2019 Subaru BRZ RAIU Edition Review - The MOST Expensive BRZ You Can Buy

**Subaru BRZ Ryu Edition: A Comprehensive Review**

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### Introduction and Overview

The Subaru BRZ is a well-loved sports car that has been around for quite some time, and it continues to be a favorite among enthusiasts. In this video, we are taking a closer look at the Subaru BRZ Ryu Edition, which comes with a few special touches that set it apart from the standard model. The car in question is an 2013 model year BRZ with a blue-gray color scheme, known as "cool gray khaki." This particular unit has been modified with a clutch blue and features horsepower and torque specs of 205 HP and 156 lb-ft, respectively, thanks to its tried-and-true 2-liter four-cylinder boxer engine.

Despite the desire for more power, the speaker is happy with this setup, noting that it's perfect for the size of the car. The BRZ is a blast to drive, and while it may not be the most powerful car out there, it delivers an excellent driving experience. The video also mentions trying out a better launch, which adds to the fun factor.

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### Design and Features

One of the standout features of the BRZ Ryu Edition is its unique color scheme. The "cool gray khaki" paint job gives the car a sleek and modern look that has been seen on previous models like the WRX. The name "Ryu Edition" itself is inspired by lightning, as "ryu" means "dragon" or "lightning" in Japanese. This ties back to the car's sporty and dynamic appearance.

The design of the BRZ is timeless, with a flat front profile and sharp lines that give it an aggressive stance. The wheels are one of the speaker's favorite features, and they complement the overall aesthetic perfectly. The car also comes equipped with Brembo brakes and a small rear spoiler that adds to its aerodynamic appeal.

Inside, the BRZ boasts a sporty interior with red stitching and carbon fiber accents, giving it a high-end feel. The steering wheel is wrapped in leather, providing a comfortable grip, and the placement of controls is intuitive. Notably, the speaker appreciates the hard buttons on the infotainment system and the tuning knob, which make operating the radio a breeze.

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### Performance and Handling

The BRZ's handling is a key highlight of this review. It is equipped with a limited-slip differential (LSD), which enhances its already impressive cornering capabilities. The car feels lightweight and nimble, making it a joy to drive on winding roads. The speaker compares the BRZ favorably to the Mazda Miata, another iconic sports car, highlighting how both cars deliver an exhilarating driving experience.

The suspension setup is another area where the BRZ shines. It features Sax dampers, which provide a well-balanced ride without compromising on performance. The speaker notes that while the car doesn't have adaptive or sport modes, it feels like a true enthusiast's machine thanks to its straightforward and engaging handling characteristics.

When discussing the brakes, the speaker mentions the Brembo setup, which provides excellent stopping power without being overly aggressive. This balance is crucial for maintaining confidence during high-speed drives or track days.

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### Infotainment and Comfort

The BRZ's infotainment system is a significant upgrade compared to older models. It features Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, which is a must-have in today's tech-savvy world. The system also includes satellite radio with rewinding capabilities, allowing the driver to replay songs they enjoy without interruption.

The speaker particularly likes Tune Mix, a feature that creates personalized playlists by drawing from various decades of music. This feature adds to the driving experience by keeping the playlist fresh and varied. The inclusion of SiriusXM is another plus, as it provides commercial-free listening options and allows for easy control via the steering wheel buttons.

Inside the cabin, comfort is key, and the BRZ doesn't disappoint. The seats are supportive, and the overall layout ensures that the driver feels connected to the car. The speaker also appreciates the cup holder's placement, which fits smaller cups or even a compact Android phone—though it's clear they prefer Android over iOS!

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### Powertrain and Modifications

The heart of the BRZ is its 2-liter boxer engine, which has been around for years but still delivers a fun driving experience. The speaker admits to considering a V8 swap for more power, a common modification among enthusiasts looking to enhance their BRZ's performance. However, they acknowledge that the current setup is still plenty of fun.

There's also a word of caution regarding older Subaru models: there was a recall related to lifters in 2013, which led to some engines blowing up shortly after repair. This issue, while not present in newer models, is something potential buyers should be aware of when considering an older BRZ.

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### Handling and Track Performance

The BRZ's handling on the track is a revelation. With the traction control turned off, it feels like a "baby Porsche," offering a level of precision that few cars in its class can match. The speaker notes that while the shifter isn't the most precise, it still offers a fun driving experience, especially when combined with the LSD and manual controls.

The car's flat suspension setup allows for a balanced feel during cornering, and the lack of excessive body roll makes it a joy to push further on a track. The speaker also mentions the importance of proper technique when heel-toeing or downshifting, as the BRZ rewards careful driving with its responsive nature.

