Toyota GT 86 Could Get Porsche Engine
The Toyota GT 86, or Scion FR-S as it will be called in North America, isn’t available yet, but it’s already generating tuner buzz.
We were satisfied with the stock 200-horsepower boxer engine during our review in December, but that’s not quite enough power for some of the folks in the hachi-roku forums. Tetsuya Tada, the car’s chief engineer is encouraging the conversation.
“Some Americans already put a 5.0-liter engine in a Mazda roadster. There are fanclubs who want to do the same with our car. There is no rule to limit that. As manufacturers, we can’t do that. We have to give guarantees. We need to build cars that last. Tuners can try. We welcome that,” Tada said.
The 5.0-liter Mazda mod he’s talking about is, of course, the Monster Miata which gets a Mustang V8 shoehorned surprisingly well in place of it’s stock four banger.
While we don’t see the need to tinker with Toyota’s formula, it’s easy to understand the urge.
“As it is, only highly skilled drivers can make full use of the stock engine. Some people may like to have a higher speed in the straightaway, but there are lots of other cars they can choose,” Tada said,
He even teased the idea of putting a more potent engine into future models, though we aren’t holding our breath.
“For our current engine, we cooperated with Subaru. Maybe we [will] cooperate with Porsche or someone else next time. You can partner with anybody in the world these days.”
GALLERY: 2013 Scion FR-S
[Source: The Truth About Cars]
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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Misleading title. This is all hypothetical. The name I'd choose for this article is "Toyota could partner with anyone that makes engines in the future."