Being a love of anything with an FR chassis layout i can’t help but be really bloody excited at the prospect of this car being even half decent. For those who have been living inside a “lost-esq” type hatch for the last few months, the Toyota FT86 is the spiritual successor to the venerable AE86 Hachiroku and the concept car seen below has been developed jointly by the new Subaru/Toyota partnership.
The rumoured plans were for Subaru and Toyota to develop their own versions of this car based around the same collaborated floor pan. Rumblings from Subaru suggest they are producing a basic model powered by a version of the EJ20 engine (probably from current JDM Impreza) which should produce around 150hp. This will be linked up to a six-speed Aisin gearbox and a rear axle currently used in the Lexus IS250. The good news is that there have been reports of a 200hp + STI version in the works that’ll be EJ25 powered and have a number of rear suspension upgrades, including a wider rear track. We can also speculate that there will be typical prodrive styling cues (wider arch package etc) I have heard on the grapevine from our lads here, that this may very well be a 4WD setup – but it’s completely unsubstantiated at this time.
Expect to have a full reveal at TAS 2011.
Subaru Coupe Concept Rendering
To date, Toyota have been much more forthcoming with their plans for the car. The concept FT86 has been knocking around for a while and confirmed reports from Toyota state that it’ll have the Subaru EJ series engines and the six-speed Aisin transmission. The suspension setup will be conventional with a multilink rear and front wishbone arrangement in addition to a “proper” LSD (however i wouldn’t get your hopes up for a factory 2way chaps) Weight wise it’ll be circa 1250kg kerb weight and the entry model will “weight in” at around £20,000 otr.
FT86 concept
TAS 2010 in January saw Toyota preview the FT86-G Sports to demonstrate the “more aggressive” version of the car they are working on. It’s apparently running a turbocharged EJ series engine pushing circa 350 ponies. It’s also got a twin exhaust (although i imagine it’s just a tip) and a 30mm drop in ride height.
Personally im not at all sold on the bodywork. It looks like somebody has let my buddy mitto drive it through a rice factory.
FT86 G Sports
FT86 G Sport
FT86 G Sport
However… (and there is always a “however” with these things) recent reports from the Japanese motoring press suggest that the exterior styling (originally designed by ED2 Studio in France) may have been scrapped “completely” in favor of a new design by Calty.
Is this what we are going to get?
I must say i prefer the original design…
I’ll leave you with this video produced by the Autocar.co.uk team and let good old Steve Sutcliffe show you round the concept.
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