Toyota 86 News

Toyota has given its 86 a nip and tuck that's designed to give the rear-wheel-drive sports car an even more focused edge.

Toyota Australia has issued a recall notice for nearly almost 15,000 of 17,000 locally delivered 86 two-door coupes to remedy a potential fault that could affect the car's steering.

It might not be the quickest, nor the most powerful sports car on the market, but the Toyota 86 has been Australia’s best-selling sports car for the past three years.

A radical Toyota sports car that was born in Australia could be heading to the world.

Flares have never gone out of fashion in Japan and the annual Tokyo Auto Salon shows why.

Toyota is looking to develop a hot hatch based on its Yaris city car.

Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Honda and Suzuki will celebrate the fast and the curious at the Tokyo motor show later this month.

Toyota has added more standard features to its entry-level 86 GT coupe, while reducing prices across the GTS range.The base 86 GT coupe retains its $29,990 pricetag, but now features a reversing camera as standard. The more expensive GTS model received a standard reversing camera in July last year.The camera also brings with it an upgraded 6.1-inch touchscreen multi-media system, which includes Bluetooth phone and audio and USB and SD card inputs.Toyota has also reduced the price of the GT automatic by $300 to $32,490.Prices have also been cut across the GTS range, with the manual now $500 cheaper at $35,990 and the automatic $800 more affordable at $38,490.These price changes represent a complete back-flip on the pricing revisions made in July last year which saw prices rise by $500 and $800 for the manual and auto, respectively.Toyota claims the price cuts come courtesey of the reduced import duty taxes brought by the free trade agreement between Australia and Japan introduced late last year.The full-size spare wheel was removed from the 86 coupe’s option list shortly after its launch in 2012, but can now be added at no extra cost while a tyre repair kit is fitted as standard. The mechanical package has not been changed since Toyota revised the steering for better feedback and the suspension to improve the handling of the rear-drive sports car in July last year.The 86 coupe’s 2.0-litre flat-four engine continues with 147kW/205Nm while combined fuel consumption is listed as 7.1L/100km for the six-speed auto and 7.8L/100km for the manual.Australia is the third biggest market for the 86 coupe and Toyota is preparing an 86 pro-am racing series that will take part at V8 Supercar events from 2016 onwards.

Toyota has confirmed that a new low-cost single-make race series based on the successful 86 coupe will join the V8 Supercar calendar in 2016.The announcement, made today at the V8 Supercar's Clipsal 500 series opener in Adelaide, confirms plans first revealed during the Festival of 86 held in Sydney last November.It will be a pro-am involving up to five professional drivers with the balance of the field being amateur driversIn launching the new series, Toyota Australia's executive director of sales and marketing, Tony Cramb, said the series will help develop motorsport talent in Australia with professional drivers acting as mentors to up-and-coming amateurs."It will be a pro-am involving up to five professional drivers with the balance of the field being amateur drivers," he said."This mentoring will extend beyond honing driving skills – it will also focus on teaching them about the business of motorsport because we all know that the hardest part of driving is actually outside the car."Chief engineer of the Toyota 86, Tetsuya Tada has been named patron of the new series. Tada-san said the success of the 86 was due in part to the enthusiasm from Australian owners.Australia will be the fourth country (after Japan, Germany and New Zealand) to host a series of production-based 86 racers, with Tada-san saying he'd like to see the series grow to match the upcoming Mazda Global MX-5 Cup."My dream is that one day we can have a World 86 Challenge with the best drivers from Japan, Europe and other markets – and the champion Toyota 86 driver from Australia," he said.With the series aimed at developing grassroots talent, keeping costs low will be a key priority."Our vision is that a full year's competition, including the car, package, transport and entry fees, will come in under $100,000 in the first year," Tony Camb said.This would make the 86 Pro-Am series $70,000 cheaper than the upcoming Formula 4 open-wheel series, which is also aimed at up-and-coming racers.The Toyota 86 is such a competent carAustralian rally and racing legend Neal Bates developed race-spec Toyota 86 for the new series, and says the design of the car makes it easy to adapt for racing while keeping costs down."The Toyota 86 is such a competent car that it has just been a matter of building race-durable components into it without interfering with its character," he said."The aim is to engineer a car that is pretty much bullet-proof in racing conditions while making it a satisfying and rewarding experience for its driver."Minimal changes have been made to the GT spec Toyota 86 for racing, which retains its 147kW/205Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer engine.Bates and his team have added new extractors and exhaust systems; four-pot and two-pot rear brakes; adjustable coil covers for the suspension; and a programmable engine control unit to make the cars race ready.The ECU provides increased performance for the race-spec 86 over its roadgoing counterpart.Wheel and tyre specifications are yet to be confirmed, but the series will run on controlled rubber.The Toyota 86 Pro-Am series will run at selected rounds of the 2016 V8 Supercar series.Watch Tetsuya Tada talk about the Toyota 86 Pro-Am series here. 

Toyota global boss Akio Toyoda drives prototype 86 rally car as part of Australian visit.