Hopes for Toyota’s return to the sports car segment couldn’t be higher, nor the anticipation more palpable. The enthusiast community has been promised a car with a rear-wheel drive, low price, good looks, a Subaru-derived flat-four engine, low weight, and an even lower centre of gravity. Now all Toyota has to do is deliver on this insanely optimistic outlook. Thanks to the dogged determination of Toyata’s CEO and test driver Akio Toyoda, it now appears to have accomplished everything it set out to and more. Oh, except for that “low price” thing.
Dubbed the Toyota GT 86 (based on the FT-86 Concept), Toyota’s most exciting car in a generation is finally here. And the numbers are amazing:
Weight: 2,662 lbs.
Horsepower: 197
Torque: 151 lb-ft
Centre of gravity: 475mm
Price tag: £28,000, or roughly $35,000 (according to autocar.co.uk), some 25% higher than anticipated!
But, and there is a but, is it still a good deal?
On account of the absurdly low centre of gravity, early reviews of the GT 86 have brought handling comparisons with the monumental Porsche Cayman, which starts at twice the price and climbs north quickly from there. In the same segment, the picture is less rosy. At $35,000, if you want 2-doors and some sportiness, the VW GTI, Mustang 5.0, and Mazda MX-5 make for some seriously established competition. Still, among these, the Toyota is a unique proposition, parsecs away from the cheap Toyota Yaris. We’ve now taken to omming “Low COG” at the beginning and end of yoga practice, just like Toyota’s enlightened engineers.
CarEnvy.ca isn’t traditionally known as a news source, but this car is just too cool and too important not to share with you! Toyota Canada’s phone is about to ring off the hook with our endless requests to get behind the wheel.
We’re actually SO jacked for this car.
