Boy racers…be teased!

This is the Toyota 86, and it has finally arrived in South Africa to give the cash-conscious something proper to race with. The Toyota 86 is an affordable sports car.

And there’s so much underneath that skin to talk about. It’s like a lucky packet of unique selling points.

Broads strokes: 148kw and 0-100 in 6.8 seconds. That’s about the power of a GTi in the time of an Audi S3.

Let’s get the bar jargon out of the way. When your mate looks like he’s about to go off on a rant of the new 86, have you seen it? Man it’s nice…etc! Three things you’ll know that he won’t:

Firstly, this is the ordinary man’s sport car. It costs about the same as a hot hatch, but has real racing pedigree behind it. Also it’s got a boxer engine, for you, that’s like the engine that comes in some Porsches.

Second, the man who designed it is named Tetsuya Tada but if you forget that, don’t worry. Just remember that he went in to the bosses’ office with 3 things on his checklist: a rear-wheel drive format, no turbocharging and ordinary tires. And he got them.
NOTE: He’s a bit of an old soul is Tada, but he knew what he was doing. These 3 elements made sure that the 86 was set apart from absolutely everything else that could hope to compete with it. Competitors costs a hell of a lot more, have massive turbo shunting them along and doughnut tires that ruin the fun of skidding too close to a Cape mountain corner. The 86 though is supposed to make you feel like you’re driving a 1970’s sports car without any drivers’ aids and all this at a reasonable speed.

And thirdly, it’s rear-wheel drive, and that means you can drift it. Gosheshes…your days are numbered. If Toyota do their marketing right, this car could become the new darling of Soweto drift!

The 86 is based on an entirely new platform for Toyota and with it they’re claiming a whole new class of car: the cheap sports car. It’s low, extremely aerodynamic and the bodyshell is stretched tight over the engineering hard points, making it the world’s most compact four-seat sports car design.

The front-mounted horizontally opposed boxer petrol engine running the show is a collaboration between Subaru and Toyota, so expect to see it too in the Subaru BRZ. More importantly though the 86 is supremely balanced, corners better than Zidane and entertains you more than a rhyming Snoop Dogg.

Being a sports car, the cockpit is driver-centric from start to finish. The three dial instrument cluster is centered around the large tachometer which includes a digital speedo on high spec models. There’s also a red shift light on the auto models which helps drivers change gear at optimum engine revs. Basically they’re making it as uncomplicated as possible to have fun in this car while you’re sliding sideways through a hairpin at 120 km/h.

Get it: www.toyota.co.za
For:
Toyota 86 Standard 6-speed Manual – R298 500
Toyota 86 High 6-speed Manual – R329 400
Toyota 86 High 6-speed Auto – R346 500