when passion drives you

I’m told tomorrow is the day.

“You’ll be picking up the 86 and bringing it back here.”

I can’t help but be excited, I mean, this is the car. The car that everyone’s talking, writing and speculating about – the Toyota 86.

The day arrives and late in the afternoon we head out to Toyota to pick up the latest (and some say greatest) new sports car in recent times.

Engine in the front driving the rear wheels in a two-door coupe from a brand that has previously spawned the 2000GT, Supra, and of course the AE86 Corolla. Why wouldn’t I be excited? Well, while most media outlets have praised the car to the nth degree, others, namely evo mag, were left underwhelmed and disappointed.

The problem is that because the car has been built from the ground up with traditional sports car balance in mind, the 147kW/205Nm naturally aspirated 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer motor becomes the car’s obvious Achilles’ heel letting down the rest of the package.

 
Little torque below 3000rpm, not much meat in the mid-range and then a brief moment of sharp, punchy throttle response between 6000rpm and the 7450rpm rev limiter.

This sort of engine requires manipulation of gears to get the best out of it and that’s unfortunately something that proved difficult to do with the six-speed flappy-paddle auto that I managed to get a steer of.

The car is definitely well balanced though and remains flat whether you’re on or off the throttle or changing direction – you can certainly feel that all the low centre of gravity talk has been legit.

Once the bum is out it’s very controllable and easy to hold with the 1222kg never feeling like it’s going to swing back around and bite you (click here to see what I mean).

Unfortunately, yet again, this process is hampered by the lack of having three pedals meaning you have to react a little to the car instead of instructing it to do what you want when you want.

The roads I drove through were all twisty mountain stuff with a few patchy wet sections before the rain came down harder giving a most definitely wet surface.

This is when the car surprised, and not for the good. In those conditions with the 215/45R17 Michelins fitted front and rear, it pretty much plough-understeered, diagonally headed for the nearest guardrail until enough speed was washed off to allow the engine to spin up the rear wheels and then the car switched to snap oversteer. I know this sounds terrible and it felt it.

But I’m not quite ready to dismiss the car just yet and if you can get the back wheels to break traction before the front starts to push it does feel pretty sorted.

It’s quite a nice place to be in too with comfy seats and a reasonable air of purpose, if not quality, inside the cabin. Simple black and silver mean nothing is too over-styled or tacky. I found the search for a really good seating position a little fiddly, wanting the steering wheel to have a little more reach adjustment.

The pipe fitted from the intake to the cabin does indeed allow for more engine induction noise to penetrate the cabin but whether this is a good or bad thing will be up to different drivers. I’d rather have a nicer sounding car with loud induction and exhaust notes – like the Pig for example :D.

I by no means hate the 86, but equally, I’m not in love with it.

I don’t think I can really judge a car intended to be a proper fun sports car without having driven it with a proper manual gearbox. We’ll see how I go with that quest.

Stay tuned.

Dave