2013 Subaru BRZ Limited vs. Route Napoleon

The beauty of rear-wheel drive hits one of France's most beautiful highways.






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• April 2012
• BY MICHAEL AUSTIN
• PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK BRAMLEY

This is a story of unlikely scenarios. The first concerns the Subaru BRZ, a rear-wheel-drive sports car from the company famous for making all-wheel-drive station wagons pretending to be SUVs. It’s equally unlikely that this Japanese car finds itself on southern France’s Route Napoléon, one of  Europe’s best driving roads and the main link between swanky Cannes and the base of  the French Alps in Grenoble.
We’re here because this is a road of reclamation. Deposed French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte followed it in 1815 to take back his throne. We want to see if the Japanese can reclaim theirs as kings of the simple, affordable, well-built, great-handling sports coupe. We plan to drive the BRZ hard over the route in pursuit of its bona fides. Hopefully, it won’t end as badly for us as it did for the little guy.
The BRZ (and its Scion FR-S twin) would not exist without Toyota’s cash and additional sales volume. But, by all accounts, every mechanical part—the heart and soul of the car—is Subaru’s work. As we drive the grand old sea-hugging boulevards of Cannes at the outset of our trip, gawking pedestrians holler, “Est-ce une Subaru?” and, “Que bonne!” This confirms either that the styling—which Toyota drew—has hit its mark or that the French love design restraint.

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In the stop-and-go traffic leaving Cannes, the BRZ proves to be a pleasant commuter. The clutch pedal is light and progressive; the brakes are firm but not grabby. And a 2800-rpm bump in the engine’s torque curve provides nearly as much twist as the 6400-rpm peak, which makes for good in-town grunt.
Just south of Grasse, 10 miles into our drive, we enter a long underpass covered in, um, grass, as a pack of  Porsches overtakes us and fills the tunnel with its euphonious Stuttgart soundtrack. We respond in kind only to learn that the BRZ is two cylinders short of any similarly joyous noise. In fact, our car sounds more like the offspring of a microwave oven and a vacuum cleaner.




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For the first 20 or so miles of our trip, the Route Napoléon doesn’t seem to be anything exceptional. There’s a fair amount of traffic, and the few curves we encounter are gentle sweepers that offer little challenge. Likewise, at first glance, the BRZ’s specifications seem unremarkable, equipped as it is with only 200 horsepower. But dig a little deeper, and things get more compelling. On the cover of the plastic intake manifold is the sole appearance of the Subaru and Toyota names together, signifying the fusion of  Subaru’s flat-four engine with Toyota’s port and direct fuel-injection system. Together, they make an impressive 100 ponies per liter. More noteworthy is the engine’s low mounting position. Unlike in other Subarus, the BRZ’s power flow doesn’t need to hurdle any front driveshafts, and thus this car actually delivers on the promise of  a low center of gravity with a horizontally opposed engine. Except for the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1’s, the BRZ’s 18.0-inch center-of-gravity height is the lowest we’ve measured.
Having spent less than a year in exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, deposed French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte decided to stage a Wrath of Khan–like return to power in 1815. With only a few troops, Napoléon landed outside of Cannes, in Golfe-Juan, and during the next seven days proceeded to march north toward Paris. The Route Napoléon traces this historic journey through the Alps to Grenoble, where Napoléon convinced the Royalist troops sent to stop him to switch sides. His second reign, called the “Hundred Days,” is best known for its brevity and the emperor’s eventual defeat at Waterloo. This time, he was exiled to a remote island in the South Atlantic. Today, the Route Napoléon trades on its historic significance to promote tourism throughout the region. Despite being the most direct path from Cannes to Grenoble, the 200-mile route is mostly a two-lane mountain road. Heading north, the serious driving begins just outside of Grasse, where the road passes over the Maritime Alps and continues all the way to Digne-les-Bains—a 74-mile run of switchbacks and blind corners. Continued...





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PHOTOS (44)

 

We hit one of France’s most beautiful roads. see more
Driven: 2013 Scion FR-S

The RWD sports coupe delivers on its promise. see more

Best-Handling Car For Less Than $40K

We match up six athletes to find the cornering champ. see more

 

Future Cars

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<HGROUP>2014 Scion FR-S / Toyota GT 86 Convertible Rendered, Other Variants Possible

Toyota's sports coupe will birth a convertible, and maybe other models, too.



