UMW Toyota has just announced the order taking of the all new GT 86 sports car. It is priced from RM243,000 for the manual to RM249,000 for the automatic. The Toyota GT86 is 4,240 mm long, 1,775 mm wide, 1,285 mm high and with a wheelbase of 2,570 mm, the new GT 86 is the world’s most compact four-seater sports car. It is alos very light at a vehicle mass of around 1,200kg.
The engine is a flat-four front-mounted boxer engine which provides he lowest driver hip-point of any Toyota production vehicle at just 400 mm to give the GT 86 an ultra-low centre of gravity of only 460 mm. Both the powertrain and driving position have been set as low and as far back as possible to optimise balance, giving the GT 86 near-perfect, 53:47 weight distribution. The ideal static weight distribution varies according to engine power; a 51:49 front bias suiting vehicles with approximately 150 hp, a similar chassis with 300 hp better suited to a 50:50 distribution.
Toyota engineers established that, during spirited driving, the Toyota GT 86’s 53:47 front bias produced the ideal response to even subtle steering, throttle and brake inputs, allowing drivers to readily control dynamic weight distribution for the best possible vehicle behaviour.
Fine-tuning of the GT 86’s suspension, brakes and steering maximises the benefits of its minimal mass, supercar-rivalling lack of inertia and ultra-low centre of gravity, allowing drivers to fully exploit the purity of the new Toyota sports car’s outstandingly nimble handling, dynamic agility and cornering poise.
The front MacPherson strut and rear double wishbone suspension systems have been fine-tuned to react instantly to driver input. At 23 N/mm, the GT 86’s front spring rates are, in fact, softer than the 25 N/mm settings of its Subaru counterpart. This softer front spring rate deliberately allows for slight body roll on initial turn-in, creating the perfect relationship between steering feel and vehicle behaviour exhibited by a classic front-engine/rear-drive platform.
Large, powerful ventilated disc brakes to both front and rear wheels offer a different brake pedal feel to that of any other Toyota. Brake response to pedal input has been tuned to provide precise modulation, assisting drivers in car control finesse by allowing for the smoothest possible dynamic weight transfer under braking.
Paying tribute to the legendary Black Racing wheels of the AE86, The GT 86’s 17″ alloy wheels feature a unique centre hub design. Toyota’s traditional centre cap diameter is 60 mm, but this has been reduced to 49 mm, saving weight for no loss of rigidity, whilst making the spokes appear longer, and the wheels larger.
The GT 86’s 2.0 litre, naturally-aspirated petrol engine is the result of a joint development between Subaru and Toyota, bringing together their technical know-how and mutual passion for sports cars. To Subaru’s newly developed, horizontally opposed, 1,998cc, four-cylinder boxer engine, Toyota has added its D-4S technology. With separate twin injectors for both direct and port injection, and a high compression ratio of 12.5:1, D-4S increases power and torque over a wide range of engine speeds without sacrificing fuel efficiency and environmental performance.
With a namesake 86 mm x 86 mm bore and stroke, the new engine develops 200 bhp at 7,000 rpm and maximum torque of 205 Nm at 6,600 rpm, giving the GT 86 brisk, engaging performance and a top speed of over 220 km/h. Conversely, the new Toyota sports car returns an estimated average fuel consumption of 6.9 l/100 km. The flat-four engine is mated to either a six-speed manual (RM243,000) or six-speed automatic transmission (RM249,000). The manual transmission offers quick, precise shifting via the highly engaging action of a tactile, short-throw lever, whilst the automatic transmission is controlled by sporting, steering wheel-mounted paddle shifts.
Power is distributed to the rear wheels via a limited slip differential, optimising traction and grip under all driving conditions. And the GT 86’s ABS and switchable VSC safety systems have been specifically tuned to combine dynamic stability at the limit of the vehicle’s performance envelope with minimal electronic intrusion on the purity of the driving experience.