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### Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In conclusion, the Subaru BRZ Ryu Edition is a fantastic sports car that delivers an unmatched driving experience. While it may not have the most powerful engine on the market, its handling, design, and overall character make it a standout choice for enthusiasts. The speaker emphasizes that the BRZ is perfect for those who enjoy driving for driving's sake, rather than seeking top-tier horsepower.

The decision to purchase the Ryu Edition comes down to personal preference. For those who love the unique styling and features of this special edition, the extra cost may be worth it. However, for others, a more affordable base model with similar specs could suffice.

Ultimately, the BRZ is a car that you either love or love to hate, but one thing is certain: it's an unforgettable driving experience that continues to win over fans year after year.

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### Final Note

If you have any thoughts or experiences with the Subaru BRZ or other sports cars, feel free to leave your comments below. Don't forget to subscribe for more car reviews and coverage, and check out our Patreon page for exclusive content like T-shirts. Thanks for watching, and see you in the next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm your age Jacob recorded drive 119 Subaru BRZ Ryu edition with no official launch control but we have a clutch blue that one so horsepower and torque 205 horsepower 156 pound-feet of torque from a 2-liter four-cylinder boxer engine that's been around for a very long time and you know who loves it everybody I loves it I know you want more power but I am very happy with this thing running around in public I always want more power but this is very appropriate for the size of this car it's still super fun I just want more I got to try a better launch real quick there you go lots of fun so we're gonna talk about first I would like to talk about the looks because that's the special part of this it is bluish yes it's called cool gray khaki and we had it on the WRX last year yes and it's called the Ryu Edition yeah so I guess the WRX was successful as the Ryu dition so now they brought it for the BRZ and ryu means something like lightning yeah thunderstorm act which is why ryu ryu it's a lightning pokemon perfect way to remember and Ryu from Street Fighter Ryu had fireballs yeah and this is a Ryu edition but this isn't a fireball car this is how he had light he had his fireballs were white it was like lightning he was shooting lightning bro was fire yeah I guess maybe I don't know it's been a long time all right and into cliche corner let's see how much fun it is how much fun are you having literally the most it's like this and Amiata are probably the funnest cars ever yeah they're so fun this is so good you can't control it perfectly we do have a limited slip differential it's just such a good handling car and you always have to be in the top the RPMs you're always ripping it but you're not going like way past the speed limit it's perfect yeah pretty much look at the auto except I think this looks better yeah this is probably more fun and better than the Ottoman me out is like leotta and it's got a convertible assault yeah I think it kind of wins there and for everyone who says this needs more horsepower I personally think just go get a 370z well ice I partially agree however I just want more power in this so I've honestly been looking at these used because this has been around since like 2013 or something like that you can get used ones with the same engine as this for under 10 grand now so I've been looking at getting one of those and maybe swapping at LSB eight into it cuz that means a lot of fun so we a little sidetracked with the cliche corner back to the looks okay so I do think it looks good the paint looks good the wheels are probably my favorite bar yeah this whole setup looks very nice we do have Brembo brakes as well and we've got that little BRZ spoiler that we said is like similar to the Audi tt-rs and the RZ BRZ look honestly we can interchange it because you know we're a British in Holland and Canadian but we're next door to America so we don't we win everything we do what we want however to be honest this one's kind of a boozy sometimes maybe maybe and overall looks wise it's exactly the same as it's been for the last couple years and I am totally okay with that because I really like the looks well let's get into the specific Ryu stuff hit me with it we get a little lip kit all the way around it says STI on it I don't know why because this isn't an STI but it's super technical international so we got a bunch of black accents on the outside we got our badges in black and that's pretty much it for the outside you know what I noticed from the look of this car but really thin tires like really narrow yeah they are but like that's kind of helps for sliding right when you get it right because you don't see much grip yeah exactly and that's what makes it fun and what is the Continental recommended tire for the BRZ the Continental extreme contact wso six so with this boxer engine it's been around for a while I've been looking at these used because you can get them for like under 10 grand with pretty much the same engine I would really want to swap an LS a v8 into this I think it'd be the most fun it'd be stupid fun and with all your research you found something wrong with the boxer engine as well yeah that's right apparently there was a recall for Subarus in 202 86 is for the boxer engine through the 2013 model year for the lifters so people were going in for the recall and then blowing their engines like a week later it was like all over the forums and Jalopnik and stuff which is pretty crazy so you need to keep an eye out on that if you buy an older one yeah so hopefully that doesn't apply to newer models like this one later I wonder if they warranty people's engines who blew after warranty no I don't think so I think that was the problem ah we're getting really upset that's actually hilarious yeah I don't think it happened to