2022 Toyota GR 86 Premium - POV Driving Impressions

[Music] well today's an exciting one this is the all new 2022 toyota gr86 as many of you know i owned a brz for six years 60 000 miles enjoyed every minute of it and this is the new gr86 we have 228 horsepower 184 pound-feet of torque we have a 2.4 liter boxer 4-cylinder engine replacing the outgoing 2-liter we have much less of a torque dip we have some power this car that we're driving today has the 6-speed manual transmission and it's the premium package so a little over thirty thousand dollars i don't have exact pricing yet but we'll get that and put it in the description we have a lot of really nice features and improvements and updates to this new gr86 so let's start off let's walk you around the outside and show you some of the new design elements because this car does look really good in the previous generation i felt like the subaru brz was the better looking one in this new generation i think the toyota has the upper hand we have 18 inch wheels with michelin pilot sport 4 tires a very grippy setup not as maybe fun to drive on as the standard 86 with the michelin promises but a very capable and confident setup nonetheless and it does look better on these 18s love this color we've been driving this gr86 all day on the track having a lot of fun having a bit of a hoon and this is my first opportunity to drive it on the street so very excited to share some first impressions with you guys there are a lot of notable updates to this car has a slightly longer wheelbase it's a little bit lower we have some improved airflow dynamics up front there is a little bit of an intake right here and an exit area that reduces a high pressure zone under the wheel probably also aids in brake cooling too we've had this out on monticello raceway all day long today brakes in standard form have been perfect pretty amazing stuff let's pop the hood take a look at that new 2.4 liter boxer 4-cylinder we get slightly worse fuel economy in this unfortunately than the outgoing toyota 86 but it makes up for it in power and fun to drive nature we now have a standard oil cooler looks like water to oil and it's kept the cars very cool all day long which is very nice this 2.4 liter boxer looks very similar to the outgoing 2-liter under the engine bay not much has changed it's a great engine it's very accessible easy to work on easy to tune and modify that's why i love this car it keeps it simple they haven't messed with the formula they've just refined it and uh this new gr86 is a lot of fun to drive and it's brand new all led daytime running lights and headlights i like the blacked out mirrors i like the shape of this car it's really sharp really the only parts i recognize from the old toyota 86 is the door handle and the roof is kind of the same shape even though that might have been refreshed a little bit we've got a nice uh fin up there for satellite radio toyota's done their best to lower this car center of gravity they've even gone as far as putting the license plate on the bottom of the bumper and whatever that's worth i think it actually looks a little bit better this way let's take a look inside the trunk we've got a button right here to pop it reverse camera very familiar looking opening looks like the floor is a little bit higher than the old toyota 86 the rear seats still fold down and there is room for a spare tire in there though this one is not equipped with it you've got a little more storage space instead love this duckbill spoiler looks really sharp looks really good let's hop inside and see what the interior looks like because there's a lot of changes in there too we're not going to spend too much time walking you around all the new features specs changes i just want to get in this and tell you guys what it's like to drive the back seats are pretty much unchanged from the last generation they still look the same you can fit small friends adults kids back there without any problem but it is still a little bit tight we've got a new door design here a much more spacious cup holder and a little bit of a handle here i love this alcantara insert at the top of the door panel makes it feel a little bit more upscale a little bit nicer in this interior and it looks like the steering wheel is pretty much taken from the old toyota 86 though i love the leather that's on this it feels really nice it reminds me of the same leather that's on the supra steering wheel feels a lot more premium that carries into the gauge cluster too not sure if you notice the startup sequence with this car when it's first started up let's do it again actually i'll show you guys one more time so you turn it off you get a little gr logo that spins and disperses and then when you start it kind of make boxer piston motions with the graphics and then it starts up you get a couple different drive modes you've got normal drive mode and track and track will change the gauge cluster into this kind of progressive rev counter which is nice two to four thousand rpm is pretty much normal looking and then five to seven you get a much higher resolution display so you can really see where you are in the power band i like that a lot you also get an oil temperature and coolant temperature display that just automatically pops up and you can also set your lap times right here which is very cool there's a little lap timer down there you can fully disable traction and stability control and you might even still be able to do the pedal dance i haven't tried we have a new infotainment seems like it works pretty well taken straight out of uh what looks like a subaru we've got apple carplay android auto a home button we'll test out the sound system in this a little bit later i believe this is an eight speaker premium audio system uh it doesn't look like it's been branded but should sound pretty decent hopefully it can be an improvement on the last generation sound system which wasn't much to write home about we've got a blacked out shifter which looks pretty good different uh shifter mechanism in this new gr86 still a mechanical handbrake joy of joys i love the gr start stop button and these temperature gauges look really cool still physical controls buttons and knobs for all this