Toyota 86

[DoggieHowser]

If you're focusing on power you're missing the point of this car I think. Its about handling purity, not outright speed.

If I was in the market for a sporty car, I'd take this over everything. Hands down.

Who cares if its not fast, it'd be awesome to punt around a track!

At 29k starting point, thats a bargain!

Amen!

FWIW the Boxster S isn't particularly fast either. Not when you've had a turbocharged and tweaked Evo or Nissan GTR as a basis of comparison. But it is fun. And the communication between the driver and the car just makes every drive, even if it is to the shops or to work a lot of fun. Brought a smile to my face every time. If you watch the Chris Harris video, it seems that the GT86 is on the same level.

[Ryan_R]

Might not beat your GTI but it'll beat a (stock) Golf 118 TSI. I wouldn't mind borrowing an 86 for a day-trip but it'll be almost just as nice beat a P plater off the lights thanks to APR.

For the price I think the 86 is great, I was expecting it to cost more.

[Sharkie]

FWIW the Boxster S isn't particularly fast either. Not when you've had a turbocharged and tweaked Evo or Nissan GTR as a basis of comparison. But it is fun. And the communication between the driver and the car just makes every drive, even if it is to the shops or to work a lot of fun. Brought a smile to my face every time. If you watch the Chris Harris video, it seems that the GT86 is on the same level.

Missing the point .... Boxster S makes 310-360NM depending on the year and not at 6800rmin either. Makes it a totally different drive on daily basis.

For the 1% of the time (as in on the track) I can live with a minimum 7000 rmin all the time. For 99% of the time (as in on the street driving anywhere else) I cannot.

I had a 1986 4AGE Corolla hatch, and loved it, raw and basic, no guts below 5500rmin, and fun if you are a boy racer in a place with liberal speed rules and enforcement.

In the nanny environments in Australia where you will get pulled over if you are driving at 7000+rmin anywhere except a racetrack its not going to be much fun.

[team_v]

Missing the point .... Boxster S makes 310-360NM depending on the year and not at 6800rmin either. Makes it a totally different drive on daily basis.

For the 1% of the time (as in on the track) I can live with a minimum 7000 rmin all the time. For 99% of the time (as in on the street driving anywhere else) I cannot.

I had a 1986 4AGE Corolla hatch, and loved it, raw and basic, no guts below 5500rmin, and fun if you are a boy racer in a place with liberal speed rules and enforcement.

In the nanny environments in Australia where you will get pulled over if you are driving at 7000+rmin anywhere except a racetrack its not going to be much fun.

That is my take on this car as well.
All of the reviewers are stoked that it gets tail happy and can peel one out but that doesn't help circuit times or regular driving.

Sure it looks nice but it's going to feel like a slug until you get right up in the rev range.
You could just get a Polo GTI

[Mk3 AAA]

These cars are never about what's on paper, it's just going to be a matter of taking one for a punt and seeing if it meets your wants. I have some reservations on the styling, a bit Hyundai-esque, and lack of power, um...a bit Hyundai-esque, but welcome a return to RWD Toyota albeit lacking an evolution of something like the old revy/eager 4AGE. Remember they're cross shopping with Subbie, there will be plenty of tuners ripping into their respective versions of the car. I'm sure each brand will dish out a performance model, but in the meantime they don't really need to, they can dish up a basic car and let the customers go nuts for a bit, build up a following then release their R/GTR/GTS/M/Evolution/X/HSV/AMG/Superhappyspeedy version later. P plater friendly might see some unfortunate body kits and sound systems, so will be interesting to see what sort of reputation they get, whether it's Gen-X returning to their beloved Celica/Supra/AE86 era, or whether it's the younger drift raised crowd getting into a reasonably priced RWD. I guess both, I'm sure Nissan etc are watching carefully people are going to start weighing 86 + mods against the price of a 370Z etc...

[h100vw]

I had a GT Coupe with 4AGE, keep fit windows, Stevie Wonder designs, velour blue seats, LSD, Minilite replicas, dropped on the floor and a full Janspeed. Bought it in 1989, before plenty of the forum were even born .

It had a 2 position throttle and was THE machine to hand out white knuckle rides. Until my mate got RE71s on his CRX at least.

It's easy these days to buy/build a car with more than twice the power but it would have to be really, really good to hold a candle to the original.

Hilariously, I swapped it for a 1980 MK1 GTI, that let me down all the time........ I really missed that Trusty Twinny, it took a lot of getting over. Sniff.

Gavin

[DoggieHowser]

The 86 has a better power to weight ratio than some of the other cars it's compared to iirc.

[Spyda]

If it was faster it wouldn't be $30k. I don't think it has anything to do with 'the point of the car'.

197hp sports car in 2012? Thats like 100hp atw, which is what a modded mk1 8v will put down lol
Boxer engine? Awesome work keeping with the whole AE86 theme thing.....
Looks like a Hundai? Instant classic.

Who would buy this? If you where a Jap car fan you would buy a s15 or 350z, if you are not a jap car fan....why would you look twice at this?

[DoggieHowser]

Check out the YouTube link I posted and if you can find Chris Harris' video, watch that too.

These guys have driven far more powerful cars and far faster ones too but their enthusiasm for this slow car is genuine.

[Spyda]

Check out the YouTube link I posted and if you can find Chris Harris' video, watch that too.

These guys have driven far more powerful cars and far faster ones too but their enthusiasm for this slow car is genuine.

I watched the video you posted on page 1, seems to be full of excuses. Sort of saying "its ok thats its slow because it handles well and its fun blah blah pay me toyota" and I get that being a VW driver but 197hp is way to underpowered and the ONLY reason it is that slow is to keep it cheap.
They can mask it with all the reviews and pretending like its all about the fun of driving it but if i can only enjoy a car on a race track then its a bit ****.
I don't think that this is one of the cases where a car makers wants to make tribute to a classic as much as it lets make a lot of money by putting together a cheap car and masking the ****ness with "sportiness"