Toyota 86 World Premiere Makes Toyota "Fun to Drive, Again": 2011 Tokyo Motor Show
Three years of rumors, concepts and leaks have come to this: the debut of the Toyota 86 sports car at the Tokyo Motor Show. Introduced by company CEO Akio Toyoda, a man dedicated to rebuilding Toyota’s enthusiast base, he launched an all new slogan, boldly proclaiming that the giant Japanese automakers is, “Fun to Drive, Again”.
As you no doubt have already hear the car is powered by a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder direct-injection boxer engine with a 12.5:1 compression ratio making 200-hp and 151 lb-ft of torque. It’s not a lot of punch, but with a curb weight right around 2,700 lbs, it should deliver plenty of fun.
See full details here and check out AutoGuide’s extensive 2011 Tokyo Motor Show coverage here.
GALLERY: 2013 Toyota 86
See video of the car from it’s world premiere in Tokyo below:
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With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. He has won numerous automotive journalism awards including the Best Video Journalism Award in 2014 and 2015 from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Colum founded Geared Content Studios, VerticalScope's in-house branded content division and works to find ways to integrate brands organically into content.
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Clearly Toyota has failed if their intent was to attract an audience of AE86 fans. I think they are targetting a different audience all together - probably one with money to buy a new, sporty car. If you look at the sales figures of the MKIV Supra, there was only one year when sales of the turbo 6-spd even broke over 1000 units, and there were barely 4000 made over a 6-year model run. They are great cars (I know...I have one), but they were *way* too expensive. I think it's fantastic that Toyota and Subaru got together to build a small rwd platform that would be rewarding for an enthusiast to drive. I'm still waiting to see reviews and performance numbers. But if the car has good dynamics, I may pick one up...ugly or not.
The problem with this car is that it is not a stand out vehicle in any way. There are plenty of competitive cars (although some of those are front wheel drive). Now a car like the MR2 or MR-S Spyder were at least unique and exotic (although in the case of the MR-S very poorly executed), but this car is completely unremarkable. It is a bit like the RX-8 (and next years RX-9). It is going to have compete against exist cars from Honda and Muscle Cars from the Americans. So frankly I don't see why they expect anyone to buy this car. There is a supercharged version on the way too, but the pricing will need to be very aggressive in these hard economic times.