Subaru Built a Team to Making Its Cars More FunPatrick ErnzenSubaru has three different new manual performance cars coming soon, at least in Japan. All three new cars were announced back in June, the fruits of a new Sports Vehicle Planning Office meant to re-grow the brand's once-vibrant performance lineup in its home market.The new team is built under the automaker's Product Innovation Division, where the SVPO will be responsible for handling the sorts of cars that made Subaru a big name among enthusiasts in the first place. In other words, SVPO will likely be the group responsible for the cars getting big turbochargers, sharp suspensions, and manual transmissions. It is a welcome bit of news for a company that has been getting further and further away from its best driver's cars, and according to CTO Tetsuro Fujinuki, we can thank hybrids and EVs for the change of heart.In an interview with Japan's Best Car published earlier in July, Fujinuki says that the company "couldn't pursue power with the current 2.4L engine installed in the WRX S4" because of its fleet average fuel economy. Surging sales of hybrids and rising popularity of a lineup of recently updated EVs, have helped ease that problem, opening the door to re-inject high-performance options into dealerships in Japan, and hopefully, beyond.AdvertisementAdvertisementHe notes that the tooling for the manual transmission the company used in the last STi, the TY85, was still around and the design could be brought out of mothballs for new cars. That gearbox, he says, can take over 440 ft-lbs of torque and should accept more horsepower than the existing CVT in the WRX.Notably, he points out the 350 hp output of the variant of the FA24 engine that the company uses in Super Taikyu racing. That seems like a possible hint of what kind of power the SVPO team could be targeting for their top products in the near future. The new models are not yet confirmed for America, but given that the U.S. has kept a manual WRX through even this lull in Subaru performance, the market seems like a natural fit for any fast new Subaru coming down the pipeline.Via Autoblog.You Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State