Subaru BRZ Final Edition Tested | Perfect Last Serenade
Subaru’s swan song for the BRZ is a worthy one and I’m glad I got to experience it. Labeled ‘Final Edition’ the last BRZs are a worthy homage to a true purist car. Probably one of the last of its kind. If not the last.
In 2012 Subaru launched the BRZ, a coupe based on a simple yet rare recipe for a car with the following ingredients: lightweight built, a boxer engine, and a rear-wheel-drive setup. Hence BRZ, which translates to Boxer, RWD, and Zenith. Little changes were done to the car over the past nine years, a testimony to how good the recipe actually is. And whilst we're in the metaphors, I might as well use one or two more to make my point. Compare the car to Italian food, those recipes are relatively simple but require craftsmanship and high-quality ingredients to make it work. The Subaru BRZ is like that. And like that Italian food, finetuning and experience make the dish better and better. It took nine years to cook up the Subaru BRZ Final Edition, and in those years not much has changed but just enough.
Summertime sadness
Last summer the last BRZ rolled off the production line, the Belgium and Luxembourg customers were offered the opportunity to obtain 'Final Editions' of the BRZ. A total of 15 cars were built by Subaru as such an edition, costing € 39.995 (BE). Painted in either Crystal Black or WR Blue Pearl, the majority of the unique features are solely aesthetic. There's a set of red-painted calipers, 17-inch rims, and blue interior details which make the car feel special. These BRZ Final Editions are all equipped with enough creature comforts to make daily driving possible, such as heated seats and infotainment that runs Android Auto or Apple Carplay. All this doesn't change the essence of the car, even the only real hardware tweak the Final Edition gets doesn't do that. Sachs shock absorbers are unique to the BRZ Final Edition, offering slightly more stiffness they stay true to the simple yet perfect recipe of the Zenith bearing coupe. We reviewed one earlier, which you can read here. Tire size, steering ratio, power, and performance, it all stayed the same from day one.
As you might have noticed, the negative tone is missing in the article. You won't find any in the rest of this article either, except for one thing and that's the fact this car won't be built anymore. Beau urged me to drive the car and I'm happy he did. Over 6 years ago when Car Journalism was founded, I was a fierce advocate of lightweight cars. In the years gone by I rarely drove a lightweight car, nor a manual one. Cars below 1400 kilograms are simply rare these days, so this manual coupe weighing only 1200 kilograms was a wake-up call for me.
Way of the Samurai
Another thing I'd lost touch with, and the BRZ confronted me with, is the joy of sitting so damn close to the ground. This makes the perception of speed immensely different from when you're sitting higher up. The higher you go, the more speed you need to get a certain level of excitement. It isn't that the Final Editions are closer to the ground though, the ride heights remained unchanged throughout the years. You're seated that low, that even modern-day hatchbacks look like crossovers.
Communicatively the Subaru BRZ is a gem, one refined a tiny bit more by the new dampers. Brake dosing, a short travel distance between gears, power buildup, and steering are all talking to you at once. But the recipe also includes a lovely amount of communication from the chassis during sporty driving. Entering and exiting a corner at various speeds means you get the know where the laws of physics are working the most on the chassis. Even the balance between under- and oversteer is always top of mind due to the large amounts of feedback. Luckily Subaru slapped the 6th gear as an overdrive in the BRZ, making it capable of getting you from a to b without too much noise coming from the engine. Climbing through all the other gears means a loud engine sound protrudes into the cabin, again enhancing the perception of speed. Fun already starts at low speeds and that's rare these days, but that makes the fun so much more accessible than with other performance cars (and at legal speeds).
Swan song
It being capable of offering pleasure at low speeds is a big plus, it's testamental to the pedantical approach of Subaru with this car. No big horsepower number yet enough to make the car feel sporty enough. Rather than making you focus on speed, this makes you focus on the cars driving dynamics. And as mentioned above, these are great, beyond that even. It lures you into a playfulness I had forgotten I had. The refined recipes drew me into the proverbial sideways fun. Like all other driving characteristics, the BRZ excelled in this once more and it felt like it always had done so. Like the car was showing you the ancient way, the pure way. This all boils down to the simple fact that the BRZ Final Edition is a beautiful Swan song for a car that will know no future equal. No big overhaul, no huge power increase throughout its lifecycle. Not much has changed, but just enough to make it that tiny bit more desirable.
Thank you, Subaru for taking me back to where it all started. But I do hate you for making me realize many other manufacturers are focusing on the wrong the thing: horsepower instead of the power to make you smile.
