20-02-2025
2024 Subaru BRZ tS at Lightning Lap 2025
From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
Class: LL1 | Base: $36,465 | As Tested: $36,465Power and Weight: 228 hp • 2857 lb • 12.5 lb/hpTires: Michelin Pilot Sport 4; 215/40R-18 85Y
In the gym, repetition builds muscle. On a racetrack, repetition builds muscle memory. The more laps you can string together, the more you get into a comfortable rhythm while fine-tuning your line, pushing braking points deeper, and learning to ride a car's cornering limits. The BRZ tS enabled the continuous lapping that builds confidence and speed—something the BRZ Limited we tested here three years ago couldn't do.
The difference is in the stop, not the go. New Brembo high-performance calipers—four-piston front, two-piston rear tugging on larger rotors—are major contributors to the tS's ability to weather continuous lapping. Previously, the BRZ was one-and-done as the stock brakes faded after a single flying lap, losing significant stopping power and killing lap time while spiking our heart rate. They also required several cooldown laps to recover, making it difficult to eke out lap-to-lap improvements.
In our normal testing, the Brembos don't result in appreciably shorter stopping distances compared with the old brakes, but at VIR, they proved far more fade resistant and able to haul down the BRZ from triple-digit speeds repeatedly. That enabled us to go 1.3 seconds quicker per lap in a car with the same power, the same tires, and the same tail-happy cornering balance as three years ago (we discerned no handling difference from the tS-specific Hitachi dampers).
Virtually all the improvement came in Sector 3, which includes two of the slowest parts of the track and ones that require simultaneous steering and braking inputs: into the Oak Tree complex, where you're going from 100.2 mph to 44.1, and the late apex right-hander off the Back Straight that calls for you to scrub 84.1 mph before turning in. These two spots probably hold more time; our final attempt was pushed into the afternoon, when the track temperatures rise, so we didn't find the additional second per lap we expected after swapping to fresh tires.
Still, the BRZ tS's brake upgrade illustrates the value of consistent, worry-free stopping power. It now enables the lap-after-lap reps that make it a fully track-capable sports car—giving us another reason to love it.
Back to Lightning Lap 2025
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