Toyota To Crack The Mold With High Performance GT 86 - But Will It Change Your Mind?

Considering that the FR-S has already been quoted at 2970lbs by some major automotive publications and that apparently Toyota was quoted at aiming for a base price of $26,000. Yeah, probably the current one is continually not living up to promises, a competitive version might change my mind.

sorry 2960lbs

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20111201/TOKYO/111209997

Unfortunately as much as you want to hate Joe, those are not official specs. Weight and prioe have not been released by Toyota yet.

Did you see the new interior pics? Terrible layout and very cheap looking, and the cool headlights are gone too. It's been "scionized" lol.

That's probably measured weight, rather than curb weight @ 2800 lb. With supercharger it should easily run 0-60 @ 6 sec, while still under 3000 lb. Isn't that a 'Miata' that we all feel Mazda should've offered? :)

Curb weight= Weight of car+ all consumables such as gas.

In otherwords, measured weight=curb weight unless the car has a less than full tank of gas!

Well I'm a little unimpressed by a car that was initially speculated to be 2000ish lbs that may have just ended up being 40lbs shy of 3000lbs. lol

A base impreza has 0.5liters more displacement (same engine configuration and very similar components), 2 extra doors, awd and only weighs about 100lbs more for about $8,000 less. lol, this thing is totally uncompetitive.

Thanks for clarifying my post.

It's tough to hate 0-60 in 6 seconds and Cayman like handling under $30,000. No, I guess it's not, this is the Internets after all. EPIC FAIL!

Performance of base version may be adequate for Japan, but not for US. However I do recognize huge potential for tuning, in house or not.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. The FB engine it is based off of was designed around only 150hp, and as such has a limited aftermarket support. Who knows if they reinforced the internals and by how much of the new FA engine.

It's a right decision to use supercharger on this car(for many reasons), however I'm more interested if this imples Toyota is going supercharge, rather than TT, for all other cars.....? How about Nissan then?

Finally someone at Toyota is listening to us sports car lover. He should get a promotion or bonus for that.

He's already CEO.

Tetsuo Tada is who Lexus was talking about.

Turbo Charging and AWD does not make a car boring, bad suspension tuning and numb steering make a car boring to drive.

He seems to be taking a shot at Nissan, Mitsubishi, Audi, Honda(if rumors are true) and Subaru.

Coupes are supposed to be more performance oriented...more performance oriented = more power ! When the 2014 Miata comes out weighing under 1800lbs with a supercharged 1.3 liter engine it will handle like nothing else on the road under 100 grand so the GT86 better have more
power.

Coupes are supposed to be more performance oriented...more performance oriented = more power ! When the 2014 Miata comes out weighing under 1800lbs with a supercharged 1.3 liter engine it will handle like nothing else on the road under 100 grand so the GT86 better have more
power.

Really? The super light concept they came up with in 2009 weighed in at about 2200lbs.

bitch and whine all you want, its still a decent car. on motortrend they showed a black show car with 19in. rays wheels myb thts a scion option, its too bad they changed the led style headlights but who's to say that isn't a custom part?

Hey Joe_Lemon Head. Yes you are right about the base Impreza, however, one thing you failed to mention is the base (and even the WRX) handles like sh$*#. This and the BRZ with handle ver, very good out of the box. I have a 2006 WRX and it NOW handles well... but only after $$$ to get it there. Poor comparison dude.

I think its funny how you "know" how this unreleased car will handle. To my knowledge the Impreza has received high reviews for its grip. Maybe your last gen Impreza is showing its age?

Quit bitchin' about power people!! The tuners will take of that.....

How many decent handling RWD cars are there for under 30 grand? You can do things in a properly engineered RWD that you simply cannot do in a FWD car or AWD car. This car already has great balance credentials to lift drifting to a new level if that's what floats your boat.People complain about it's performance. It's 0-60 frankly will be closer to 7 seconds then 6 seconds. So what!! The now dearly departed RX8 was also not exactly a straight line demon either. It is unfortunate that so many people value a cars performance soley on it's ability to hit 60 MPH in a certain time frame. Of course this is realizing that to get to that number you have to put undo strain on the transmission and tires of the car. More important is how the car performs in normal mid range driving conditions. Does it have enough torque to propel you out of a tight corner. Is the car balanced well at the limit of grip. Most if not all FWD cars that are known for good handling will ultimately understeer at the limit of grip. Many AWD cars will end up doing the same thing. The Evo might be an exception but of course that is 10 to 15 grand more then the 2 Japanese twins we are talking about.What people don't seem to get is that this car harks back to the days when small sports cars were about classic RWD handling more then straight line performance. 4 cylinder Porsches and Alfa's could never touch a Mustang, Camaro, or Corvette etc. in a straightline but on a short tight track those little cars could take down the big guys.Even the Porsche 944 had this traight. Then the FWD mantra came on board because of the fuel economy and spacial requirements and the whole concept of the affordable RWD sports car alsmost vanished from the landscape. Kudos to Mazda for sticking with the program and the Miata.But the Miata was never a very practical car or the MR2 in any iteration. These cars bring back the concept of the Alfa GTV, Porsche 356, Porsche 944,Original Mazda RX7, and Datsun 240Z. They bridge the gap between the GT cars and sportscar's. I think the FRS and BRZ lean closer to the sportscar equation yet still have the practicality of the GT car. Isn't that what a Porsche 911 is about just at a significantly more expensive proposition. I think these cars are fabulous. I think they are a good lateral move after my 2006 Mini Cooper S.

you have spoken some very true words, but people who hate toyota anyway will drown out your voice, because they are greater in numbers in autospies. This car will be one fun car, while still being reliable and affordable.

I'm sure there are Toyota haters and frankly Toyota did not do a very good job to help it's cause in the past few yrs.This car of course was engineered by Subaru and uses a Subaru engine.Toyota's input was in the styling primarily and some engine tweeking to get the HP higher. I think for the price this is a very good effort. Also I think it's great that it is not a turbo or supercharged engine. That means that it's revs rise and fall in a normal way. Also there is no turbo or supercharged lag in acceleration. The fact that this engine has good torque characteristics lower in the rev range gives it a distinct advantage over the old Honda 2.0 Vtec. This car represents all the great things that affordable rear drive sports cars used to be like.I also like it's size. Essentially it is the size of an original Datsun 240Z, early Porsche 911, Mazda RX8, even a Porsche 944. It's layout with plus 2 seating is very much in the vain of these cars.