stuff i love it they haven't changed anything and i don't know i think this dashboard looks a little bit nicer i wasn't quite sure how i felt about it in photos but i really like it sitting in this cockpit i feel like i'm in a sports car everything feels like it's kind of up towards my chest yet we still have very good visibility all right let's take this thing for a drive see what it's like on the road we've got a little bit of a drive route here in monticello new york um nothing familiar like i have at home but we'll see what we can do get some first impressions on this i'll show you guys a reverse camera here nothing too new for the toyota 86 moving lines nice resolution um pretty much all you need in a sports car i mean you know this has all the modern amenities apple carplay reverse camera a great powertrain all right let's hit the road the clutch pedal is a little bit lighter than the previous toyota 86 it's still easy to modulate maybe has slightly better feel the catch point is very low when you take off [Music] these seats are still manual but they have much larger bolsters on your legs and your back around track today they've done a really good job keeping us well planted in the seat and uh yeah this car is very comfortable very nice to drive [Music] easy to rev match downshift easy to heal tow looks like the pedals are pretty much the same as the last generation the shifter does feel really good it's a lot more positive a lot easier and more confident to engage in the right gear especially in spirited driving especially on the track today [Music] we have new turn signal stocks so this is not a traditional turn signal stock it's just like the old bmw turn signals which i'm not crazy about but i guess it works something different to get used to and let's feel that new torque [Music] so much better gone is the power dip gone is the slow toyota 86 and now we actually have something that feels like a sports car that feels like it has a balanced power band and balanced torque curve [Music] we have a slightly different engine sound i'm not 100 sold on it i don't love it if i'm being perfectly honest it sounds a little bit fake and it is it's piped in through a speaker however it is its own individual speaker and it's something that you could feasibly be disconnected if you wanted to or toyota could maybe include a button someday to turn it off if you just wanted natural engine sound so not a huge deal in my mind there is torque everywhere now 2500 rpm i mean this has peak torque now at 3 700 rpm whereas before it was around 6 600 rpm that's crazy it's a really big difference this car is a lot more drivable a lot more enjoyable on the road and i think it's all the better for having this new 2.4 liter boxer 4 cylinder all right let's see what it can do here you get a shift beep at redline you can program that and i believe you can also turn it off there's a little startup procedure where you can get into that menu and see what you want to do with it i have not driven this on the street yet just on the track and getting a car out on the road is a much different experience than driving flat out 10 10 all day on a race course ride quality is excellent they've really stiffened this car up quite a bit but the ride is still very supple and very controlled and very comfortable this isn't the smoothest road but it's not also the bumpiest road and it seems to be handling all the impacts very well love this torque oh this car feels so much better [Music] this is how the frs the brz should have been from the beginning a nice linear power band you can actually there's a screen in here where you can actually see the torque curve and there's still a little bit of a dip but you barely notice it brake pedal feels great really nice and stiff easy to heel toe down shift [Music] and a pretty big improvement with this shifter i just have a lot more confidence with it it feels a little bit smoother a little bit more refined [Music] the old shifter was great don't get me wrong but it felt a little bit gruff sometimes and this is a big improvement on that cabin seems pretty quiet again we're not cruising on the highway and we're on uh pretty nice pavement but these michelins are very quiet the fact this is on 18 doesn't seem to impede or hurt ride quality i'm in a little bit of a conundrum because i think i still prefer the way the base model gr 86 drives with the michelin premises it's just the perfect amount of grip and slip it's beautifully balanced the extra traction they've gotten out of this chassis with stiffening and bracing it and tweaking the suspension really makes those tires handle a lot better than they used to on the old toyota 86 and i feel like these michelins are almost it's almost too much grip from them they're really nice tires but you really have to push hard on track to get sideways or on the street to get any uh you know drift action out of this thing whereas the privacies are about perfect [Music] but i love the way this premium looks and it still drives really well you can go out get yourself a set of 17s and michelin primacys and this would almost just be the perfect toyota gr86 in my mind this is also still a pre-production car so we may see some changes who knows seems like a lot of people share my sentiments about the piped in sound today hopefully they will add a way to turn that off in the future and for those early adopters where maybe that isn't an option you'd probably disconnect it and or pull a fuse this is still such a fun car to drive it really comes alive on the street it's a lot of fun to drive on the track this is one of those cars that you can get learn rear-wheel drive in and really just progress with the car you can modify it gazoo racing is coming out with a bunch of performance parts for this new 86 from intakes to exhausts to lighter wheels a lot of different options i feel like they uh kind of missed out a little bit on the aftermarket in the previous generation car and they're gonna capitalize on it with this new gr86 let's put us into track mode show you that different rev counter got some great driving roads out here in the catskills this is a really nice evolution of the last car it's just they've done all the right things they've