News out of Japan: Bigger Engine for Next-Gen BRZ and Toyota 86 | News | Car and Driver

Shayne Fowler, at Right Toyota North Scottsdale AZ. Bringing new news to you.

It seems as if rumors have swirled about the second generation of the Toyobaru sports-car pair ever since the first-gen cars initially hit the scene for 2012. Well, here’s the latest: the new cars, slated to arrive in 2021, will use a bigger-displacement 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine to replace the 2.0-liter boxer four that’s good for 200 or 205 horsepower and 151 or 156 lb-ft in the current Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86, according to a report in the Japan Times.It seems like no coincidence that Subaru has just unveiled a new turbocharged 2.4-liter boxer engine for use in the new 2019 Subaru Ascent three-row crossover. Not only would this engine answer the endless cries for a turbocharged powerplant in the rear-wheel-drive sports-car twins, but its output of 260 horsepower and 277 lb-ft of torque would be a considerable upgrade, performance-wise. We won’t get too far ahead of ourselves, of course, as this is all pure speculation and the report doesn’t provide any mechanical details other than the displacement and the assertion that the cars will have a still lower center of gravity than today’s models.The report also says that the new models will gain active-safety features to be sold under the EyeSight umbrella for the BRZ (presumably the Toyota version will offer them as well). This is a predictable upgrade over the current cars, which don’t offer any such systems whatsoever. This might not be promising news for fans of the manual-transmission models, since few automakers offer the latest advanced driver-assist features with a stick shift.Lightning Lap 2017: Subaru BRZ Performance PackageToyota 86: The In-Depth, Everything-You-Need-to-Know ReviewSubaru BRZ Research: Reviews, Specs, and MoreThe wait is now on for the arrival of the redesigned pair, which likely won’t appear for another few years. Expect a debut perhaps in late 2019 or early 2020. Luckily, the rumors are likely to continue to fly before then, so we’ll keep our ears to the ground.

Source: News out of Japan: Bigger Engine for Next-Gen BRZ and Toyota 86 | News | Car and Driver