Subaru BRZ RA Racing revealed

Inevitably it's (currently) only for Japan but that doesn't stop us wanting one

The long-held Japanese tradition of building super cool, super nerdy sub variants of our favourite cars and then not exporting them outside of the domestic market is being upheld with news of a new Subaru BRZ RA Racing.

Stripped back to what you need for track fun

Back in the glory days of the Impreza the Type RAs were among the most coveted of JDM imports and while the BRZdoesn’t quite live up to that illustrious history the fact Subaru is selling stripped back versions ready for a bit of track action is enough to have us rifling back through those old grey import contact books.

And, no, before you ask, it doesn’t have any more power. So let’s not even start down that road again – it’ll either be an issue for you or it won’t.

What it does have is a bunch of sensible mods geared up for making your BRZ ready for a bit of track hoonage, including a roll cage with door bars (best not take it to the ’ring then), harnesses, extra ducting for the front brakes, removable towing eyes and an oil cooler mounted in the front bumper. It would also appear to have a slightly lower 4.1:1 final drive ratio from the auto version, perhaps offsetting the additional 28kg worth of heft the roll cage and other mods bring. 1,230kg still isn’t bad though. In the small print there’s a charmingly Japanese apology for the fact that it’s a little bit of a faff to get in and out of now, a tad noisier and, due to the cage, there’s no sun visor any more. There’s also something about a special floor mat and a stern warning not to use any other type. And no, we’re not sure if that’s OCD or for some deeply technical reason.

BRZ designed to fit track wheels from the start

Subaru’s also left it on black steelies on the assumption most enthusiasts will have their own favoured wheel/tyre combo. But we think it actually looks rather cool like that. Bear in mind also the BRZ/GT86 interior has been designed to fit in a set of track wheels, so you can take your choice of grippy or slippy tyres depending on whether you’re going for speed or sideways style. Yo.

There’s no talk of suspension mods either, again Subaru’s likely reasoning being many enthusiasts will have their own preferences for retro-fit options. This differs from the upgraded Toyota GT86s we drove a little while back with their TRD approved suspension and braking packages but perhaps more in keeping with Subaru’s enthusiast image.

This isn’t the only pared-back BRZ option available for the JDM, the even more basic RA more intended as a blank canvas for the street tuning/styling brigade. This one, with the mechanical mods for track driving, is rather more appealing though. The 2,868,000 yen cost is an additional 500 quid or so on top of the top of the line JDM S model, which seems pretty reasonable all told.

As it stands the RA Racing is a JDM-only deal but we did report some time ago on the possibility of Subaru bring a stripped out BRZ to the UK. Is this it? Let’s hope so!