SUBARU BRZ FACELIFT & NEW SUSPENSION

Subaru's home nation will get the updated rear-wheel-drive BRZ with its new suspension and facelift first, followed by the rest of the world.

Subaru has unveiled its updated BRZ, which has been given a mild update after six years on sale. The manufacturer has tweaked the suspension of its Mazda MX-5 rival, with returning of the dampers aimed at making the car better to drive.

Fins at the rear of the car are claimed to improve aerodynamics and reduce wind noise by reducing turbulence.

Inside, the rear-drive BRZ remains the same, although the non-UK 'RA Racing' model has had a redesign of its seatbelts and roll cage.

The current BRZ was introduced in 2012 and achieved a five-star rating at the hands of our road testers. Subaru plans to sell 160 BRZs per month in Japan but hasn’t specified how many it will sell in the UK. Given the delay between cars going on sale in Japan and in the UK, it's expected that we won't see the facelifted BRZ on UK roads until the second quarter of 2019.

Subaru recently suspended orders of the Levorg four-wheel-drive estate in the UK due to greater demand than supply, although the brand only sold 1739 cars between 1 January of this year and the end of July. All Subaru diesels in the UK have also been axed recently.