NSFW: Stark Naked Pictures Of Toyota 86, Subaru BRZ, Scion FRS, Hachi-Roku
It is a little bit like showing breasts at a plastic surgeon congress: At the annual meeting of the JSAE, the Japanese version of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Subaru totally disrobed its BRZ and shows it to a strictly professional audience.
According to a quick image search on Google, this would be the first time that the drive train of the Hachi-Roku has been shown without disturbing sheet metal.
The professional audience was impressed. Back home at the office, the engineers work on electric motors, or hybrid drives, so seeing a boxer engine was a bit like vintage porn, professional meeting or not.
The 2012 JSAE Annual Congress began today at the Pacifico in Yokohama. It lasts through Friday, May 25. If you hop on a plane now, then you will be able to brag that you saw a naked Hachi-Roku in the flesh.
(Want a screen saver with belts and pulleys? There are high resolution versions of the pictures in the gallery.)
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Toyota, stop gloating as if you invented the cheap, lightweight car and make more of these damn things. American dealers are already drooling over slapping tremendous mark-ups on them. Nothing will fix that better than satisfying demand. ...unless customers realize that the car is underpowered and buy a Genesis/Stang/Camaro instead.
Is Subaru making direct injection engines yet?, and I have yet to hear any guarantees about a Subaru Hybrid in the near future.