2022 Toyota GR 86: Keep it simple, stupid!

so here's a fun fact that will come as no surprise to you the cost of building an entirely new car in today's day and age rivals that of putting a man on the moon that's why the concept of a partnership where two disparate car companies come together to create one or more products on the same platform is not entirely new but it is somewhat rare now you and i already looked at something like that the result was pretty good it just wasn't as good as say a moon shot from a certain domestic manufacturer that was around 60 000 u.s what if we were to make it a little bit more challenging say the price point half that would that make the partnership more enticing especially the second go around [Music] let's get to the obvious right at the top yes toyota does engage in these types of partnerships more than other car manufacturers which brings us to a question why answer low volume production cars now you and i can debate the merits of these partnerships in a completely separate episode but in reality it gives us a vehicle they do not sell a lot of the concept of today's vehicle is a higher volume low volume production car if that makes any sense now anyone that is a car guy knows this is the second generation of the toyota subaru partnership as opposed to this toyota and bmw partnership what does that mean well if it's subaru it means it has a flat engine flat four in this case big change here it goes from a 2 liter flat 4 to a 2.4 liter flat 4. that changes the horsepower pretty significantly goes up to 228 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque now yes this is a rear-wheel drive sports car it does have good fuel maybe not good perhaps respectable fuel economy 1926 21 combined then there's the concept of performance figures this does not have a turbocharger in it so 0-60 give you an idea on the previous gen version that came out in 2012 that was like 7 seconds to 60 for the automatic and 8 seconds to 60 for the stick here 6-1 for the automatic 6-6 for the manual now in terms of v-max it's 140 and 134 for the automatic now how do they arrive at such a big change in 0-60 well it is that increase in displacement what they've done is they've increased the bore of the four-cylinder engine okay now that we understand all of that is this just a case of the toyota subaru partnership throwing a more powerful engine into a gussied up looking version of an 86 or brz well not exactly you see you can't just throw more power into any old car and expect it to work one would need to support that extra power with different targeted changes throughout the vehicle like in this case there is a torsion limited slip differential in the rear but then it wouldn't be prudent to add more power to a vehicle without increasing the structural rigidity of the vehicle as we've learned with many bmw m cars this is no different like the bottom of the engine bay they've strengthened that to help with the increased output of the vehicle but then the rear of the vehicle they've increased the lateral stiffness by using more high-strength steel at the back portion of the safety cage and increasing the structural rigidity of the c-pillars now yes i am rather excited to be back in my home state of new york after a rather unusual two-year absence but i am more excited to be back on monticello motor club one of my favorite tracks however this is the first time you and i are doing this with not a very powerful v8 and that means this is somewhat light one of the latest cars you and i have driven in a very long time two thousand eight hundred eleven pounds or depending on how you express your weights and measures one thousand two hundred seventy five kilograms this one fitted with the automatic is forty pounds heavier with that track to ourselves oh yeah that's a flat floor all right about 4500 rpm this thing starts to come alive it's not like this really come alive it's exactly what you'd expect from a flat 4 box or engine it doesn't have all of the usual like turbocharged pleasantries that we see in porsche boxsters that kind of stuff toyota did something incredibly smart and they brought the previous gen car here so we could drive them back to back and i got to tell you there is such a big difference by changing the size of the engine now yes you really got to ring the neck of these things to get torque out of them that's just the inherent character of a flat force especially a 4 engine bit better when it's a turbocharged six here it's an improvement because of the extra bore that makes a difference in delivering some power here is it night and day no but when you go back to back between the two cars that's when you notice the night and day difference now that gets us into the transmission and here there is a noticeable difference between the two of the cars i got the opportunity to drive a stick as well as this automatic on the track the stick obviously is the one i would want but something i am shocked to tell you the majority of these cars like 80 percent are automatic what the hell are you buying a car like this for and buying it as an automatic i get it usable daily but this is not the kind of people that i see drive these things i see people that tune these things get the manual and there the manual is just so much more usable with the power band of this