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• May 2012
• BY JUSTIN BERKOWITZ
• ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTIAN SCHULTE

What It Is: The rear-wheel-drive Scion FR-S will be offered in softtop convertible form, we've learned, confirming recent rumors. (The images you see here are renderings.) Unlike the Fast and Furious–ized FR-S roadster that an aftermarket tuner recently showed in California, the production FR-S convertible should retain its rear seats.
Why It Matters: The FR-S—as well as the Toyota GT 86 that’s sold elsewhere and the nearly identical Subaru BRZ—is a reasonably priced, relatively light, rear-wheel-drive sports car. In other words, the vehicle enthusiasts have been begging automakers to actually build. A convertible version will add volume, which means more income for Toyota and happy accountants. Happy accountants are more likely to approve projects for fun cars in the future.
Platform: The convertible will, of course, be built on the same platform as the joint Toyota/Subaru coupe. This architecture also stands a good chance of being used for other Toyota models. It's versatile enough to be enlarged, and could be the basis of a small four-door sedan or larger two-door coupe. Product planners are hard at work on the possibilities, a source tells us, although we're not sure if any of the spinoffs have been approved for production.
We don't yet know whether Subaru has any plans for this platform beyond the BRZ, but it seems less likely. Subaru already has a lineup of sporty four- and five-door vehicles, with a new WRX and STI expected soon.
Powertrain: The same 200-hp, 2.0-liter boxer-four from the FR-S and BRZ coupes will be used for the convertible. Manual and automatic transmissions, both of the six-speed variety, will be offered. Roof or not, we’ve learned that no Scion FR-S will get a turbocharger.
A bigger coupe or other eventual models based on the FR-S’s architecture likely would get larger engines to deliver the power and refinement customers in those segments expect.
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Competition: The most direct competitor will be the Mazda MX-5 Miata, a car to which the FR-S and BRZ coupes are already compared. But many sun-seekers care about style rather than driving dynamics, and some want a back seat that the Miata doesn’t provide. For them, there are two convertibles that hit below the $30K mark: the six-cylinder Ford Mustang and the Volkswagen Beetle.
A bigger rear-wheel-drive Toyota coupe would probably target the Hyundai Genesis coupe, the Mustang, the Chevy Camaro, and perhaps even the BMW 1-series. A Toyota-badged sedan could compete with the Volkswagen Jetta GLI and Subaru WRX. It’s also possible Lexus would get a version, which could sit below the IS and face the upcoming Audi A3 sedan, the future Mercedes-Benz CLA-class, and the underwhelming Acura ILX.
Estimated Arrival Time and Price: Toyota and Subaru need to satisfy demand for their rear-wheel-drive coupes, launch ad campaigns, and get the production facilities up to full speed first and foremost. The earliest we could see a convertible debut is a year from now, but a debut in late 2013 or early 2014 is more likely. Any products spun off the platform are at least two years out.
The convertible version of the Scion FR-S will top the coupe’s $24,930 base price by a few grand. Toyota has been cautious about pricing the FR-S so far, offering no factory options besides an automatic transmission, and the company is worried that a $30,000 price tag on a Scion would be a nonstarter with dealers. We agree, and think the droptop FR-S will come in below that psychological barrier. View Photo Gallery

 

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First Drive Review

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<HGROUP>2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster

Still a rolling lust factory, in spite of itself.

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• May 2012
• BY STEVE SILER
• MULTIPLE PHOTOGRAPHERS<!-- class="multiple" added when multiple authors or photographers -->

• STEVE SILER AND
• THE MANUFACTURER

Don’t try to make sense of the Aston Martin V-8 Vantage roadster. It’s impractical, a joke of a value, no more powerful than at least a dozen less-expensive sports cars, and the same ergonomic disaster it was before its 2012 (make that 2012.25, according to Aston) refresh. And yet we yearn for it.
Timeless Beauty
Go ahead and stare—everybody else does. Driving this car around Hollywood, where Bentleys and Jaguars and Ferraris are as common as Subarus in Seattle, onlookers gasp, point, fumble for their cameras, and probably commit at least two of the seven deadly sins by the time we pass. The flawless sheen of our test car’s Tungsten Silver metallic paint was a perfect match for the $6380 carbon-fiber body kit and $750 clear-lens taillamps that effectively turn the car into a Vantage S look-alike. Never mind that several of the V-8 Vantage’s competitors have gone through entire model generations during the seven years since the car first debuted at the 2005 Geneva auto show; the smallest Aston ragtop still flatters its occupants as only an Aston Martin can, especially with the slinky fabric top stowed beneath its faired tonneau.
Thank God She’s Pretty . . .
If we didn’t get so drunk on its good looks every time we walked up to the car, opened the up-sweeping doors, and sank into its splendidly comfortable seats, we might have found its style-be-damned steering wheel, logic-be-damned radio and climate controls, and cups-be-damned cup holders unforgivable. And if its previous pop-up navigation system wasn’t so awful, we might have taken issue with the rather plebeian Garmin system that has taken its place, however Astonized it has been with white-on-black screens.
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Seven years ago, we’d have bet the price of the Vantage’s optional crystal-topped key ($750) that the car’s other minor design faults—and there are many—would be fixed by now. But no; most of the Vantage’s eccentricities remain, including economy-class air vents and window switches, Lilliputian button script, single-zone climate control, a persnickety left-side parking brake, an envelope-sized glove box, and, right next to the exterior door handles, raised, poorly integrated key slots that could have been recycled from a ’77 Mercury Cougar.
That said, the important stuff has been right all along, including the perfect seating position, column-mounted paddle shifters on two-pedal models, and a mix of gorgeous interior materials. Hand-stitched leather, aluminum, and piano black trim impart the sense of occasion you expect of a six-figure automobile.
Marvelous Motor
Something else the 2012.25 V-8 Vantage gets right resides under the vented bonnet: a spectacular 4.7-liter V-8 engine that produces 420 hp at 7300 rpm and 346 lb-ft of torque at 5000 rpm. Yes, a base Chevrolet Corvette spanks the Aston with 10 more horsepower and 78 more lb-ft, but it doesn’t sound quite like this. If upon mashing the gas pedal your head doesn’t become completely fused with the headrest, your ears will lap up the V-8’s symphonic exhaust note. So much for thinking clearly. Continued...
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The Real Spin: 2013 Scion FR-S - New Cars

