Subaru is rumored to be working on a mid-engined sports car to rival what’s coming from Chevrolet and Europe.
Way back in the heady days of 2016 before we were all derailed into the darkest of timelines, rumors swirled that Japanese carmaker Subaru was hard at work making a mid-engine sports car to offer a tier above the BRZ. It was said to have Subaru’s iconic boxer engine mounted in the middle, behind the front seats, and even have a few electric motors kicking around too.
Then Subaru’s execs made an official statement that they were not making a mid-engine sports car. We’re not saying this was the turning point that propelled us all down the Darkest Timeline, but we're not not saying it was.
Now, Japanese car magazine Best Car (by way of The Torque Report) is once again stirring up the rumor mill about a possible mid-engined Subaru. They say that the car will once again sport Subaru’s turbocharged boxer engine mounted somewhere in the middle and also be a hybrid thanks to some electric motors.
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The original 2016 rumor said that the electric motors would run the front wheels while the internal combustion engine ran the rear wheels, giving the car all-wheel-drive. As electric motors usually handle power while the engine is at the low end of the rev range, this would mean the car would effectively be front-wheel-drive until the engine is able to catch up, which is a little different from most hybrid sports cars.
The original rumor also said there was a purely gasoline-powered version also in the works. However, the new Best Car rumor says that this mid-engine Subaru will be a plug-in hybrid.
Of course, this is all rumors and speculation, and may all turn out to be complete hogwash. We’ll have to wait for Subaru’s execs to come out of their hidey-hole to confirm things one way or another.
It seems that mid-engine sports cars are the new trend in the high-end automotive market. Chevrolet is coming out with their C8 Corvette that mounds some sort of engine in the middle, while Aston Martin is developing their Project “003” which will also have a mid-engine format.