Monroe 905975 Rear Coil Spring Insulator on 2040-parts.com

Toyota GT86 & Subaru BRZ getting Cosworth Performance upgrades (video)

Cosworth promise power upgrades for the FA 20 engine Ever since the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ arrived as ‘affordable’ sports cars with a focus on the dynamics rather than outright power, there’s been endless claims and rumours that more power is on the way. As far back as 2011, Subaru in the US confirmed that a turbo version of the BRZ’s 2.0 litre FA20 Boxer engine was under development although, to be fair, they didn’t say it was actually heading for the BRZ. And just last year, Subaru teased what we thought could be a more powerful BRZ STI, but that turned out to be a BRZ tS with go faster bits but no more actual power.

VW Beetle GSR: Price from £24,900

The Beetle GSR is a homage to the Yellow-Black Racer Beetle from the 1970s (GSR stands for Gelb Schwarzer Renner – which means Yellow-Black Racer) which featured a similar paint job, boosted power (a whole 49bhp) and was also limited to 3,500 units. But the 2013 version of the Beetle GSR does at least offer much more get up and go than the 1970s GSR managed. That means the GSR comes with VW’s 2.0 litre turbo with 207bhp which is enough to get the yellow Bug to 62mph in 7.3 seconds on its way top 142mph, and is the same power output all Beetles with the 2.0 litre TSI will get from May 1st (up from 197bhp).

Alfa Romeo MiTo (Cloverleaf) Quadrifoglio – Frankfurt catchup

The Alfa MiTo Cloverleaf unveiled at Frankfurt The MiTo Cloverleaf gets a hot version of the Fiat 1.4 Multair engine, producing 170bhp and mated to a new six-speed ‘box specially designed to deliver swift gear changes. For some reason Alfa hasn’t released performance figures for the Quadrifoglio, but it should be pretty competitive. Fuel economy is distinctly reasonable at an average 49mpg.