2014 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited on 2040-cars

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This Subaru BRZ has a snowmobile engine and gets 104 mpg

A hybrid powertrain didn't win the Honda CR-Z numerous fans, but it might be the magic ingredient in making the Subaru BRZ more potent. This is the "Car of the Future" as envisioned by Mississippi State University's Center of Advanced Vehicular Systems – the result of a two-year project, which married a front-mounted 850 cc snowmobile engine with two electric motors powering the rear wheels. The battery pack accounts for 12.7 kWh, which enables the car to go 50 miles on just electric juice. The two-liter boxer engine is no more, but what the car loses in cubic inches it gains in MPG. According to MSU engineers, the re-engineered car gets 104 mpg equivalent, and it only weighs 2,904 lbs: about 60 lbs more than an unmodified Sportshift BRZ. It clocks a 0-60 mph run at around 5.7 seconds, too, which beats a stock automatic BRZ by a second. The electric brain of the car improves the range by calculating optimizing algorithms, based on earlier driving. The guys from MSU's Bagley College of Engineering call this Predictive Engine Control. The most likable thing about this project might be that it's still clothed in a sports car body. Future-proof car designs are often focused on mobility instead of the driver, and choosing a BRZ as the basis shows how there's still room for petrolheads in the future.

2015 Subaru Legacy spills out ahead of Chicago

Subaru has been one of the industry's hottest automakers, recording record sales month after month. Those handsome figures have come largely on the backs of its crossover lineup, however - models like Forester, Outback and XV Crosstrek have been carrying all the water. The Japanese marque has seen less noteworthy performance out of its midsize sedan, the Legacy, but a new one is slated to be revealed later this week at the Chicago Auto Show, and it hopes to improve the company's family sedan fortunes.
Leaked here in these first photos, the 2015 Legacy picks up some cues from the brash Legacy Concept revealed at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show, but it loses some impact and gains a pair of rear doors versus the showcar. There's little new visual ground broken, but the overall look is more harmonious than its balloon-fendered predecessor. As is often the case, it has features that make us think of other cars, but overall, it looks to be a handsome (if conservative) design. We particularly like the sleeker roofline and the bold front grille treatment - the latter will likely serve well as the face of the next Outback.
Subaru has traditionally offered function-over-form interiors, and while the new dashboard remains visually staid, it looks to have picked up a number of nice new features, including improved HVAC controls, a new steering wheel and freshened touchscreen navigation system.

Subaru takes another look back, this time at the 2004 WRX STI

Here we have the followup to the rally-mimicking Impreza 22B STI that Subaru recently chronicled in its Vintage Garage series: the 2004 Impreza WRX STI. Displacement for the boxer four was upped from 2.2 liters to 2.5, and after noticing how many buyers had installed larger turbochargers on their WRXs, Subaru decided to bolt on one in-house. That gave the final product 300 horsepower and a 0-to-60 mile-per-hour run of just 4.6 seconds.
It was stiffer, it's body from nose to front doors was penned by Peter Stephens, he of the McLaren F1, it came with a driver-controlled center differential, driver-activated cooling spray for the turbos and 300 pound-feet of torque. This is a curio from a time when, after a new WRX STI came out, you started poring through magazines to see how the Mitubishi Evo was going to respond. You can find out more about it in the video below.