#ToyotaGt86

A casual visit over to TRD Japan’s website reveals that the Toyota tuning arm will most certainly be bringing a modified version of the GT 86 to this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon. We’ve already had confirmation that a TRD GT 86 is in the works, but we’re pleasantly surprised that it’ll be making its debut so quickly.

We’re looking forward to grabbing the steering (wheel) in order to feel real excitement, though the Scion FR-S was pretty exciting even without TRD’s help. Again, we anticipate the standard offerings of suspension upgrades (lowering springs, coilovers) and styling accessories, such as a mild body kit, and an intake and exhaust from TRD. Rumors of a supercharger have not been confirmed.

We have no reason to believe that TRD would be working on a turbocharger kit for the FR-S based on their history, but times have changed and turbocharging has become a very cost-efficient method to produce more power without ruining gas economy. So maybe they’ll surprise us.

See AutoGuide’s Review of the Scion FR-S Here and watch the video below:

As another calendar year draws to a close it’s time to take a look back at the top 10 biggest stories of the year in the auto industry. It’s been a busy 12 months, starting all the way back in March when the Fiat 500 officially went on sale, marking the return of the brand to America. The last time an Italian car was sold here that didn’t cost six figures (or close to it) was 27 years ago. Since then, Fiat has introduced the 500C convertible model and most recently the Fiat 500 Abarth, aimed at enthusiasts.

Toyota has done a stellar job getting us grossly excited about the release of their newest sports car – the Scion FR-S in America (read our review here) – and now we can add yet another video to their endless promotional material.

This time however, we get to see the GT 86 out on the road along with behind the scene test drive clips. But what’s really awesome is the tribute appearance by Toyota’s S800, which was first introduced to the Japanese market in 1965. Back the, the sports car featured a 0.8L, two-cylinder boxer engine with a mere 45-hp and a top speed of just 100-mph. Only 3,131 examples of the S800 were produced from ’65 to ’69 and it’s a nice appearance alongside Toyota’s new future, the GT 86.

Check out the video after the break.

Easily the highlight of this month’s video car reviews is our test drive of the Scion FR-S, the U.S.-spec version of the highly anticipated Toyota GT 86. In addition, we reviewed the V8-powered Dodge Charger R/T, as well as the Mercedes SLK350.

Read the AutoGuide new car reviews here and see all our video reviews at our YouTube channel here.

And watch the rest of this month’s video reviews below:

Back when we still called it the FT-86, a leaked brochure claimed to show what TRD had in store for the Toyota sports car. The boxer-powered machine has since been revealed (called the Scion FR-S in North America) and this lone photo of a TRD-equipped model has now emerged.

Gran Turismo 5 will be getting an update (version 2.02) on December 20th and with it will come the addition of Toyota‘s GT 86 to the game for free. A new downloadable content (DLC) Car Pack 2 will also be available for just $3.99 adding four new cars to your collection.

The Scion FR-S might be the most exciting sports car in years and it might also be the most important project Toyota has ever launched, helping change perceptions about an automaker that has become known for building appliances. But the back-to-basics enthusiast sports car almost never happened, according to Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada, speaking at the car’s launch last week in Japan.

The concept for the car, originally the brain child of then Toyota VP Akio Toyoda (the man currently at the helm of the world’s largest automaker), was initially rejected by Subaru, which eventually went on to donate the engine to the project and even handle the lion’s share of the sports car’s development, resulting in both the Scion FR-S (also known as the Toyota GT 86 in Europe or just the 86 in Japan) and Subaru BRZ.

Shortly after Toyoda took the helm, Tada san was assigned to a planning division set up for the project. After studying what everyone else was doing, (seeing the use of turbochargers, all-wheel drive and high grip tires), Toyota decided to move in the opposite direction, instead opting to build a sports car that harkens back to the roots of machines like the AE86 – from which the GT86 gets its name. It occurred to Tada san that an ideal powerplant would be a boxer engine, due to its low center of gravity. Toyota had an historical precedent for the use of a boxer engine in the Sports 800, built from 1965 to 1969. Toyota also just so happened to have access to such engines through a recent purchase of shares in Subaru parent company Fuji Heavy Industries, and a shared project could help foster relations between the two rival automakers.

