01 SUBARU BRZ
FRAMING THE SECOND-GEN BRZ AS A RESTYLE WITH A BIGGER ENGINE UNDERSELLS ITS TALENTS
BREAKOUT SUCCESS CAN be a double-edged sword, raising questions on how to produce a convincing follow-up.
Some become a slave to a winning formula, while others dare to experiment at risk of alienating their core fans. The best artists, however, retain the elements – and the fans – that made them successful in the first place while subtly elevating the entire canon of work.
The 2022 Subaru BRZ treads the path of the latter. Subaru and Toyota’s original pair of compact sports coupes represented a bold commitment to pure driving and impressed the PCOTY panel back in 2012, but not quite enough to take the win. It was also bested by the defending VW Polo GTI champ in that year’s Bang For Your Bucks competition, SCOTY’s spiritual predecessor. A few well-documented flaws curtailed its ambitions, but the new and improved car is belatedly back with answers.
The biggest chink