engine you can ring its neck a bit more really push the vehicle and that's where the personality the character of this thing absolutely shines now there is a time when you try to use the paddles and you do get denied shifts more often than i'd like to see i'd like to see this to be a dual clutch especially with the way that engine delivers power i think the character would be better suited to a dual clutch but that's me getting to the wish list a bit too early oh and while i'm making requests this would be a great opportunity to ask for your help with the algorithm what does that mean well that means hitting the like button leaving a comment subscribe notifications but most importantly sharing these episodes with your friends on all your socials especially reddit it would greatly help us here so we can do more things like this go on great tracks with fun cars that are not over three thousand pounds admittedly she ain't the fastest thing out there but this all about the driving dynamics god this is fun to drive it's a bit of a recap as to what is underneath the vehicle mcpherson struts up front double wishbone in the back and yes stabilizer bars front and rear 18.3 millimeter up front 14 millimeter in the rear uh the brakes not huge 11.6 inch diameter rotors in the front 11.4 in the back and that it all works with a car that is not just comfortably both 3 000 pounds it's comfortably below 2 900 pounds this is something that is wonderful to throw around a track i'd say canyon roads yes we have to drive this on a normal shoot road and probably mountain driving i would almost go so far as to saying the car with the smaller wheels and tires the base car they had both the 17 and the 18 on the track for us to drive the 17 is the one that is so much more fun it's so much more tail happy i'd almost go so far as to saying it's a better overall package than the car with the 18-inch wheels yeah the 18-inch wheels it's more substantial but this is kind of like an elise if you put too much wheel and tire on a lease it degrades the overall experience this is so much fun it degrades the overall experience meaning the ride quality goes away the handling goes away i get it people want to put the bigger wheels and tires on these things to make them look a bit cooler but this 18 is about the limit and god this thing pitch squat diving rolls almost perfect yeah if i was complaining and really being pedantic i'd like a stiffer suspension so yes i'd have to give this a bit more thought but i'd almost go so far as to saying that this it's a bit more mature of a whoa experience than a miata and yeah there's the obvious it has a roof it's more structurally sound but there's a couple of things going on here like this steering the weighting is almost perfect it's direct the feedback is fantastic this is one of the spots that the toyota engineers spent a lot of time focusing on even over the subaru engineers to try to differentiate this vehicle from the subaru we'll have to answer that question later but when you compare this back to back with the previous car the steering here it's a night and day difference and just aids into the overall driving dynamics i don't want to say supremacy i mean this is still a not so fast somewhat undersprung car but the steering makes up for any other ills of a slightly softly sprung suspension get where i'm going with this so a bit behind the scenes of where we are today monticello motor club which is in orange county new york it's about two hours north of new york city this is one of these private track clubs and it is one of the better ones out there fantastic track that can be broken up into a north and a south course we are currently on the north course which is both more technical as well as there's some more straight so you can get some speed here now this track it's great for a vehicle that has a lot of power like last time we did this was the 7 series we've done the rcf here those are kind of the perfect vehicles for this track i'd say a 911 probably would be the pinnacle but this it worked well here because what they were trying to show was the extra power really extra torque coming out of that flat four like that wouldn't have happened in the previous gen car that would have been a complete flat spot and we would have been on our ass there that's why they came to this track and i'm very thankful because it's one of my favorites [Music] no it is not that time to play your favorite game on the absence game with today's contestant the 2022 toyota gr 86 because the folks at toyota did not give kumo any pricing on this vehicle they did give them a hint on pricing they said it would be comfortably under 30 000 u.s now what the hell does comfortably mean to me i don't see that as 29.95 i'm thinking maybe 28 and change maybe 27 and change i don't know about the destination but that's where you see the basic car coming and the strategy here is kind of like what they did in the scion world there's not really going to be any options there's a basic car which will have some good stuff on it and then there's going to be a premium car that one has some more stuff on it like for example that will have heated seats a duck bill spoiler i have to say it looks pretty good but i can see how it'd be off-putting to some folks then adaptive headlights odd choice in this premium