many Subarus oddly enough but I think it happened to a lot of 86 is so people thought that the Toyota Tech's couldn't work on the Subaru engines that's the theory yeah pretty crazy and people ask a lot why we don't talk about like warranties and like how reliable of cars are we don't actually know because the cars just come out we kind of review cars for what they are yeah we always tell you guys if something breaks during the week that we have it but outside of that we can't really comment but since you are looking at older ones the v8 swap yeah that's when the engine stuff I was like oh they had that problem journalism yeah and before I let you drive talk about the handling and all that stuff I want to talk about the infotainment okay so the Toyota 86 we drove it was automatic and that sucked but then it also didn't have apple carplay and android auto because it's Toyota yeah and then this one does and it's got rewinding satellite radios and it's got to mix and it all works flawlessly and I have been enjoying tunics thanks to Yuri's recommendation so we had a fan from a very big tech blog tweet about not understanding why people are obsessed about tune mix explain a tool okay and rewinding satellite radio here's how it works we just got unlimited data in Canada like a month and a half ago for cell phone plans so that's why we weren't too hot on Spotify well it's also very expensive yeah like very expensive in Canada so that's why you know satellite radio it's a lot easier than running overages on data exactly next thing I like having DJ's pick music for me I like the radio Spotify elect creates you know what's in the playlist so you can skip through and then like that's it what I really want is commercial free radio that I can skip forward so with rewinding if you hear a song you like you can go back and play it again and then it'll always start at the beginning of songs which is really nice but what tune makes lets you do is put a bunch of your favorites into one playlist so say I've got 70's 80's 90's and thousands if I click Next from 70 song it may play a song from 2000's next again a song from 90s so I don't have to switch stations as often do as many clicks just by going left and right I can hear all the music I want and I don't know what's coming next so I won't get sick of anything no I get it I've started to enjoy it after you showed me so what stations do you use because you 43 44 45 46 47 and for me there's like 30 or 40 different rock stations so there's a lot more variations that I could throw into - and mixes - really like so I think if you like rock music it's a lot better and that's pretty much the best explanation I can give to why we use satellite radio especially with rewinding and tune mix / Spotify in Canada and that is a non sponsored rant by URI yes and I'm sure you guys will bug me about enough to bring it up again at 6 months which I will although satellite radio hook us up Drive oh I'm ready alright time to send lots of Tyre squeal still lots of fun though so let's get into what makes a Subaru BRZ a Subaru BRZ all the fun stuff rear-wheel drive manual LSD manual handbrake what more do you want more power but I don't you do yeah but that's what makes it beers here beers E is a low power for the moment because I feel like when this does get like a full full refresh they're gonna finally give it more power now they won't or they will for sure you're not gonna add more power to anything what car what company has added less power or took away power I mean they're gonna be in a couple Subaru just keeps it like right down the middle with the classics imagine if they turbo this thing though that'd be that'd be the best for everyone else the new man that's why they have the TS so it's ready for the upgrades yeah it's not ready for turbos and one of the actual performance bits that this gets is a short throw at six-speed shifter so let's use that to downshift into cliche and overstate this is ridiculously fun to drive for low-power this in the Miata are just neck and neck like it's so fun exactly that's what I was telling you man I know and I actually hate this shifter I feel like it's not precise it's super hard to get into the right gear sometimes like I've had more issues with this shifter than pretty much any other car yeah it's actually not as good as the hottest shifter like not even close it's still a six-speed manual which is fun but I do agree I did have some trouble getting the second a couple times so when you're in third and you want to downshift a second you get caught on the reverse gate so you want to go from third down to second very lightly you don't want to go over and down you want to go a little bit over and down so that's the problem huh by the way I also noticed that these are really nice soft padded leather for your knees really like that back to the video yeah it's kind of weird but the pedal placement heel-toe down shifting it's all super great exactly and I kind of want a nice armrest for my elbow but I know why they didn't because the Genesis would you complain about had a nice armrest which got in the way yes but I guess you could just like put a pillow there yeah maybe like the cup holder is removable and it does fit a small cup of coffee but does not fit my cellphone but it does fit Jacobs Android cell phone which proves once and for all that Android is superior until the new Android comes down it's bigger than that it's like fitting an iPad in vertically yeah pretty much and we should probably do the visor test let's see if anything has been improved or worsened three-two-one absolutely no movement you know I have to sign in my eye this morning did you yeah and then you couldn't move it that's why we do the visor test to get rid of Sun from the side of your face so you're not blinded but let's get back to handling it's relatively flat but not like Porsche flat or anything like that exactly it's like a good amount it's flatter than a Miata and a normal car yeah exactly but this does still keeping that feeling of baby Porsche when I Drive it we said that last time and it still gives me a feeling I stand by it yeah but the overall suspension