improved the suspension in ways that i didn't think was possible they've added fun to drive characteristics and more grip and more capability to this car while also retaining its pure feel i think the old car sounded a lot better even though it never really sounded that great to begin with this just ah the fake noise doesn't do it for me but we've already talked about that i think you can turn it off otherwise i don't know there's a few changes here like the turn signals the interior design in person i love the way this car looks and feels this interior is definitely a lot more special than the last interior um it doesn't feel this bargain basement doesn't feel as sub 20 000 car it definitely is [Music] it definitely is a much more premium feeling cabin that's down to the leather on the steering wheel the look and design of everything and the materials that are in here [Music] laughs [Music] finally the gr86 is fun to drive on a back road because it has torque it could rock it out of corners at 3000 rpm or as before you'd have to rev it out to around 600 or 500 to get any power out of [Music] it oh man we're getting children at play signs here and uh i feel like a child at play [Music] oh 3000 rpm you get a nice torque bump and you can see it right there on the dyno graph they put that in the last generation uh toyota 86 and i felt like it was such a shameful thing to have that torque dip in there and this is just as linear as it gets it's beautiful oh traction control turned on there again didn't mean for that to happen we're off [Music] so final thoughts on the new 2022 toyota gr86 i like this car a lot it is a blast to drive it is an evolution a proper evolution of the previous generation car i think they've made a lot of changes here that are going to go a long way to improve upon the platform and proof upon the chassis they looked at what people were doing in the aftermarket and i think they saw some opportunities to improve power output improve handling improve control [Music] there are lots of little tiny changes here that really start to add up the more you drive this car it's a complete ride on the track um you know just a couple little small gripes that i have about this car that i think are easily fixed we have all the modern tech and amenities that you could want out of your two-seater sports car i guess this is a two plus two but those rear seats don't really function for much more as a bench at least in my experience [Music] yeah this is still the driver's car that it's always been and uh they haven't ruined it which is great news for everyone included including me um am i gonna buy one is that the biggest question here i don't know i kind of want to wait and see what the 400 z is like i've always wanted an s2000 but this is such a compelling option in the marketplace it's practical it's pretty efficient it's fun to drive super reliable we had these things out on track all day and not one skipped a beat um it's a great looking car in this new iteration we've got a much better chassis and guys the power is just this is how it always should have been it feels like a sports car it's so much more fun to drive i'm going to show you a couple more things around the interior when we uh wrap up and park this but until then let's do a quick sound system test and see what the sound system is like in this premium package [Music] [Music] [Music] on first impressions a big improvement in terms of audio quality the brz and toyota 86 used to have a pretty crappy sound system and this is much better you can even get an accessory a subwoofer for the rear like trunk area and uh that'll give you a little more bass and it's easily removable if you want to take it out for a track day throw some tires in the back please [Music] [Music] [Music] all right so there's the new gr86 a couple more things i wanted to show you on the interior here we had a very similar button situation here in the previous car uh not much has changed there this is all about the same they have done away with the little change slash phone holder in front of the shifter here i never really put anything in there anyway so no uh no love lost still a similarly sized glove box this center area is a little bit different and i personally think yeah i can fit a couple cups in here but there's really no good place to put your phone in this car without it rattling around you've got this cup holder right here you've got the side armrest but if you're doing any side to side driving you're going to need some type of a phone holder and i guess your best bet is to find something attach it to the dash or the windshield or maybe one of these vents my brz used to have a cd slot and i had a phone holder that attached in there and it was just perfect but maybe you can just hide it above here and it wouldn't rattle around too much with a sticky case anyway guys that's going to wrap up this video i've really enjoyed driving this car today again nothing revolutionary here but just evolutionary and i like to see a manufacturer do that because sometimes you can really mess up a formula if you'd make too many changes all at once but i think most of the changes here are the right ones and toyota's done a really good job tuning developing and evolving this car and platform so well done on them it's so good to get back into one of these these are such fun cars to drive and just look at it looks so good all right we've got lots of track videos coming for you on this channel and the winding road magazine channel i don't know how many i filmed so much today but hopefully that'll give you guys an idea of what this handles like at the limit the differences between the base model and this premium with the grippier tires my perfect gr86 is this but with slightly less grippy tires maybe the michelin primacys maybe a winter tire have some grip for half the year and then slide it around on some winners in the cold months that'd be pretty fun and you know i'm always harping on manufacturers to do safari versions of their cars we could get a lifted gr86 one of these days and cross it or something that'd be fun probably not going to happen all right guys thanks for watching that's it for this one we'll see in the next video take care

