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| Where every sporting vehicle's tachometer should be, front and center. Seemingly redundant, the digital speedometer proved useful for quickly determining speed. |
One of the cooler things that the engineers apparently spent a lot of time on was the cupholders. Yep, that's right, cupholders. One of the biggest gripes about these infernal devices is they always get in the way of some control, or are so far out of the way that you might as well just refrigerate your jewels with the drink and not use them. In the FR-S, the cupholders in the center console can slide forward to accommodate long highway slogs and allow for easy access, or slide backwards and out of the way of the shifter to keep you from knocking that Big Gulp into the backseat when slamming into 2nd.
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| In road trip mode, the cupholders are farther forward for easy access, and can slide to the very back of this pocket to keep drinks out of the way of the driver's elbow while shifting. |
Many people hemmed and hawed about the car making only 200hp, but while we can always appreciate more power, we never felt the car was underpowered. The engine never upset the balance of the car, yet still hauled it out of corners well, had adequate low-end grunt to slog through traffic, and was smooth and strong all the way to the 7400rpm fuel cut. As noted earlier, the iconic Subaru “brrrp” exhaust note is gone, replaced with typical sporty four cylinder sounds, but it doesn't have the typical high-revving four cylinder thrash, thanks to the boxer engine's layout.
Looking at the relatively narrow (215/45R-17) Michelin Primacy tires on paper, one would think that Toyota copped out and neutered the car's handling, but with this car, they work fairly well for street use (where 99.99% of owners will likely drive their cars). The lower grip limits, while hurting cornering speed, allow drivers to explore the car's fun handling balance without needing to set the dial to Ludicrous Speed. While the car can definitely benefit from stickier rubber, we think these tires actually work reasonably well for street use and general hoonage. This is probably why the car was designed to accommodate a spare set of wheels and tires for track use. Get some sticky gumballs and lightweight wheels for the track, and keep these for the street. The trunk and fold-down seats proved capable of swallowing all of the extraneous gear two writers brought along.
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| While certainly no minivan, it's obvious a lot of thought went into maximizing trunk space within the confines of the FR-S sheetmetal. The rear opening is large, and the use of gas struts to hold the trunklid up means no intruding bars or hinges when closing the trunk. |
Gear shifts with the manual transmission are crisp and easy, with short throws. Clutch takeup is easy, but a little on the light side. The automatic transmission, though an abomination in a sports car, is actually fairly decent. Shifts are relatively quick, and operation smooth. In sport mode, the transmission holds gears reasonably well, and the manumatic controls that don’t attempt to think for you – you can even bang the rev limiter to your heart's content – are welcome. However, as with any high-revving 4 cylinder saddled with torque converter, the FR-S does not jump out of the gates with authority.
