QOTD: How Much Power Does The FR-86 Really Need?

Zombie McQuestionbot
by Zombie McQuestionbot

Six hundred and forty-two years from now, the artificial planet orbiting Betelguese will finally receive the electromagnetic emissions of today. On it, the four-dimensional hyperintelligence known only as “Ship” will parse trilions of communications before deciding what the primary concerns of the puny “humans”, and particularly of the males among the species, might be. The list will be, in order:

1. How to insert tab A into slot B without being forced to put ring C on finger D (or cash E into purse F);


2. The quarter-mile time of the “Toyobaru”.



It seems like just yesterday that our irascible E-I-C pro tem attempted to become one of the “First 86” to own Subaru’s sporty coupe. In the two years since then, the relative pokiness of the BRZ/FR-S/whatever has become the stuff of legend, to the point where even the humor writers in this business are talking about it. “Scion FR-S… what’s the deal with it being so slow? Am I right? Wow, just wow! Here’s why that’s a problem!”

The defenders of the 86 have been forced to scale the walls of this confrontation and defend the car’s gutlessness. “You want an engine with no discernible powerband! It’s how you separate true drivers from people who merely want to scale Pikes Peak without a tow rope attached to the front bumper!” But everybody knows the car would be manifestly better with just a little more starch. It doesn’t need an LS1, although people are putting LS1s into them. It doesn’t need a monster-snail turbo, although that’s being done as well. It just needs an engine that matches the chassis. The 2.2L from the later Honda S2000 would have been a match made in heaven for it, but there are other options.

Today’s question isn’t about how the Subaru’s problems could be rectified, but rather how much it would take to do it. How much power does the car need to gain everyone’s respect and open the checkbooks? Does it need the same amount of power, just delivered more convincingly? Does it need more torque? A wider rev range? Six cylinders?

In my crate far below the VerticalScope headquarters, I’ve pondered the issue and decided that what the FR86 really needs is a Toyota engine. More specifically, the supercharged variant of the 2ZZ-GE found in the Lotus Exige 240R. It revs, it makes power, it thrills. I don’t care if they have to put a stupid whale nose on the thing to make it work. They did that with the Lexus IS-F and the results were worth it. I think that a price bump of $3000 would both cover the expense and represent fair value for money. But your opinion may differ…

Zombie McQuestionbot
Zombie McQuestionbot

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  • Flipper35 Flipper35 on Mar 03, 2014

    It needs enough power to steer with the throttle.

  • Stanczyk Stanczyk on Mar 03, 2014

    Toyobaru can be called twins by their 'parents'(Toyota-Subaru) but they should have diferent character!(yes, and design too..!) They should do some trick: i.e : put Turbo on Subaru and Supercharger(or lighter turbo) on Toyota-Scion ..to make these cars diferent !(what's the point of having 2 the same cars under 2 diferent brands ?!?) .. FRS looks like '5sec. 0-60' car, but it don't deliver.. 2-seater-sports-car should be faster than the fastest hot-hatch !:) I belive 250bhp - 4-banger-japaneese-screamer is what it needs to be a really cool car .. (and everybody says that .. and Toyota is not listening !?! - bigggest auto-producer has no money for small-sporty car developement ?!? WTF ?:)) [BTW: Honda is doing the same .. they have good looking 2-door CRZ , and they put hybrid(only!)power in their 'CRX successor' .. WTF..]

  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
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