Five things we like about the 2013 Scion FR-S, and some things we don't.

By Nick Kurczewski
May 9, 2012

Slideshow >>
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<!-- /Main photo wrapper --><!-- test output end: --><!-- the article, at a glance, downloads, top competitors, from buying guide --><!-- left column -->The 2013 Scion FR-S takes Toyota’s youth-oriented brand into an entirely new direction, one that’s notably sportier than anything Scion has previously offered. This rear-wheel-drive coupe is all about balance, not sheer numbers. Size and weight have been kept in check, while a low center of gravity provides nimble handling. Development was a joint effort between Toyota and Subaru, and you’d be hard pressed to spot the differences between the Scion FR-S and its Subaru equivalent, the BRZ. Mechanically speaking, they’re identical twins, with only a few subtle exterior differences to distinguish one from the other.
Top Five Pros for the 2013 Scion FR-S:

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1. They might look alike, but both the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ are very good-looking sport coupes. There is a notable lack of wild wings and excessive fender flares, which give them a solid, yet cool and understated appearance.
2. Apparently there was a great deal of engineering debate about whether the FR-S (and BRZ) should be rear- or all-wheel drive. We think the rear-drive approach works out well (at least initially); it’s less expensive and lighter to build too.
3. A Subaru-developed direct-injected 200-bhp 2.0-liter flat-4 cylinder engine is mounted under the hood. Purists will insist on the 6-speed manual, yet the 6-speed automatic transmission (with paddle shifters) proved equally fun during our test drive.
4. Look around and it’s hard to find direct competition for the FR-S (other than the BRZ...). Otherwise, the competition is either much larger, heavier and, in some cases, significantly more expensive. Scion and Subaru have carved out a unique niche in the sports car world with these coupes.
5. The rear seat is useful, albeit for short distances. And for those times when you need to haul extra cargo instead of people, the seat backs fold flat for extra trunk space.

A few things we could live without...

• Is there enough room in the market for the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ? Since they’re so similar, we’d have to wonder whether they’ll cannibalize each other’s sales. With a starting price of $25,660 (including destination), the FR-S is a little cheaper than the BRZ’s entry-level sticker of $26,280. Then again, the Subaru has slightly more upmarket plastic in its cabin.
• We’d love to see all-wheel drive and forced induction added to the range. It’s hard to say whether Scion would go down this performance path, considering the brand’s emphasis on affordability. Extra power and grip don’t come for free – though we think they’d be worth the price (and Subaru more than likely does too).

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Nice review by Car & Driver. Thanks for sharing, Space.

I'd love to get this car. Simple, good performance for the price, rear-wheel drive, excellent handling. Seems like a good combination. About the only thing I'm not sure I'd like is the electrically controlled power steering. Sounds like the feedback from road / tires may not be as good.

 

...Thanks `Dave for your posts & comments...
I'm looking forward to test driving one...The reviews have been super on this ride for the $'s...

The General Manager at the Scion Dealer said he will let me test drive one when they get it... He's a friend of my boss, so I'm really, really looking 4ward to getting behind the wheel...Yes, I'm not sure about the electric steering, but the reviewers state that it sure does handle...I've loved the vid's they made, and I liked the first one done in France on their Super Roads...

`Dave, will you test drive one `if you get the chance ?
I will let everyone know when I get to

 

Space - Looking forward to your ride review after a test drive.

I doubt I'll actually test drive one. If we get a new car anytime soon, it will be for my wife. And I don't think this is what she has in mind. The good news is that if we do get a new car for her, I could finally inherit the Monte as my daily driver!