we got the sax dampers I absolutely love them there's no sport modes there's no adaptive stuff it's just car which is great but well we did find out from our last review so there's a track traction control off button so we click that figuring that turns everything off but what we really need to do is hold the off button and then extra hold it so that it turns traction and stability off that's right which is a little bit confusing but I mean now that you know it's kind of easy if you own the car you went to a parking lot trial and error will fix that pretty quick yeah the problem is they just put a race flag and call the track you're like oh yeah that's the mode I want to be I feel like you don't need this to be limited by electronic controls it's already limited by the motor but yeah exactly by a horsepower and torque and as far as overall upgrades and everything for the Ryu Edition this is basically just a sport tech RS with some fancy paint and some fancy lip kits I really like the odd Kazuma yellow one Inazuma all right yeah Montezuma Inazuma yes yes that one was my favorite limited edition kind of thing just because it was yellow yeah and then there's also that older bug-eyed Subaru that's like rolling around Toronto oh yeah yeah I love that color yeah those are cool bring that back oh and this is also limited to 100 units in Canada so other than that this is basically just a sport tech RS with $2,000 added to it does this exist in the States no I think they have their own special edition I think it's called the series gray but it'll be the same color yes SiC and a couple of things that I forgot to mention about the radio so we've got hard buttons on the side which a lot of car companies screw up so that's amazing we've got a volume knob a tuning knob and the tuning knob will rip through channels so fast look look at oh yeah it's great that is on a real this is actually my one of my favorite infotainment and it's gonna like fit into anything yeah then we've got a hard climate control buttons and one thing that I also noticed I don't know if they changed it but the rear view mirror feels really fancy like it's frameless yeah that's cool I like it oh and another thing regarding my seer satellite radio Spotify rant Sirius satellite radio is built into cars and you can control it from the steering wheel that's another big plus for me there you go what I mean I don't wanna be fiddling with finding playlists I really care about any of the stuff in a Subaru BRZ in particular but in general yes in general another thing about the ebrake that I like compared to a Miata then Miatas got the ebrake on the far side this is on to the closer yet design this is the side you want that is where want it yeah but you don't really need it cuz we're real drive just waddle steer yeah but like you know you can always just crank a couple yeah if you're doing real drifting or you know hydro trying to show off the girls in parking lots yeah I guess uh pull the ladies have a bumper slap in good time we're swamp little brute um this is a bumper slapper of a good time of a car oh it is like you just want to walk up to it just give it a little slap oh also this is a four-seater yeah it is but you can't really fit any humans back there you know you have to people like I can fit behind myself if I'm being courteous to myself yeah and just for your entertainment purposes I will show you me behind myself and there you go I don't fit hey what do you think of this our red stitching and carbon fiber trim in here I like it overall this is a really nice interior it's like they're taking stuff from like high-end luxury cars like yeah throw it in the PRC exactly sad sack it's so funny though this is weird oh yeah so the steering feels amazing exactly we've got no lane-keeping no nothing and it's fine you don't need it yeah I love driving this thing like just driving this thing the second I got into it I was like yes manual transmission manual everything almost kind of compared to the 86 that we drove that was automatic and didn't have carplay Android auto satellite radio rewinding like this is like there's really no reason at all to get anything I know and they're more expensive which is like oh we're zero like unless you like the bumper more and the headlights and taillights yeah because you're getting the same engine and everything which also Toyota puts their name behind this motor so like there's got to be something to it as well so yeah it's funny that Toyota's too cool sports cars are just from other companies well yeah the majority of the parts are I mean like real I know just rebadged - essentially yeah which is pretty smart it is very simple what they might be doing a mid-engine car with like a Porsche yeah yeah hey man you don't have our three I know whatever they got it figured out I guess I guess it'd still be an mr2 right it would be an mr2 yeah I figure it's the two stands for the Porsche thing and there'll be some badges on the inside actually they'd be behind you mr2 squared so I guess with all that out of the way we obviously love the BRZ is one of the most fun cars ever what's the price thirty-three thousand seven hundred and ninety five dollars Canadian which is kind of a lot because this is the most expensive one you can get yeah I mean you can just find using they're pretty much the same but exactly if you don't want to miss out on this cool satellite radio tune mix apple carplay android auto and you want the cool gray paint it might be worth it to get the newer one because realistically like it's really nice having aplicar play on and on yeah and if you don't want this special edition you can get this for around twenty seven twenty eight thousand dollars so there you go yeah you probably can't even get the special edition anyways because they're all probably sold out well I don't know 100 probably yeah so let us know what you think of the Subaru BRZ is it too old is it still fun it's 370z the answers for more power do something said let us know is a v8 - more power and more fun don't forget to subscribe hit the notification bells patreon.com slash the straight pipes and go to t spring for cool shirts\n"