Subaru Cross Sport Design Concept gives the BRZ some back

Every car lover who is not dead or in a coma loves the Subaru BRZ. This is because it checks all the requisite lust-boxes, delivering a lithe chassis, taut styling, an affordable price, decent fuel economy, and a take rate on its snicky six-speed manual transmission that keeps hope alive that Americans (or, at least the smart ones) still love sticks.

Is it possible to enhance our affection for this vehicle? A turbo STI version wouldn’t hurt. But, in the absence of that (for now?) Subaru clobbered us today at the Tokyo show by delivering the delicious, yet clumsily-named Cross Sport Design Concept. What’s catalyzing this increased endearment? The CSDC is a shooting brake! And everyone knows that nothing gets automotive journalists more excited than a shooting brake. Except, perhaps a brown, diesel-powered shooting brake.

Looked at in profile from the B-pillar back, this handsome wagonlet reminds us a bit of a downsized Ferrari FF, which is hardly an insult in our book. It even has a Maranello-esque interior, lined with tonal suede and handsome wood decking. One trick it completes that even the Italian bread-van doesn’t, is provide a fold-flat front seat, allowing for maximum cargo carrying. Fill it with sewer pipe, a mature pear tree, three-dozen cases of beer, or a waterslide, and then drive it like you want to turn it into iron filings.

We’re not so fond of the “experimental” headlamps, which look like they have teeth, lending it a sort of ocula dentata vibe we don’t even want to think about. And we’d prefer subtler exhaust outputs, or at least ones that less resemble a sousaphone’s bell. But other than that, we’re ready to ask its dad if we can marry it.

Subaru is on its path to earning a record setting profit this year on an American sales volume that will crest 400,000 vehicles for the first time ever. We pray to Carrus, the jackal-headed god of automobiles, that they use some of that windfall to build this. Even if it’s just for us.