A couple of years ago we passed the point at which there were no more truly bad cars. If someone asked us, "Which car should we definitely avoid," it was hard to give a categorical answer. Sure, there were cars we didn't (and still don't) like, but no matter how personally averse we might be to even some current cars, we can't name one that's objectively awful.

Naturally, then, if everything is decent then the only place to go is... better. That's how you get to a brand like Subaru deciding to make a sports car and using, as a guide, the Porsche Cayman. And we do mean literal guide. During testing, Subaru engineers took a white Cayman on their international travels. We don't blame them. When the brief is to build "a pure handling sports car," where better to start than with the company that practically wrote and constantly revises the bible of handling, Porsche?

As a brief for a company like Subaru to have – a company not known for sports cars and that hasn't sold a two-wheel-drive car in the U.S. since the last millennium, which were front-wheel-drive wagons – that's impressive enough. What's more impressive is that they actually did it.

The instrument panel was designed so that a roll cage could be installed without having to cut through any metal.