Why is the ring such a bad place to test a car? Surely if its fast on what used to be a toll road and is now track itll be fast on other roads?
Because it creates a car that is designed only to chase numbers and lap times. Look how far the hot hatch market has come in the last decade. Honda was the 1st to push 200bhp into a hatchback which was deemed alot. Now they're all pushing 250bhp+ and you can see there's a war going on. It's not always the fastest that is the most fun or best to drive. Also, look at the FN2 after the EP3. Honda saw that as progress, almost none of us did!
I find it funny that the GT86/BRZ is seen to be slow. I'll repost the dyno at the bottom of the FA20 vs K20. The 0-60 times are only a touch slower than pretty much any of the Type Rs to date (around 7 seconds) and above 60 I'd expect simillar results, if not better as the FA20 is more torquey. The weight difference between an EP3, FN2 and GT86 is also minimal. It's slow in comparison with modern boosted lumps, but then the reason that the twins aren't boosted is so that the throttle response is kept pin sharp.... just what you want in a real drivers car. Again, exactly the reason why Honda denied following the trend of going boosted.
All these things, plus the low centre of gravity (lower than a Porsche Cayman!), low-ish weight and a tyres and wheel combo that grips enough to be quick, but allows slip to have fun at decent and not law breaking speeds is a real winner. I've said before, if all you want is high hp and the fastest lap times, then the GT86/BRZ isn't the car for you in it's standard form (it's a great platform to work from though). But I can tell you all that it already has put more smiles on my face than my B18'd EK9 did. Yup the EK was faster, but for me the Toyota is the better car.
Anyway, here's the dyno print:
Dark red is K20 - Light red is FA20