A proposal was penned, for a rear-drive, boxer powered sports car and presented to Subaru, which immediately axed it. Subaru executives had two major concerns says Tada san, the first being that a rear-drive machine doesn’t fit with Subaru’s all-wheel drive brand message. The second reservation, and one that speaks to Toyota’s newfound attitude of taking ownership of its beige-to-drive past, is the admission that Subaru didn’t think Toyota could build a sports car. And while harsh, it’s not entirely surprising, after all, the last sporty Toyota was a Celica GTS in 2006 and the last rear-drive Toyota car to roll off an assembly line (at least for US consumption) was in 2005.

The project was then suspended for six months but eventually the team involved at Toyota helped convince the powers that be at Subaru. Exactly how that happened remains a mystery, although one possible conclusion can be drawn from a graph Toyota revealed to AutoGuide and a group of journalists gathered to drive the car at Sodegaura Forest Raceway, just outside Tokyo. On it is a breakdown of who handled what in bringing the GT86/BRZ to market. In the end, teams at Toyota were responsible for planning and design while manufacturing and development were handed over to Subaru. The concept may have been Toyota’s, but Subaru, a company with plenty of recent and current enthusiast-targeted models, was tasked with ensuring the FR-S/BRZ was a fun-to-drive, dynamic handling machine. Toyota representatives steered clear of confirming as much, but it would seem a compromise was struck, with Subaru bending on the rear-drive architecture. In exchange, Toyota handed over development of its sports car to Subaru.

As a result, the first prototype was built back in 2008, and was what one Toyota exec referred to as “proof of concept”, prompting both automakers for forge ahead with development and design, leading first to the FT86 concept at the Tokyo Motor Show in November of 2009, through numerous concept cars, all the way to the official reveal at the same show two years later, our recent gushing test-drive, and a planned on-sale date of this Spring.

Discuss this story at FR-SForum and read out review of the Scion FR-S here.

The Tokyo Motor Show has come and gone and won’t be back for another two years. If you missed out on all the excitement (and wacky concept cars) then watch AutoGuide’s video wrapup, with ten short spots highlighting all the most exciting new models. If you’re after more in-depth coverage, then see our Tokyo Motor Show page her e and see all of our videos at the AutoGuide YouTube page here.

Watch more videos from the Tokyo Motor Show below:

Toyota‘s GT 86 hasn’t even made its way into the hands of consumers, but a high-performance variant of the new sports coupe is already in the works out in Japan.

The only non-Japanese car to make our Top 10 cars list of the Tokyo Motor Show, the Volkswagen Cross Coupe Concept was also one of the few true surprises. While a show car, it makes use of an all-new VW platform, an impressive AWD plug-in hybrid system, while also taking a look at the future styling direction of the brand.

All week long we’ve been salivating at Toyota‘s 86 and Subaru‘s BRZ, and now we finally got to set our eyes on America’s variant, Scion‘s FR-S. And while we haven’t had the chance – just yet – to get behind the wheel of the new  sports car, Toyota has allowed our eyes to feast on a video spotlighting their new sports car.

Admittedly the entire video looks like something out of Gran Turismo 5 or Forza Motorsport 4, but it’s eye candy at its best and is a great way to build up even more hype for the vehicle. Also those that are interested, there’s a ringtone of the Toyota 86’s engine being given away – just click here.

Check out the awesome video after the break.

A day after the debut of the Toyota GT 86 and the Subaru BRZ at the Tokyo Motor Show, the third version of the shared sports coupe has been revealed at a private event in Hollywood, CA. Sold under the Scion brand in North America, the car will wear the FR-S badge.

Years of anticipation have all lead to the debut of Toyota‘s new compact sports car at the Tokyo Motor Show today. Referred to by many different concept names, at its word premiere company CEO Akio Toyoda called it, simply, the 86.

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”.

After revealing the first photos of the GT 86 sports car yesterday, Toyota has now released a selection of pics from the car’s first live showing. We expected the initial reveal to take place at the Tokyo Motor Show, but Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda apparently couldn’t wait, showing off the new light weight sports car at the Toyota GAZOO Racing Festival at Fuji Speedway.