The GT86 will not all Toyota-Categorize customers as vehicles of their brand. Users of other manufacturers tend not to think of attributing the two-seater to the sensible, but rather staid, company. Although this is no longer true with the staid cars, even the mid-range offers Auris and Avensis look very smart after the last optimizations, not to mention Aygo and Yaris with their extroverted front sections or the new C-HR. And the thesis with the reason cars fits soagr a little on the GT86.
The sports coupé GT86 starts with down-to-earth 29.990 euros, but offers an almost unreasonable engine output of an impressive 147 kW / 200 hp. Again, very reasonable: for the equivalent, there are, of course, things like air conditioning, radio and central locking, as well as features such as LED bi-headlights and a torsion differential on the driven rear axle. In addition, there are well-defined sports seats - it almost sounds as if the light coupé should become an incredible cornering vehicle.
This property should also be offered by the Toyota, which is rather rare in this country, because its two-liter boxer taken over by Subaru is a fine engine, but by no means a torque boast. So the ambitious-sounding heart under the hood wants to be cheered up as much as possible so that it can push forward. Since our first test drives of the modified model largely took place on snow and ice, this aspect was hardly fun-determining. Equipped with one-millimeter spikes on the tires, the budget athlete is supposed to show here how impressively he can dance precisely around the corner with the rear. And it can also do this on grippy asphalt.
Rear-wheel drive is an important keyword - because such cars are missing from the overcrowded model ranges, which have the right front-wheel drive SUV for every occasion, but are stingy with affordable and affordable good-mood cars that can be steered with the accelerator pedal. Already after the first test sitting in the reworked Toyota, the corners of the mouth point upwards: Because here you crouch nice and deep, just as it should be for this type of car, you can literally feel the road and is in its element when chasing after lateral acceleration without tightness the front row. The short (and also crunchy to use) shift lever is ergonomically fine in the hand, important if you want to go fast. There is also a six-speed automatic converter for 1.550 euros, but the GT86 is simply more honest as a switch.
For the new model year, the Toyota team has sharpened their affordable coupé - optically visible now on striking LED taillights, whose night design triggers associations with a boomerang and therefore have a high recognition value. Under the sheet it is the undercarriage that, with modified spring rates and thus better tuning, is supposed to make even more fun when the 1,3-tonner runs across the bend with smoking tires. An additional track mode lets him pull in on the longer line and thus a little further, before the electronic stability control by means of targeted brake intervention protects the escaping rear from the ditch. To meet the increasing demand for infotainment, the instrument cluster now has a four-inch display that shows pretty much everything the motor sports enthusiast desires, from the G-force diagram to the oil temperature.
The aesthetes among sports car drivers can also enjoy a breath of fresh air: Large parts of the dashboard are now covered with a wild-empty fabric, and various switches are presented in carbon.
As expected, the light aerodynamic fine-tuning, like the striking gills on the fenders, changes the look rather than the driving behavior. A fixed spoiler on the trunk lid, now with a new design, still provides downforce when it comes to the racetrack. But at the end of the day, it is similar to sports cars as to off-roaders: hard use usually only takes place in theory. A small, dynamic excursion on the country road beyond measured values and lap times is highly realistic. And for 29.990 euros. It doesn't get any more tempting, rating: recommended. (Patrick Broich / SP-X)