Subaru went out of its way to give the new BRZ a very low center of gravity. Most of the work went into getting the new 2.0-liter flat four engine mounted as far down in the engine bay as possible. Various tricks were used along the way such as mounting the power steering box up on the column instead of down on the rack and repositioning the battery to the rear of the engine.
The result is what you see here, which is nothing. The top of the intake is barely visible until you look from the front. And where will they put that turbocharger when the time comes? Well, just head over to Jay's post where he puts forth his educated guess on the situation.
duck87 says:
07:03 AM, 12/ 1/11
I find the 1.6 litre engine's low mounted exhaust and turbo to be very interesting, since I would have assumed that the actual engine lump itself would be mounted low and the exhausts routed around the engine (and the collector behind the engine), rather than more or less underneath it.
Looking at that engine, it might not be so much an educated guess- if the exhaust manifold positioning for the 2 litre is the same, it's inevitable that the turbo would be placed "underneath" the engine. It's almost a certainty if there is very little space fore and aft of the engine (as I would assume considering how tiny the car is).
Unless Subaru decides to troll us by putting the turbo high in the engine bay, a la Fiat 500 Abarth (which wouldn't make sense with the low CoG design priority).
It's pretty cool to see the engine placed lower than the shock towers, and the rad cap is also higher than the engine (I'm guessing a simple coolant recovery system then). Unfortunately, engine mods will be challenging when the valvetrain is facing the sides of the car...
stovt001 says:
07:12 AM, 12/ 1/11
Doesn't mounting the power steering box at the top of the column rather than the bottom tend to reduce feel and feedback? Much like putting the rack to the rear of the front axle rather than the front, as they also did?
duck87 says:
07:21 AM, 12/ 1/11
@stovt001: I'm not sure about the rear vs. front mounted rack thing. At least from what I understand, that's simply a packaging issue around the powertrain, and either one will offer the same amount of feedback (or at least this was my understanding in Formula SAE). The only thing I can think of being affected is ackermann, and that's very easy to deal with. I agree about the top mounted power box though, I would have thought that would reduce feedback.
blurglide says:
09:06 AM, 12/ 1/11
It looks like they could've made a much lower cowel and hoodline. Perhaps it's high to leave room for a turbo and intercooler on top of the engine.
justinlink says:
09:46 AM, 12/ 1/11
stovt001 is right, placing the steering rack ahead of the front axle tends to increase feel. You'll find most sports or sport-intentioned cars (BMW, Porsche) have the steering rack ahead. The tell-tale sign is usually where the brake calipers are. If they're on the leading edge of the rotor, the steering rack is behind the axle, and vice-versa.
In this case, with the engine located low and behind the front the axle, it may have been difficult to snake the steering column around the engine. It may have also interfered with any plans to put a forced-induction motor with a low-mounted turbo up front in the way.
engineer_mba says:
10:42 AM, 12/ 1/11
I am not an automotive engineer, but from what I have read and seen in the photographs, it seems that a turbocharger (and intercooler) would be very difficult to add to this engine. Perhaps a supercharger and intercooler would be more practical. This would not be very high-tech and there would be some parasitic losses, but the ease of packaging, increases in power, torque, performance, not to mention zero turbo lag, might make supercharging a more attractive option. (It has worked reasonably well for the Lotus Elise and Evora.)
duck87 says:
11:00 AM, 12/ 1/11
@justinlink: I would have thought the reason why they're front mounted is simply because there's no front transaxle to contend with, and front steer is technically better for collision safety.
If having the rack front mounted increases feel, my question to you is, why? At least from a geometry standpoint, I can't think of any good reasons.
@engineer_mba: Check out the link in the article... the 1.6 litre clearly shows a turbo mounted underneath the engine, connected to the exhaust manifold.
engineer_mba says:
11:56 AM, 12/ 1/11
@duck87: I did take a look at the link in the article, and I was not certain what to think. It did state "the company 'has no plans' to place a turbo boxer in the BRZ". The author does state that the 1.6 DIT would fit. I will reserve judgment until horsepower and torque figures/estimates are given for the 1.6 DIT. The engine displacement is somewhat small for a performance engine even with DI and a turbo. I have some difficulty seeing this as a high performance engine option but I will wait and see....
duck87 says:
12:18 PM, 12/ 1/11
@engineer_mba: I think the point is that a turbo 2 litre engine is a possibility, not that they are literally putting the 1.6 litre engine in.
engineer_mba says:
12:44 PM, 12/ 1/11
duck87: Understood. Thank you for the insight. Hopefully there will be a 2.0 DIT at some point in the future. That would be a logical, appropriate (and desirable) stable mate to the N/A DI 2.0.
shanec06 says:
05:03 PM, 12/ 1/11
The Hyundai Veloster 1.6T is going to have 204hp/195tq. I would assume that the Subaru 1.6T will have similar #'s if not slightly more. With WRC going to 1.6 liter engines I can see this going in the next gen WRX or for the US have a 2.0T. Lets see what happens with the BRZ.
velocity_x says:
08:55 PM, 12/ 1/11
Does anyone on this forum know how Subaru's turbo placement compares with that of Porsche ?
Both have horizontally opposed engines ?
sixwheeler says:
04:48 AM, 12/ 2/11
"Subaru went out of its way to give the new BRZ a very low center of gravity..."
... And judging by the fact that an Impreza with its AWD doodads can't touch a Mazda3 with proper tires on any given corner, chances are it still won't handle nearly as well as an RX8, or even a Miata for that matter.
The problem with Subaru is that they're too obsessed with doing things "by the numbers" to get out of their own way. And now they let Toyota stick their fingers in all of it. What's the worst that could happen?