Installing An LS3 V8 Is The Extreme Way To Make A BRZ Faster

If you really can't cope with the Subaru BRZ's lack of firepower, allow us to present a drastic solution...

19 Jun 2018

We get it: the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT86 twins are not that powerful. Neither company wants to increase the output of its version, so if you want to extract more from that 2.0-litre, naturally-aspirated flat-four, you’ll need to think about adding a turbo or supercharger into the mix.

Or you could do something much more drastic, not to mention more expensive: dump in a whole new engine. In the case of this Brill Street Motorsport BRZ, that ‘whole new engine’ is an LS3 V8 pumping out 580bhp. Should do.

The car was filmed by YouTube channel Automotive Mike recently (above video), but it’s been doing the rounds for a while now. That means there is an older video out there that gives us a look under the bonnet (below) if you can cope with the dreadful jerky, vertically-shot footage. The LS3 looks quite snug in there, doesn’t it?

Installing it required a whole new front subframe, and the engine sits on Corvette ZR1 mounts, Speed Hunters reported a while back. Apparently, the combined weight of the V8 and its Tremec gearbox is only 20kg more than the original engine and transmission. Not bad.

The finishing touch? That’d be a Rocket Bunny widebody kit. Well, the exhaust note isn’t subtle, so it needs to look quite excessive too, doesn’t it?

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

Meh, The Crew did it first… Maybe that’s where they got the idea…

there was an ls and there was a car. That’s where the idea came from

That a game though?

Thankfully the LS is one engine that cannot fit in an Element

Stick it in the middle and hook it up to a Porsche transaxle. V8 RWD Element!

An expensive way to make the BRZ faster? There wasn’t a post too long ago about supercharging the engine already in it, which was a $9,000 kit itself bumping the car up to about 300hp. You could easily find a junkyard truck engine, and it shouldn’t be difficult to find one out of a crashed ‘vette or Camaro to get a LS3 or LS7, even. It’d be cheaper than the supercharger, and much more awesome.