With turbocharging mutters becoming increasingly vocal, an alleged graphic on Subaru’s global website has sparked speculation that the next BRZ, and its badge engineered sibling, the Toyota GT86, might receive a “new downsized” forced induced engine instead of the 2.4-litre mill mentioned until now. According to Australia’s goauto.com.au, the engine in question is rumoured to be the new 1.8-litre “lean-burn” turbocharged flat-four that will debut in the Japanese market, second generation Levorg later this year.
Despite senior Subaru executives declining to comment on the claims, with a representative telling the Aussie online platform that the, “next-generation Subaru BRZ is under development” and that, “we cannot tell more than that”, the apparent switch from the much touted 2.4 that powers various Subaru’s in North America, could be as a result of Toyota making the 2.0-litre turbocharged Supra available in markets outside of Japan for the first time.
In North America, the 2.4 is rated at 191kW/376Nm whereas the BMW sourced 2.0-litre B58 motor used in the Supra delivers 190kW/400Nm. A less powerful model, the SZ, is also offered in Japan with outputs of 145kW/320Nm from the same B58 four-pot, but this option has not been mentioned for the GT86/BRZ which was forecasted to receive the 2.4 with outputs of 162kW/240Nm.
Expect more details to be revealed in the coming months leading up to both models’ debut sometime next year.
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