Subaru Boxer, Subaru Boxer-Powered, RWD Sports Car Architecture
We’ve waited a while for our first look at Subaru’s rear-wheel-drive sports car, which was teased ahead of its debut in Geneva, and it seems the wait will be a bit longer. What Subaru has given us is more of a look through the car: the vehicle on display here has no body panels, seats, or even a steering wheel. Hopefully the cars being tested in development are a little more complete.
Our round of spy photos suggests that’s the case. This rolling chassis does, however, fill in some blanks about the car. For the first time, we get some details on who did what in this Subaru-Toyota project, at least in a top-level sense: Subaru is supplying the engine, and Toyota contributed its performance-car and RWD technologies. Allow us to elaborate.
Boxer Power
In the absence of all-wheel drive—yes, this car will only feature rear-wheel drive—a horizontally opposed engine is what makes a Subaru a Subaru. But the Toyota will use the same engine and the cars will be “architecturally the same,” so styling will really be the key differentiator between this car and its Toyota FT-86 cousin. At launch, the as-yet-unnamed RWD coupes will feature a naturally aspirated version of Subaru’s latest 2.0-liter boxer four. Subaru wouldn’t outright confirm a power rating, but we’re told 200 hp is a good bet. It’s possible that direct injection will be added to the engine to get to that number.
The engine is set lower and farther back than in Subaru’s other models—4.7 inches lower and 9.4 inches rearward compared to the current AWD architecture—providing a lower center of gravity. The car will use a shallower oil pan in order to get the engine sufficiently snuggled into the chassis. The engine’s position all but completely negates any chance of an all-wheel-drive version using the platform. Subaru also wouldn’t give specifics on transmissions or suppliers thereof, saying only that some sort of automatic and a manual are likely and that the gearboxes wouldn't come from its own stable.
Underneath it All
The front suspension is a strut type similar but not identical to the setup on the Impreza. The rear subframe in the architecture concept appears as if it could have been lifted from an Impreza WRX, although Subaru says its dimensions differ here. It’s the same type of multilink suspension, anyway, and the differential that sits in the middle also looks familiar from the high-power Imprezas. Whether that will change once the two companies are comfortable revealing more about the cars, we don’t know. The concept’s 101.2-inch wheelbase is slightly shorter than the Impreza’s (103.3 inches), and the rear-wheel-driver is 13.6 inches shorter overall than an Impreza sedan. The coupe will use a 2+2 seating layout.
A benchmark? The engineers used the Porsche Cayman. Yep. And as for weight, we weren’t given an exact figure (again), but were told to expect the final product to be about 20 percent lighter than an STI—figure on about 2800 pounds. Needless to say, if those two promises come true, this car has some real potential.
Hurry Up and Wait
It’s been a long time coming—the Subaru-Toyota project was officially announced what seems like eons ago—and we’re not out of the woods yet. The new sports car won’t go into production at a Subaru factory until spring 2012, more than a year from now. We’re still waiting for the car to take shape and be named, of course, which will happen at the Tokyo show later this year; Toyota’s production version, which could be badged as a Scion here, will debut there as well. And then there’s the matter of a quicker, turbocharged version; Subaru tells us that its “always possible for the future.” So you can basically count on that happening, just not right away.
We’ve waited a while for our first look at Subaru’s rear-wheel-drive sports car, which was teased ahead of its debut in Geneva, and it seems the wait will be a bit longer. What Subaru has given us is more of a look through the car: the vehicle on display here has no body panels, seats, or even a steering wheel. Hopefully the cars being tested in development are a little more complete.
Our round of spy photos suggests that’s the case. This rolling chassis does, however, fill in some blanks about the car. For the first time, we get some details on who did what in this Subaru-Toyota project, at least in a top-level sense: Subaru is supplying the engine, and Toyota contributed its performance-car and RWD technologies. Allow us to elaborate.
Boxer Power
In the absence of all-wheel drive—yes, this car will only feature rear-wheel drive—a horizontally opposed engine is what makes a Subaru a Subaru. But the Toyota will use the same engine and the cars will be “architecturally the same,” so styling will really be the key differentiator between this car and its Toyota FT-86 cousin. At launch, the as-yet-unnamed RWD coupes will feature a naturally aspirated version of Subaru’s latest 2.0-liter boxer four. Subaru wouldn’t outright confirm a power rating, but we’re told 200 hp is a good bet. It’s possible that direct injection will be added to the engine to get to that number.
The engine is set lower and farther back than in Subaru’s other models—4.7 inches lower and 9.4 inches rearward compared to the current AWD architecture—providing a lower center of gravity. The car will use a shallower oil pan in order to get the engine sufficiently snuggled into the chassis. The engine’s position all but completely negates any chance of an all-wheel-drive version using the platform. Subaru also wouldn’t give specifics on transmissions or suppliers thereof, saying only that some sort of automatic and a manual are likely and that the gearboxes wouldn't come from its own stable.
Underneath it All
The front suspension is a strut type similar but not identical to the setup on the Impreza. The rear subframe in the architecture concept appears as if it could have been lifted from an Impreza WRX, although Subaru says its dimensions differ here. It’s the same type of multilink suspension, anyway, and the differential that sits in the middle also looks familiar from the high-power Imprezas. Whether that will change once the two companies are comfortable revealing more about the cars, we don’t know. The concept’s 101.2-inch wheelbase is slightly shorter than the Impreza’s (103.3 inches), and the rear-wheel-driver is 13.6 inches shorter overall than an Impreza sedan. The coupe will use a 2+2 seating layout.
A benchmark? The engineers used the Porsche Cayman. Yep. And as for weight, we weren’t given an exact figure (again), but were told to expect the final product to be about 20 percent lighter than an STI—figure on about 2800 pounds. Needless to say, if those two promises come true, this car has some real potential.
Hurry Up and Wait
It’s been a long time coming—the Subaru-Toyota project was officially announced what seems like eons ago—and we’re not out of the woods yet. The new sports car won’t go into production at a Subaru factory until spring 2012, more than a year from now. We’re still waiting for the car to take shape and be named, of course, which will happen at the Tokyo show later this year; Toyota’s production version, which could be badged as a Scion here, will debut there as well. And then there’s the matter of a quicker, turbocharged version; Subaru tells us that its “always possible for the future.” So you can basically count on that happening, just not right away.
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