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Mid-Engined Subaru BRZ Looks Like a Modern Toyota MR2 Twin

The all-new Subaru BRZ is just a few months away from being revealed, and we expect it to be an evolution of the old model. But we began to wonder what the sports coupe would be like if it had been originally developed a few decades ago and revived for the 2021 model year.
Mid-Engined Subaru BRZ Looks Like a Modern Toyota MR2 Twin 4 photos
Photo: superrenderscars/Instagram
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Subaru's partner in crime for the BRZ project is Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker. Over the years, it's created many more iconic sports cars, including the MR-2. This was a light, agile little creature with a mid-engine layout that might have been even better with a boxer four-banger.

Having the engine behind the driver is not reserved for supercars. This layout has obvious traction advantages too, which partially explains why Porsches are so good at what they do.

Toyota is one of the few automakers to attempt a mid-engined sports car of their own, and it was very successful at first. It had a few issues here and there but was the fastest thing for the money back in its day.

The "poor man's Ferrari" would be even better today, when the world is begging for something that drives like an exotic for half the money. Subaru's boxer engines would be excellent for that. Why? For the same reason they're excellent in the BRZ - a low center of gravity.

WRX flat-four turbos make excellent powertrains to swap into old Porsches and VW Beetles. They can be modified easily and despite what you've heard, they're also decently reliably. But now Subaru has a couple of new ones on the way, including a 1.8-liter turbo that just went into their cool Levorg wagon and a turbocharged version of the FA24 that presumably powers the real 2021 BRZ/86. Here's a crazy mid-engined BRZ rendering from superrenderscars to help you visualize everything.


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About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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