Subaru BRZ Prologue

• Skeleton of new BRZ sports car on show
• Front-engine, rear-wheel drive platform
• co-developed by Subaru and Toyota

Subaru showed the latest pointer towards its new BRZ sports car at Frankfurt.

The BRZ Prologue is not strictly a concept, but it shows off the basic architecture of the forthcoming car: the front-engine rear-wheel drive platform that incorporates the new horizontally opposed 2.0-litre Boxer engine developed specially for this car.

Subaru says the Prologue demonstrates how the low centre of gravity inherent in the design of its Boxer engines will give the car excellent balance and handling.

The BRZ has been co-developed with Toyota, and we expect to see their version unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in December.

Production of the car is expected to start in spring next year. However, there was no clear sign as yet of what the final production car will look like.

According to Subaru, the name of the new car is a significant one: the B stands for Boxer, Subarus lightweight, horizontally opposed engine where the pistons lie flat, punching out like boxers; the R stands for Rear-wheel drive; and, the Z stands for Zenith.