GETTING LOOSE AND DIRTY WITH SUBARU
2016 BRZ and WRX bred to zip around switchbacks and gravel roads
Pea gravel and happiness, dust plumes and opposite lock. If you really want to get the stars of the Pleiades constellation aligned, just let a Subaru get loose and filthy.
For one of these cars, it’s an “Aha!” moment; for the other, it’s just another strength in an impressive bag of tricks. Either way, both these machines were born in the East, but seemingly bred to run around the wild places of the West Coast — mostly sideways and definitely dirty.
Our day starts in Pemberton, a small valley community just north of Whistler. It’s the kind of place Whistler used to be before developers came in droves, serving as a bedroom community for those who run heli-skiing and other outdoor adventure concerns, as well as a community of farmers and its own potato varietals. There’s a great coffee shop and a distillery. Sold.
If you’re a driver, beyond Pemberton is where life begins. The Sea-to-Sky might have a vista or two, but it’s somewhat boring to drive: If you’ve driven it once, you’ve seen all it has to offer. But further along, zip up the switchbacks and head out along the Duffy Lake Road early in the day.
First, the BRZ, which has the following changes for the 2016 model year: crickets chirping. Sales are down a bit for the Subaru version of the Toyota/Subaru collaborative rear-drive coupe, and all they’ve done is add a bit more brightwork to the interior.
Tackling the first steep switchbacks of the Duffy, the BRZ is a bit hard to love. It’s not as ready to wriggle its tail as its Scion FR-S cousin, and reacts to overdriving with complaints from the traction control and a little understeer.
The engine, too — a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-four — is not particularly lovable. It makes 200 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 151 pound-feet of torque between 6,400 and 6,600 rpm.
Thing is, the BRZ’s pancake four neither likes to rev-til-the-valves-float, nor does it have much low-end poke. It takes the entire day of driving to discover the sweet spot between 4,000 and 6,000 rpm, but even then it’s still not a car that loves elevation, unless it’s downhill.
Having said that, there are a few delights to be had. Firstly, most of the hype that accompanied this car when it first came out was more-or-less justified. Light, agile and confidenceinspiring: the BRZ is all of these things and it’s also just a bit tricky to drive. Not dangerous, you understand, not with that built-in understeer safety net, but tricky to find a flow and gel with the road.
That makes it rewarding when you find the right rhythm. With the quick steering and composed chassis, this is a great street car.
On a short section of gravel, the BRZ comes entirely alive; it’s footloose and slightly tail-happy, easy to control, even in the marbles. Trust Subaru to set up its budget lightweight streetfighter as a rally car.
The BRZ wriggles through corners with poise and aplomb. I’ve learned where it is happiest, and here it rewards. It’s a tough market segment though, especially with the new Mazda MX-5 Miata on the way. Still, the longer you drive the BRZ, buzzy interior and all, the harder it is not to like it.
The WRX, on the other hand, is just a noisy, wonderful, boisterous, responsive, big-boosty-hearted way to travel the province and meet many of the fine upstanding constables who patrol its highways. You don’t need all day to master a WRX; you need five minutes and a caffeine buzz.
Here we do have some changes for 2016, particularly for the topspec Sport-Tech trim. Mark my words: Subaru nerds go ga-ga for identifying the hidden gems in the year-to-year updates for the WRX, and the Sport-Tech version will be the one to have in a few years.
Yes, the WRX now benefits from slightly upgraded touchscreen audio, but it’s not the Sport-Tech’s technology upgrades that’ll have ‘Rex fans excited, it’s the mechanical stuff.
Just like the STI, the SportTech cars now come with inverted struts and 18-inch alloy wheels. There’s a resultant mild drop in unsprung weight, and the 18s have a little less sidewall flex.
On the long stretch of ho-hum highway that linked up our back roads blitzes, the mid-spec WRX’s infotainment system did feel like it needed the Sport-Tech upgrade, too.