The Japanese have a particular phrase to describe the feeling of anticipation you get before doing something exciting. That might be performing on stage or jumping out of an aeroplane, but it’s also commonly associated with driving a great sports car. They call it ‘waku doki’: a sort of spine-tingling sense of the fun you’re about to have. Japan, like Britain, clearly remains a sports car-loving island, and the Toyota GT86 was – and remains – a waku doki kind of sports car.
Toyota hopes we will get the same tingle from the GT86’s replacement, which will enter production at jointventure partner Subaru’s plant in Ota, Japan, this year and is set to come to the UK in May 2022.
Will the wider world embrace the GR 86 any more than its predecessor, though, I wonder? The GT86 wasn’t the greatest commercial success, after all. Right now, who can say? But it deserves nothing less. This is an improved operator in lots of ways. Not a hugely different car to drive, but a brilliant one all the same – and one of a more complex, versatile, raw and absorbing character than the original, too.
This time it’s a GR 86 we’re getting and not a GT86 because Gazoo Racing has had a lead hand in the car’s development, just as it did for the GR Yaris and the GR Supra.
Like its predecessor, the car is a lightweight, rear-driven, compact 2+2 coupé with a high-revving, atmospherically aspirated boxer engine and an affordable price tag that’s likely to start with a two when UK prices are announced next month. But there’s an all-new 2.4-litre flat four under the low-rising bonnet, whose cylinder bore has expanded from the perfectly square 86mm dimensions of the old car to 94mm.
This story is from the November 17, 2021 edition of Autocar UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 17, 2021 edition of Autocar UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MCLAREN ARTURA
Finally, sunshine after the rain - but not before some of it got inside our supercar
AUDI S3 SALOON
Warmed-up version of A3 sets out stall with more power and RS3-spec driveline tech
MERCEDES-BENZ CLE CABRIOLET
Convertible follows coupé to complete newly consolidated two-door range
AUDI A3 SPORTBACK
Four years later, Audi moves to address criticisms of its swanky family hatchback
PORSCHE MACAN ELECTRIC
New platform, different motive power, more weight: can the electric version really behave like a Macan should?
DACIA DUSTER
With a more sophisticated platform, design-savvy look and fresh tech, has this all-new version lost sight of the model's value appeal?
Car clubs at mercy of insurers
Soaring insurance costs now pose an 'existential threat' to community car sharing
Vauxhall reinvents the Grandland
New version is bigger, sleeker and available as a 435-mile EV, mild hybrid and PHEV
Volvo on the cusp of a production revolution
Radical new mega-casting production method will cut complexity while boosting flexibility
Alfa to politicians: forget car names and save industry
Boss Imparato speaks out after minister compels Milano rebrand