With the recent success of the Toyota GT86 platform, it’s no surprise that the Japanese automaker wants to work quickly on its successor to the Supra.
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One of several GT 86 concepts unveiled by Toyota at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, it’s certainly not noteworthy because of its square eight-spoke rims.
Ahead of its debut, Toyota bragged that its new GT 86 TRD Griffon concept was faster around the Tskuba circuit than a Ferrari 458. Revealed today at the Tokyo Auto Salon, even more surprising is the fact that it does so without any added power.
As the Tokyo Auto Salon approaches, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) is teasing what it’s calling the GT86 Griffon Concept, a car which it claims lapped the Tsukuba circuit in 1 minute and 1.872 seconds, beating the time set by a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Toyota is returning to the Britcar 24 Hours in September, running the endurance race in paint livery reminiscent of the AE86 Corolla that twice won the British Touring Car Championship in the 1980s. Continue Reading…
“This is fun! I wish that Toyota could make cars like this again!” Keiichi Tsuchuya loves his classic AE86, which is why he is the perfect choice to show off the capabilities of the Scion FR-S in the latest video promoting the car. Continue Reading…
Toyota in-house tuner TRD will debut a special version of the GT-86 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend. Continue Reading…
Custom builders have been able to create some unique and exciting cars from Toyota’s dull model lineup in the past, so it only stands to reason that amazing things are happening as tuners tinker with the new Scion FR-S.
We’ve already seen an in-house performance build from TRD as well as a specially prepared 600-hp FR-S drift car, but tuner Cartel Customs, a California-based company, created the FR-S Speedster you see above.
Starting the FR-S transformation first by lopping off the top, Cartel left a lower windshield in place, installed sloped side windows and a double-bubble deck lid for classic speedster looks. Cartel repainted the car without a body kit to keep the FR-S from having body lines that were overly fussy.
Inside, they treated the car with a redesigned, vintage sports car inspired custom interior, featuring center stack gauge clusters, a bare-bones racer steering wheel and loads of stitched leather everywhere you can imagine — oh and the sound system is gone too.
In addition to a dramatic internal surgery, Cartel also made a few mechanical changes starting with an upgraded clutch, exhaust, and suspension. New brakes, wheels and a carbon fiber rear wing also went into the package.
Look for the Cartel Speedster FR-S make its official debut at the 2012 Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix.
GALLERY: Cartel Speedster FR-S
Another video of the highly anticipated Toyota GT 86 has emerged, showing off the process behind turning the rear-wheel drive sports coupe into a competitive rally car.
The 49 second clip doesn’t detail too much about the rally car, simply teasing us about the looks. However, the Toyota 86 looks like a superb specimen for rally racing. The video mainly gives us a perspective into the focused engineers prepping their new rally car. Hopefully more clips will follow this one that will further explain how the Toyota 86 rally car came to be.
The vehicle will be entered in the Tour de Kyushu Rally Race. Check out the full video below.
Those in the market for the all-new Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S (Toyota GT 86) will be excited to hear that Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, president of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., has announced the production of the new jointly-produced sports car will hit 100,000 a year.
At least that’s their goal. The BRZ/FR-S/GT 86 are all produced at the Subaru Gunma Factory in Japan and it looks like the announcement comes hot on the heels of initial order figures. Toyota has already seen 7,000 orders for the GT 86 while the BRZ has garnered the attention of 2,500 enthusiasts. While those numbers are clearly skewed since it’s a brand new car on the market, it’s still far more than what the Japanese automakers planned on selling each month.
Last week we heard that Subaru only has plans to bring 6,000 BRZs to America. Whether or not that will change remains to be seen, but we have a feeling that more customers will opt for the Scion FR-S than the Subaru BRZ in America.
For more Scion FR-S news and info, visit FR-Sforum.com and to discuss the Subaru BRZ, visit SubaruBRZforum.com
[Source: FT-86 Club]