2013 Subaru BRZ Limited vs. Route Napoleon
The beauty of rear-wheel drive hits one of France's most beautiful highways.
April 2012
BY MICHAEL AUSTIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK BRAMLEY
This is a story of unlikely scenarios. The first concerns the Subaru BRZ, a rear-wheel-drive sports car from the company famous for making all-wheel-drive station wagons pretending to be SUVs. It’s equally unlikely that this Japanese car finds itself on southern France’s Route Napoléon, one of Europe’s best driving roads and the main link between swanky Cannes and the base of the French Alps in Grenoble.
We’re here because this is a road of reclamation. Deposed French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte followed it in 1815 to take back his throne. We want to see if the Japanese can reclaim theirs as kings of the simple, affordable, well-built, great-handling sports coupe. We plan to drive the BRZ hard over the route in pursuit of its bona fides. Hopefully, it won’t end as badly for us as it did for the little guy.
The BRZ (and its Scion FR-S twin) would not exist without Toyota’s cash and additional sales volume. But, by all accounts, every mechanical part—the heart and soul of the car—is Subaru’s work. As we drive the grand old sea-hugging boulevards of Cannes at the outset of our trip, gawking pedestrians holler, “Est-ce une Subaru?” and, “Que bonne!” This confirms either that the styling—which Toyota drew—has hit its mark or that the French love design restraint.
In the stop-and-go traffic leaving Cannes, the BRZ proves to be a pleasant commuter. The clutch pedal is light and progressive; the brakes are firm but not grabby. And a 2800-rpm bump in the engine’s torque curve provides nearly as much twist as the 6400-rpm peak, which makes for good in-town grunt.
Just south of Grasse, 10 miles into our drive, we enter a long underpass covered in, um, grass, as a pack of Porsches overtakes us and fills the tunnel with its euphonious Stuttgart soundtrack. We respond in kind only to learn that the BRZ is two cylinders short of any similarly joyous noise. In fact, our car sounds more like the offspring of a microwave oven and a vacuum cleaner.
For the first 20 or so miles of our trip, the Route Napoléon doesn’t seem to be anything exceptional. There’s a fair amount of traffic, and the few curves we encounter are gentle sweepers that offer little challenge. Likewise, at first glance, the BRZ’s specifications seem unremarkable, equipped as it is with only 200 horsepower. But dig a little deeper, and things get more compelling. On the cover of the plastic intake manifold is the sole appearance of the Subaru and Toyota names together, signifying the fusion of Subaru’s flat-four engine with Toyota’s port and direct fuel-injection system. Together, they make an impressive 100 ponies per liter. More noteworthy is the engine’s low mounting position. Unlike in other Subarus, the BRZ’s power flow doesn’t need to hurdle any front driveshafts, and thus this car actually delivers on the promise of a low center of gravity with a horizontally opposed engine. Except for the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1’s, the BRZ’s 18.0-inch center-of-gravity height is the lowest we’ve measured.
Having spent less than a year in exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, deposed French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte decided to stage a Wrath of Khan–like return to power in 1815. With only a few troops, Napoléon landed outside of Cannes, in Golfe-Juan, and during the next seven days proceeded to march north toward Paris. The Route Napoléon traces this historic journey through the Alps to Grenoble, where Napoléon convinced the Royalist troops sent to stop him to switch sides. His second reign, called the “Hundred Days,” is best known for its brevity and the emperor’s eventual defeat at Waterloo. This time, he was exiled to a remote island in the South Atlantic. Today, the Route Napoléon trades on its historic significance to promote tourism throughout the region. Despite being the most direct path from Cannes to Grenoble, the 200-mile route is mostly a two-lane mountain road. Heading north, the serious driving begins just outside of Grasse, where the road passes over the Maritime Alps and continues all the way to Digne-les-Bains—a 74-mile run of switchbacks and blind corners.
The BRZ’s 0-to-60-mph time of 6.3 seconds and its 14.9-second quarter-mile are adequately zippy, though the car lacks that kick-in-the-pants feeling you get from a torquey engine, such as the one in the Volks*wagen GTI. The BRZ forces you to rev it up—something it does easily. It’s not unlike the recently departed Mazda RX-8 in that regard. And, so, after passing the jail (maison d’arrêt, literally “house of stop”) outside Grasse, the BRZ has trouble keeping up with those higher-powered Porsches. But it reminds us that the Cayman was one of the benchmarks during the BRZ’s development, and the ride is definitely Porsche-like. The BRZ corners flatly, and the suspension is stiff and buttoned down; it lets you feel every bump without a hint of harshness. There’s a real purity of motion here, an unmediated connection between car and driver. In some ways, it’s like the world’s slowest superbike.
