Seeing as I have an Abarth and a BRZ (with the S suspension) sitting side by side in the garage for direct comparison right now, I have do say that there isn't a lot in it for ride comfort. The Abarth is a bit more jiggly, the BRZ a tiny bit more abrupt. But they are not leagues apart.
What can I say, I owned the BRZ S for 3 years, I have to disagree.
The majority of the country roads up here are spray sealed (simply bitumen sprayed onto compacted dirt and rolled with an aggregate). For an example, the run down into and out of Megalong Valley (Megalong Road) is rutted from the horse floats, buses, and trucks; not to mention from the tree roots lining the road. There are pot holes and wash outs. It's not exactly the finest of engineering feats.
Our BRZ S's suspension would crash it's way on the run down into and out of the valley. On a spirited run it was not unusual for the bottom of the vehicle to make contact the road surface. The ride quality was simply jarring.
The Abarth just doesn't display such tendencies. On a run this past weekend it was composed and the only contact with the road surface was from the plastic flap in front of the front wheels, under heavy breaking into a hairpin bend across a rippled section of bitumen. I certainly wouldn't say the ride quality was plush (there was still a fair bit of jiggling involved!), but is was significantly more comfortable than the BRZ S's and I've no hesitation in saying it resulted in a faster run (if for no other reason than only a sadist wouldn't back off when the hard bits start hitting the road...)
If you ever bring your BRZ up to Sydney I'm more than happy to take you for a trip out there!
Granted however, on a smooth road it's hard to match the BRZ S's handling. On the 70 km/h (sign posted) tight 270 degree loop from the Cahill Expressway up onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge it could embarrass cars double or triple it's worth! >
Unfortunately Sydney is just not blessed with many such roads so we find the Abarth a far better all-round proposition.
We'd have gone Recaros on he Abarth if we could have but we'd have missed out on a Launch Edition if we did. I had Recaros on my Megane RS and they were great seats. The Abarth's non-Recaro seats are by no means bad seats...but I think the BRZ's are slightly better as is the driving position.
The leather/alcantara seats in the BRZ S were very nice. No complaints there!