Channel: TheTopher

Views: 1,537,402

Keywords: pov, car, vehicle, onboard, camera, helmet, gopro, point-of-view, point, of, view, acceleration, driving, exhaust, engine, sound, fast, professional, test, review, interior, exterior, walkaround, walk, around, walk-around, drive, first impressions, binaural audio, stereo, hd, 3d audio, hero7, thetopher, topher

Id: FSzsU0lyv-U

Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I love these POV reviews

[u/floorboar82]

Is it weird that I'm cross-shopping this with small luxury sedans? Upgrading from a Mazda 3 is a bit of a funny place to be.

[u/[deleted]]

The gear indicator on the display is so laggy.

[u/[deleted]]

floors it while pulling out in front of a huge truck

[u/Kinro]

I hope the turn signal switch is changed from the BMW-style non click ones to a traditional switch that Toyota uses in the rest of their lineup like my mother's 2020 Rav4.

[u/PassionFlorence]

Saw a blue one being reviewed and it looked really nice especially with base model rims.

[u/PM_your_Tigers]

What color is this in the video? It looks orange, but I haven't seen an orange color option....

[u/prodigious_noodles]

Hey guys I’m not a super knowledgeable car person but I just had a quick question.

I really want to save to buy one of these or the new Z in 5 or so years if I live in a city where I need a car. My main question is if I don’t know how to drive stick now, are the mt versions of these cars THAT much better than the auto that I should make an effort to learn how? