The Sinister Moose

So, it seems as though Toyota has teamed up with Subaru to design a car that is both pointless and a little silly. We start with the drivetrain, which seems to be derived from Subaru's parts bin. I have a great deal of respect for boxer engines. They're flat offering a low profile so the front hood of the car can be very low. That is unless, you pile a mountain of crap on top of the engine making it as tall as an inline four cylinder. Subaru used to place the spare tire over the engine, because there was so much room under the hood of their cars, even with the engine in place.

Aparently Subaru will be relasing it's own version of this same car, and in their STi trim, it should be an all wheel drive powerful monster to contend with the Mitsubishi Evolution, however I'm fairly confident Subaru will withhold all of the go-fast parts from their new partners at Toyota, and Toyota themselves will no doubt geld the potent little boxer engine because they're ecomentalists.

From these press relaease photos, you can see that Toyota has already added their spotted-owl-loving-tree-hugging stupidity. Look at the width of those tires. Seriously? It's a sports car, and you've put Corolla tires on it? Yikes. The Subaru drivetrain in any trim, front wheel drive or all wheel drive, is a durable nearly bullet proof system which is capable of monumental grip, and capable of handling immense power so when it does loose grip, you can control the slide with the loud pedal.

Not since the last generation of Supras has Toyota sold a car that was powerful, or capable of anything nearing the Subaru WRX STi. But, we have to be reminded that Toyota also owns Lexus, who recently released the LF-A which is a V10 powered Supercar, of biblical proportions. Someone at Toyota obviously has a pair of lowhanging clankers and isn't afriad to push all the right buttons to tell the robots to crank out an epic monster.

So why is it that Toyota feels the need to recreate the much loved FT-86 Corrola? Sure it was cheap sporty fun and a potent little car when tuned correctly, but the majority of the original's appeal was in it's simplicity. It doesn't appear as though "Simplicity" is part of the GT-86's genetic makeup. Unless you consider cheap plastic simple.

Obviously that's not real brushed aluminum, and I'm certain no cows sacrificed their hyde for the making of this interior. So why pretend? Simulated leather and psuedo-carbon fiber isn't going to impress anyone, and I really don't care how many blinky flashy gauges are splattered all over the dash, it's still built to a price point like every other Toyota.

It also looks as though Toyota pulled from various parts bin to "dress up" the GT-86. That rear spoiler obviously took it's inspiration from the last generation Celica. However those front fenders look like they were stolen from the Mazda RX8 catalog.

This car seems to be taken from the Microsoft School of Car Building. It's bloated, heavy and it's going to be so laden with crap you don't need or want that the performance is going to be severely blunted.

You may be getting the impression that I don't like this car, and you would be correct. I like the idea of this car, I like the intent behind it, but it just seems like a poorly executed immitation. The over all size of the car puts it directly in competition with Toyota's other "brand" Scion, and the Scion tC. Which, even though the tC is a front wheel drive car, is the same basic concept. Small, sporty, cheap fun. So I'm left with the question, why would Toyota partner with Subaru in order to compete with it's child company Scion?

Toyota builds an epic four cylinder for a rear wheel drive platform, in it's small trucks, it's reliable, simple and with some slight modifications like adding a turbocharger, would easily compete with any 4 cylinder on the market. Why not take the Scion tC platform, rework the underpinnings, slot the inline four cylinder and a decent 6-speed manual in the tC and slap a low boost turbo on there? The styling of the Scion tC is a much better look, and Toyota wouldn't be competing with it's self in the small sporty car market.

Granted, Toyota doesn't really do all wheel drive cars, not well at any rate, but the original FT-86 wasn't an all wheel drive car. the styling of the GT-86 has been compared to the Nissan 370Z, or the new Altima Coupe, which I feel is an unfair comparison. This car is not pretty, it's not that the Scion tC is gorgeous or anything, but I don't see the point of building a new car to fill a niche that Toyota already has it's finger in.

Just bring back the Toyota Corolla Levin coupe. That 20 valve micro four cylinder  1.6 liter, in the AE111 (I think that was the body designation) was incredibly potent, just turn it around and make the car rear wheel drive, and you're done.

The GT-86 seems like Toyota couldn't be bothered with recreating one of it's own very successful cars, so it enlisted the help of Subaru to create some crossbred contraption designed by committee and full of nothing but afterthoughts. No, I don't like this car, and I don't applaud the effort of Toyota in any way.

I would rather have had a detuned less supercar version of the Lexus LFA, sold as the "New Supra", than an inbred Subarota passing it's self off as a revival mode FT-86. I would have even settled for this car, with all Toyota running gear and a slight design rethink, sold as the "New Celica".

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