We recently confirmed that we won’t be seeing a turbocharged Subaru BRZ anytime soon; however, we now have a fairly good idea of what kind of power such a model will eventually bring. Subaru has dropped the first turbocharged variant of its 2.0-liter, FA-series flat-four engine—the naturally aspirated version of which powers the BRZ and its Toyota/Scion brethren—into the refreshed Japanese-market Legacy sedan and wagon.
The turbo FA20?s output numbers are impressive: 296 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. In the JDM Legacy, the engine is bolted to Subaru’s CVT, likely for fuel-economy reasons; we’d expect a turbo BRZ to offer a proper manual transmission and an auto similar or identical to the one it uses now.
The new turbo FA features Subaru’s own direct-injection setup, as opposed (boxer-engine pun intended) to the BRZ’s Toyota-derived direct- and port-injection heads. We think the 2013 BRZ is pretty fun already, even with only 200 hp powering the rear wheels—close to 300 hp sounds like it would be silly fun.
Turbo BRZ uncertainty aside, we’ll likely see this engine appear on our shores within the next year or two under the hood of the next-generation WRX and STI. We previously confirmed that the sporty models will be powered by a turbocharged iteration of the 2.0-liter FA motor, and that the STI’s engine will produce north of 300 hp. The new 2.0-liter turbo four will replace the 2.5-liter turbo in the current 265-hp WRX and 305-hp STI. Although the thought of a 296-hp WRX and an even-more-powerful STI sounds pretty good, chances are the WRX will make something less than that, while the STI will make a little more.
A big motivator for Subaru moving the WRX and STI to the smaller 2.0-liter turbo is, of course, fuel economy—the current 2.5-liter is thirsty. It goes without saying that more power and better efficiency for the next WRX and STI are good things. Now all we have to do is wait for the duo to arrive.
Tags: Subaru, Subaru BRZ, Subaru WRX, Subaru WRX STI |
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