package and then a leather and alcantara sports seat the seat doesn't change it's the tactile feel of the seat so the material changes and then there are eight speakers to the stereo which would make a fully loaded gr86 around 33. that's what we're guessing now a couple of things really important to point out again according to the folks at toyota this is constructed at subaru's gunman japan plant in shuligang for any mispronunciation of that city now there are some differences between an 86 and a brz because to me they look really really close like for example the mirror fairings are black on the toyota they do change the splitter on the back and toyota has taken liberties with their own wheel designs so a little bit behind the scenes my good friend rowdy who's the guy that runs these events has given me a lot of solo time at the end of the day here at this wonderful track so rather than take the car in let's talk more about it uh and that would be design of the material start with the interior the car you and i are in is the premium it has a couple more things that stand out the biggest thing you'd see at least feel as well as a tactile feel notice the dashboard and the door panels have like this alcantara to it as well as the seats and i'd say it goes a long way to making this feel a bit better of a vehicle we're going to have to come back to what the cost difference is and understand if it's worth it now one thing i'm going to complain about basically anything you want as long as it's black that needs to change we need this to lighten up in here one way to do that a sunroof or at least a glass roof i do not understand why subaru and toyota do not put a sunroof in these things it needs it in a small claustrophobic car like this please oh please oh please oh please oh please change that oh yes a little bit more power then the exterior when you see these things in person you notice the difference in the design you don't notice it when you see these things in pictures because you look at it like the car looks the same it's just they change the front end and the back end actually that is not the case turns out they've added a lot of sculpture to the fenders as well as the quarters in the back and it goes a long way to make the vehicle look a bit more sensual this is not a very large vehicle most of you probably have experienced these things in size they're a little bit longer wheelbase than say a 911 so by making some of the metal a bit more sensual it makes the vehicle look a bit longer but in reality it's like maybe 10 mils longer in wheelbase the only thing this thing really needs is a stiffer suspension and i think that is really what is calling to the aftermarket world that's the first step everything else think of like that's the root level of the problem fix that problem and then everything else can be reasoned up from there so back to the top of the episode what have we learned about partnerships in the car world from today's experience first lesson it is best for the partners to have their core businesses more aligned now what exactly do i mean by that well it was indeed a prudent choice to partner with a manufacturer that continues to evolve the technology of flat 4 engines that go into larger more boring station wagons that are targeted to the residents of oregon and vermont and colorado and taking that know-how and putting it in a smaller lighter sportier vehicle but really the second lesson is far more important and that is partnerships work better when the budget is lower meaning the price point of the car is not this it is supposed to be to more people and that's where bringing together two volume car manufacturers granted toyota's up here and subaru's down here but taking that know-how really the economies of scale and applying it to this one low-volume product it makes for a better platform for which freaks like you and i can build more upon so this brings us to the wish list and here i'm going to ask a lot i think there is a blue sky for a version that has a stiffer suspension setup maybe different wheels but not bigger wheels and absolutely a turbo charger now you can call it whatever you want but it's got to be somewhere say 40 45 000 usd because if it's in that range toyota subaru whoever they couldn't build enough of them this is where i turn the episode around to you to open in the comments below or via our social media motoman tv all one word motoman tv all one word facebook twitter and instagram and with that i do want to put one more thought in your head as it pertains to that wishlist item think about the color how about like dark blue metallic maybe definitely on a black interior but dark blue metallic and perhaps gold wheels hell you could even add all-wheel drive call it an all track until i see you in the next episode [Music]

Channel: MotoManTV

Views: 9,659

Rating: 4.8388491 out of 5

Keywords: Toyota, Toyota GR 86, 2022 Toyota GR 86, 2022 Toyota GR 86 Review, Toyota GR86, 2022 Toyota GR86, 2022 Toyota GR86 Review, VW GTI, Mazda Miata, Mazda MX-5, Mazda MX5, Hyundai Veloster, Hyundai Veloster N, Subaru, Subaru BRZ, #OptionsGame, MotoMan, MotoManTV, BRZ, Scion FRS, Toyota 86, Mazda MX5 Miata, Mazda MX-5 Miata, Sports Car, Monticello Motor Club

Id: 1F3BniBySnE

Length: 17min 10sec (1030 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 17 2021