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The 2021 BRZ will make 260 hp with a 2.4 Liter Engine and a Turbo?
April 02, 2020
I saw this announcement yesterday, but I decided to wait a day to put something up, since it was the first of April.
Back when the rumor came out about the new STI making 400 horse power, it was also rumored that the next generation BRZ would get a 2.4 liter engine and would make more power. Now, there is supposedly a dealer presentation released that says that not only will the BRZ get a 2.4 liter engine in 2021, but it will be turbocharged, and make 260 horse power.
This is, in a nutshell, exactly what enthusiasts have been wanting almost since the BRZ came out. And it may actually be happening.
I will first say that other than the title of the article (which says that the BRZ gets a turbo engine), it isn't 100% clear that the BRZ's engine will actually get a turbo. Since the current engine makes 205 hp with just 2.0 liters of displacement, it isn't too much to think that they might be able to hit that power number just with the increased displacement. But since this is basically the power that the FA24DIT makes in the current Ascent, it would also be quite easy to simply put that engine into a BRZ.
Either way, this is a big step for Subaru, and for the BRZ, and it might actually signal a bigger shift in Subaru's thinking about their performance platforms.
Simply giving the BRZ this kind of bump in power means a lot, and it shows that Subaru is willing to push the capability of this rear-wheel drive platform a bit. With each new up-date, you want a manufacturer to take everything that a car does, and make everything just a little bit better. If the BRZ makes 260 hp with a 2.4 N/A engine, it would be pretty clear that Subaru is doing just that. Refining and improving exactly what makes the BRZ so good. And that is a good sign to be sure.
But if Subaru does put a turbo in front of that engine, that should put a lot of other manufacturers on notice that Subaru is seriously moving into the Rear-Wheel driver performance market. It is pretty clear that there is a ton of potential in the FA24DIT engine, and with a few tweaks, 400 whp would not be too hard to achieve. And that kind of power in a BRZ platform would be amazing. It has been possible for a while, but it required a huge investment to get to that point. If Subaru makes this step, and does the majority of the heavy lifting for us, now that kind of performance will be easy to achieve.
This sounds amazing, and the first car that comes to mind as a comparison to this would be the Porsche Cayman which starts at $57,500 and makes 300 horse power (also our of a 4-cylinder boxer turbo engine)...
But what about the WRX? How does that fit in with all of this?
I have not heard anything about the WRX yet, but it makes you wonder. Especially if the BRZ now makes as much power as the bigger and heavier WRX how that fits into Subaru's performance line. The simple guess is that the WRX will also get a power bump, maybe up to the current STI's 305 horsepower? And it would be possible for all 3 of these cars to end up with modified versions of the same FA24DIT actually. If word comes out that the WRX has its place between these two, I'd say that would give a lot of weight to this being true.
The pieces are starting to fall into place, and it seems like all of the Subaru performance models might get a big bump in performance for the 2021 model year, and any way you look at it, I think that is a good thing.
-Jon Cooley
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