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2017 Subaru BRZ with Performance Package is affordable entertainment

Visual tweaks and tech tucks keep this RWD sports coupe at the apex of affordable automotive entertainment.

Chris Paukert
Following stints in TV news production and as a record company publicist, Chris spent most of his career in automotive publishing. Mentored by Automobile Magazine founder David E. Davis Jr., Paukert succeeded Davis as editor-in-chief of Winding Road, a pioneering e-mag, before serving as Autoblog's executive editor from 2008 to 2015. Chris is a Webby and Telly award-winning video producer and has served on the jury of the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards. He joined the CNET team in 2015, bringing a small cache of odd, underappreciated cars with him.
Chris Paukert
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This ray of enthusiast light is one of 500 Series Yellow Special Edition models.

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Eternal sunshine of the spotless sheetmetal.

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For 2017, the BRZ features an updated nose with LED lighting. The tweaks are subtle, but do a lot to modernize the design and take it upmarket visually.

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The BRZ's rear end gets sophisticated-looking whistle-shaped LED light fixtures and a new rear wing.

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The BRZ's profile hasn't changed much, and is still marked out by tidy overhangs and a road-hugging stance.

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The BRZ's interior needed more help than its exterior, and while still not particularly fashionable, materials have been meaningfully improved, as has center-stack tech.

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Grippy buckets are standard, with the Series Yellow getting appropriately xanthous stitching and accents.

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LED lights do a lot to update the front end, and the Series Yellow receives matching LED fog lights, too.

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LEDs are known for producing a brighter, whiter cast, while using less energy and enjoying longer lifespans.

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Performance Package-equipped models (as all Edition Yellow models are) feature 17-inch alloys that are a half-inch wider -- 7.5 inches -- than lesser models.

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All Performance Pack models' black-painted alloy wheels needed to be slightly wider to clear the Brembo brakes and their larger rotors front and rear.

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LEDs illuminate the new tail lamp fixtures, too.

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72 of 73 Chris Paukert/Roadshow
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73 of 73 Chris Paukert/Roadshow

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