Technical International (STI)
“STI” which comes after BRZ stands for Subaru Technical International. In fact, STI is one of the world's leading racing factory which achieved the accomplishment of total winning for the third consecutive year at the World Rally Championship (WRC) in the 1990s. Currently, Subaru no longer participate in WRC, but STI is still making racing cars for various races such as Nürburgring 24 hour endurance race in Germany, etc.
BRZ STI is a sports car which designed and created by STI engineers after repeatedly testing. With the price of only 3 million Japanese yen, what is the highest performance and fun they managed to achieve?
First of all, I started engine and run as normal. Due to the suspension that emphasize the performance during the maximum running speed, the riding comfort is so rigid. However, since the shock absorber which is playing an important role as suspension, is made very precisely as compared to an ordinary model, and in fact the resin which is functioning to release the car gravity weight of the car is designed specially, the solidity is smooth and the comfortability is maintained in great level.
Driving BRZ STI freely in winding road
When entering the highland highway with many curve roads, I could feel myself driving BRZ STI lively and steadily. Half of the test drive day was rainy, and another half was sunny day. I could drive BRZ STI fast, fun and safely no matter the road surface was wet or dry.
The specialty of BRZ which is different with ordinary car is that the suspension tuning that emphasized the tire grip of the front wheel. When an ordinary BRZ goes into curve road, the force of front wheels which pushing to outside increases and the stability decreases as the car speed increases.
However, since BRZ STI has a very high gripping force on the front wheels at the curve, I could turn at the curve smoothly towards the safety direction even applying the brake in high speed. Moreover, the feature is not only limited to the dry road surface and it works equally great even the road is soaked with rain. Due to the overwhelming high front grip power, the driver will be able to control the car direction freely even driving the car at a steep mountain road.
The brake is made by Brembo which is known to be a famous brand of Italy. It is high ability brake enough to stop the car weight of 1200 kg, and there will be no decrease in braking power due to overheating even though the hard braking is repeated ten times.
As the conclusion, BRZ STI is a car with amazing driving pleasure. That excellence was not created by only using the good mechanical item. Instead, it was created by the experience in manufacturing of car which STI engineers have cultivated over many years.
Comments