The biggest noise at the Tokyo Motor show was the Toyota Motor Group who showcased a strong lineup of new, exciting cars that have been missing from Toyota in recent decades. Toyota’s new direction of driver centric cars brings back the passion Toyota engineers and product planners lost after the demise of the Supra and Levin. Toyota’s President, Akio Toyoda strongly expressed to the attending media that passion and excitement will now be infused with all future models and the company is being REBORN.
The first strong reborn product from Toyota which is set to worry the European sports car manufacturers is the Toyota GT 86. Following its preview two weeks ago at the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival (TGRF) at the Fuji Raceway, where it was driven by Toyota President, Akio Toyoda, Toyota unveiled the production version of the GT 86 at the Tokyo show with a huge crowd of attending media. The new car, known as “Hachiroku” (Japanese for “86”), will be sold in Europe as the GT 86. It is the car co-developed with Subaru, which will get its own version, the BRZ which was unveiled at the Subaru GT version at the Subaru stand. There were also whispers that this GT 86 will also be sold in North America using the Scion badge. Using a Subaru 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer engine and Toyota’s D-4S injection technology, Toyota claims this GT 86 will be the most compact four-seater sports car on the market with the best performance and handling for its segment.