Things get more exciting beyond Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey, 20 miles up the road from Cannes. This is where we cross the first mountain ridge into the Maritime Alps. The arid, beige landscape changes to green *valleys and pine forests. Here the corners are tighter, and the BRZ finally reveals its raison d’être: handling prowess. This car is more about carrying momentum than blasting between corners. And the brilliance of the BRZ lies in its tuning, the fine detail work. The steering starts with a decent amount of heft and gets heavier in direct proportion to increased cornering loads. The brake pedal is firm and progressive, which makes it easy to dial in the slightest bit of lockup before the ABS kicks in. Responsive and properly aligned gas and brake pedals make heel-toe downshifts seem reflexive. The shift lever is firm and its throws short; it’s easy to pick gears
The tuning was no doubt made easier by a 2764-pound curb weight—312 pounds short of a Porsche Cayman R’s and almost 600 lighter than a Nissan 370Z’s—which helps the BRZ flow gracefully through right-to-left transitions. Overall, the car feels as trim, nimble, and athletic as the great sports coupes of the pre-bloat era. Its low mass is achieved through that simplest of strategies: compact dimensions. An aluminum hood helps place 45 percent of what mass there is over the rear axle. At 166.7 inches long, the Subaru is half an inch shorter than a 370Z and comes with two rear seats that allegedly are designed for humans. Your five-foot-ten author leaves no room behind him for tibiae or fibulae. Trunk space—only seven cubic feet and about 18.5 inches from floor to ceiling—is also compromised. Pack light.
In front, though, the BRZ is not just spacious but comfortable, with plenty of torso and shoulder support from the seats (heated and clad in leather and faux suede in our Limited-trim test car). Visibility is excellent, with the forward view framed by Lancia Stratos–like wheel blisters rising from the front fenders where the bodywork wraps around the strut towers. The view out helps make the BRZ easy to place on the road, relieving stress through the narrow streets of Castellane. This is where Napoleon stopped for lunch on the third day of his march to Grenoble. We pause here to reflect on the fact that, 200 years later, the same journey takes only an hour but a typical French lunch eats up an additional two.
Just past the déjeuner location is a series of switchbacks that allows us to exploit the BRZ’s predictable breakaway characteristics with some lurid tail slides. A tap of the brakes, a flick of the steering wheel, and a boot on the gas will throw the back end out. Get right on the limit, and it’s easy to make the BRZ wiggle through multiple corners. It will understeer if thrown too quickly into a turn, but a lift of the throttle tucks the nose back in line.
Indeed, the handling is easier to adjust than the U.S.-market car’s standard nav-equipped radio, with its infernal touch-screen buttons. Note to product planners: We turn the car with a simple wheel; use some for the radio. At least the BRZ’s climate-control dials, even the two-zone automatic system on the Limited, are straightforward.
As the road opens back up slightly on the way to Digne-les-Bains, we notice that the bump in the BRZ’s torque curve comes with a compensating dip between 3200 and 4800 rpm. A two-three shift from 6000 rpm lands you in this torque trough, and the engine feels momentarily gutless. Be warned, though, that running the engine between 6400 and 6800 rpm, where the torque curve is flat, will compromise fuel efficiency. In real-world use, expect something closer to the 22-mpg EPA city number than the 30-mpg highway figure. The car we used for performance testing in Chelsea, Michigan, managed 23 mpg.
Oddly, the Route Napoléon’s role as a major thoroughfare is part of what makes it such a great driver’s road. To accommodate truck and bus traffic, the road is wide by European standards; this allows you to carry speed without worrying about oncoming traffic appearing beyond the next blind corner and crowding your lane.
And like the Route Napoléon, the BRZ is meant to be used by everyone. It’s pleasant for slow drivers and phenomenal for fast ones. Subaru went for progressive, predictable handling rather than higher limits that fall off sharply. The raw numbers back this up: 0.91 g of grip on the skidpad and a 70-to-0 braking distance of 165 feet. Those performance figures are in the realm of hot hatches and luxury sedans but below that of more aggressive sports cars such as the 370Z or even the Ford Mustang. Accessibility is also part of the BRZ’s price, which, if you’re wondering, should start at about $26,000. Add $2000 more or so for Limited trim; we expect the six-speed automatic to run an additional $1100.
Could the BRZ use more power? Sure, it could. And the Route Napoléon could use more switchbacks. Subaru has acknowledged that the BRZ’s engine is the basis for the next turbocharged powerplant in the Impreza WRX, so more power is probably on the way. But we’ve seen that movie before. In the ’90s, Japanese automakers increased performance and price until they lost touch with the *market they’d created. In its current state, the BRZ’s balance of attributes needs no tweaking. It offers razor-sharp handling with limits that let you exploit the car’s capabilities on the street, all at a sweet price. In that sense, the BRZ is the perfect everyday sports car, even if you’re not driving on a perfect road
