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Subaru Just Buttered Up Its Signature Sports Car in a Way Driving Enthusiasts Will Love

Subtle updates refine the BRZ in an impactful way.

Close-up of a silver car's front left headlight and hood with reflections of clouds.Subaru
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By Chris Chin

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The current Subaru BRZ may be starting to show its current age, but the Japanese automaker isn’t letting it go stale. The company’s engineers recently rolled out some minor updates for its Japanese Domestic Market model that you can’t quite make out on the interior and exterior.

That’s because the changes go deeper than the sheet metal and focus more on the car’s drivability. Specifically, they’re revisions that affect the way the BRZ’s manual transmission behaves.

The BRZ’s manual rower gets updated

Blue Subaru sports car driving on a road with palm trees and a brick wall in the background.
The Subaru BRZ looks the same for 2027, but the JDM version got some tweaks.
Subaru

According to reports and some product updates from the mothership, Subaru’s engineers revised the BRZ’s manual to serve up smoother shifts. The revisions come from the carmaker’s motorsports team, which developed the changes while competing in Japan’s iconic Super Taikyu racing series.

The company describes a new “shift lever structure that utilizes knowledge gained through participation in the Super Taikyu Series” in its materials. Although it sounds quite ambiguous, Japanese media report that the tweaks essentially result in more refined shift actuations.

Silver Subaru sports car drifting on a mountain road with tire smoke and grassy hills in the background.
The JDM BRZ gets a revised manual that serves up smoother shifts.
Subaru

Interestingly, Subaru of America rolled out similar updates for our BRZ earlier this year. Specifically for the car’s safety cameras and the addition of reverse sensors.

But the product reps didn’t note any changes to the manual shifter.

So it’s unknown if North American-spec BRZs will benefit from the manual shifter updates. Interestingly, Toyota did update the GR86’s manual internally to deliver smoother shifts.

Better cameras to decrease your chances of hitting anything

Black manual gear shift knob with silver top showing six-speed pattern and reverse gear in a car interior.
It might sound really mundane, but driving enthusiasts will certainly appreciate a more refined shift.
Subaru

Other minor updates include a new camera for its onboard active and passive safety systems. It now features a wide-angle monocular unit.

The new camera, which provides a higher-definition and wider view when reversing, apparently improves the response times and functionality of Subaru’s EyeSight driver assistance suite.

Two blue Subaru sports cars, one classic with gold wheels and a large rear spoiler, and one modern with black wheels, parked side by side on a racetrack with mountains in the background.
Can we have a BRZ STI already?
Subaru

The result ultimately is quicker reactions for the collision avoidance features.

Subaru updated the BRZ in America with the new camera units earlier than the JDM model. That amounts to a rare move, as the JDM cars typically receive the updates first.

About the Author: Chris Chin is an associate editor at Gear Patrol, covering cars, trucks and anything else with four wheels. He has over a decade of experience writing news and reviews but considers himself an enthusiast first, with a passion for classics and European cars. His daily driver is a 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL with nearly 250,000 miles (87,000 are his).

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