Since the announcement of its existence last September when Toyota and Subaru renewed their partnership, we’ve pretty much not heard of the next-generation Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ aside from a couple of rumours, including a name change for the Toyota counterpart.
However, Subaru yesterday took to its Twitter account to announce that the next-generation Subaru BRZ will be arriving “this fall”, giving us a “first official look” at the highly-awaited next-gen Hachiroku.
We put “official look” in inverted commas because, well, there was not much to see aside from the wheels – which is a ten spoke item with five lug nuts. What else? There’s a most possibly-ventilated disc brake behind the wheels with what seems to be a two-piston fixed caliper brakes, which counts as something, right?
There is also an air vent behind the front wheel arch which seems to be actually aerodynamic functional and not just for style (cough, Toyota Supra), as well as a mention of a sneak-peek of the car at the company’s Subiefest event – that last part is important, because although no official images were provided, some enthusiastic event attendees have already posted the images onto social media, giving us a proper first look at the next-generation Subaru BRZ (and Toyota 86, essentially).
The Subaru BRZ prototype, placed behind a thin veil at the event, basically confirmed that the spyshot we saw earlier was actually the Toyobaru twins. Rumoured to be utilising an improved version of the current chassis, the overall proportions of the sports car remains mostly the same, featuring a long low-slung bonnet and a sloping roofline.
Since the prototype was placed behind a (presumably intensely guarded) veil, no one managed to peek underneath the bonnet to see powertrain. Recent rumours suggest that a 2.4-litre boxer engine will make its way into the Toyobaru twins, though it is still highly contested if it will actually be turbocharged or naturally-aspirated.
In turbocharged form – as seen on the Ascent SUV in the US – the forced induction mill is capable of producing up to 260 hp and 375 Nm of torque, but according to the Stinicktuned’s Instagram post above, the naturally-aspirated 2.4-litre mill will make around 220 hp and 240 Nm – which is still a healthy increase over the current 86‘s 200 hp and 205 Nm.
There are still a lot of details up in the air for the upcoming next-generation Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ twins, though at least we don’t have to wait too much longer.
