We’ve been hearing speculation and rumors about the all-new, second-generation Subaru BRZ for some time. Subaru confirmed back in October that the vehicle would debut this fall, and that doesn’t seem to have been changed; now, Subaru has announced a global reveal date of November 18 for the affordable sports car. The reveal will happen online.
The new BRZ will be a 2022 model year vehicle. (A leaked Subaru planning document pegged the start of BRZ production for spring 2021, which would support that timeline.) Beyond that, we don’t know much about the new BRZ and its Toyota 86 twin, other than the little hints of body work seen in the video below and the picture of the car’s headlight above.
It seems likely that the new BRZ will stay on a modified version of its current platform. Converting Subaru’s global platform to work as a rear-wheel-drive, manual transmission car would probably be too much of an R&D lift for a low-volume sports car.
The rumored engine of choice will be Subaru’s 2.4-liter boxer four. As seen in models like the Ascent and Outback, it’s a 250-ish horsepower turbocharged version; then again, it’s also possible Subaru could use a naturally aspirated version with only a slight bump over the current 205 hp.
Here’s the thing: a turbocharged 250 hp BRZ would fit within Subaru’s lineup, slotting below a new 300 hp base WRX. However, that car would be trickier for Toyota to work with. Toyota just launched the four-cylinder Supra 2.0, which puts out 255 hp. It’s hard to see how Toyota could accommodate another sports car in the lineup with similar power — especially one that has the manual transmission the Supra notably lacks. If Toyota does make a new 86 to go with this new BRZ, a naturally aspirated version with a cheaper price point would make more sense.
