The Toyota 86 was a Subaru-built tribute to a humble 1980s Corolla
Toyota's 86 sports coupé is named for the AE86, a small rear-drive Corolla from the 1980s beloved by drifters and club racers. Oddly, the car is built in a Subaru factory around a Subaru engine, and its concept version wore red paint inspired by the rear end of a Japanese macaque.
The 86 and its twin, the Subaru BRZ, came out of a partnership that began after Toyota bought 16.5 per cent of Subaru's parent, Fuji Heavy Industries, in 2008. The lineage started with Toyota's FT-HS concept at the 2007 Detroit show, a front-engine, rear-drive 2+2 with a hybrid V6. The shared FT-86 concept at the October 2009 Tokyo Motor Show was smaller and swapped in a new Subaru boxer engine, with Subaru adapting the chassis from its Impreza. Classic Toyotas such as the AE86, Celica and Supra were referenced in the styling.
The name is a nod to history: the development code was 086A, and eight-six, hachi-roku in Japanese, recalls the AE86 built from 1983 to 1987. Chief engineer Tetsuya Tada led the programme, and the production car debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show in December 2011. The first cars were assembled at Subaru's Gunma plant on 2 February 2012. Toyota took 7,000 orders in the first month, Subaru 3,500.
The recipe is light and simple. An aluminium bonnet, fixed roof and a proper boot save weight, and the flat-four engine sits low for a 53 to 47 front-to-rear balance and a low centre of gravity. The 2.0-litre engine pairs Subaru's boxer design with Toyota's direct injection system, runs a high 12.5 to 1 compression ratio, and has bore and stroke both measuring 86 millimetres, a fitting coincidence. Buyers choose between a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic tuned to feel like a dual-clutch gearbox.
Badges varied widely by market: the car was sold as the GT86 in Europe, the FT86 in a few countries, and in the United States and Canada as the Scion FR-S from 2012 to 2016. For 2017 the manual version gained power, rising to 153 kW. The second generation wears Toyota's Gazoo Racing badge as the GR86.
Source: Toyota 86
