1/11/12 Toyobaru to the rescue! The FR-S/BRZ/GT-86

I don't often write about current cars, mainly because they don't interest me very much. For the past 40 years or so, every new car has been bigger and heavier than the one before it. A few of the reasons for this are understandable (crash safety, emissions equipment, etc), but most of the weight gain has been because of our demand for excessive luxury features and space we seldom use.

Sure, our cars have tons of power now to compensate for the weight along with advanced engine technology to allow them to get passable fuel economy despite this weight and power. But for all the engineering work we've put into our cars, they are getting fatter every year.

There, however, a few examples of manufacturers bucking the trend and building truly light cars with modern technology. The first and most exciting example is the upcoming Toyota/Subaru here on collaboration car.

This car, branded as the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ here in the US and the Toyota GT-86 elsewhere, shares the same basic layout as my G35, the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, and BMW 1 Series. It is a small, front engine, rear wheel drive, 2+2 sporty car. The difference is that because the Toyobaru will weigh under 2700lbs, it only needs 200 hp, and will be cheap to buy and cheap to run. Below is a rundown on the Toyobaru and it's competitors

	Toyobaru	G37	Genesis 2.0t	Mustang V6	Camaro V6	1 Series	Miata
Price	24,000	37,600	23,125	24,000	23,280	31,200	23,110
Power	200	330	210	305	323	230	167
Weight	2500	3633	3294	3464	3750	3208	2410
Power/weight	0.080	0.091	0.064	0.088	0.086	0.072	0.069
0-60	5.9	5.7	6.8	5.9	5.8	6.1	6.5
MPG	?	19/27	21/30	19/29	18/29	18/28	22/28

So basically it performs as well or better than much bigger cars, with less power and, I'm assuming here, substantially better mileage due to it's light weight and small engine. And before you say that the rear seats suffer from the size, I don't think any adult would want to spend a significant amount of time in the rear seats of any of these cars.

What this doesn't take into account is handling. This car is extremely light and, unlike the mustang, on a very nice independent suspension system. Because the engine is a boxer-4 mounted very low in the car, the center of gravity is lower than on a Ferrari 458. This reduces body roll and improves the transitory handling without require a ride-killing stiff suspension. By all accounts, this is one of the best handling cheap cars available.

This is what the 240z did for sports cars in the 70's. Light weight + reasonable power + good handling + affordable price = Success.

Interestingly enough, Mercedes is also trying their hand at the lightweight game too. They have recently confirmed that by 2015 they will be producing the E-class Superlight. This midsize sedan is targeted to weigh 2860lbs, or 770lbs less than the current car. This will make a HUGE difference in all aspects of performance. The car will be quicker, handle better, and be more efficient because of it. Cheers to MB for working towards this.

-W.W. SBSS