The Subaru BRZ STI is coming

If you log on to Subaru Japan's STI page, you'll see some wantonly ambiguous pictures of the BRZ STI.

On the front end there's a small pink badge, a second logo etched into the chrome jewellery on the wing, and... that's it. We don't know what it's got under the bonnet, and we don't know what's happening to the chassis. But we have a pretty good idea...

Back in November, we spoke to the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ's chief engineer, Tetsuya Tada, and he told us: "I think 300bhp with a turbo and 200g/km of CO2 would be tasteless in this day and age. We're looking for a surprise. Something unique. For example, a hybrid motor."

But don't panic, he's not talking about the Toyota hybrid system (THS) you'll find in a Prius. "The THS is good in town, but not for sporty driving or high-speed motorways. We're looking at a next-generation hybrid. More like the TS030 Le Mans Prototype. We're looking into that possibility."

No word on chassis modifications, though. And we can't glean much from the hot Toyota GT86 TRD, because the tuners didn't touch the underpinnings. Though the slightly more aggressive styling tweaks should be a good indication of what's to come. That and the Subaru BRZ STI Concept that we saw at the 2011 LA motor show.

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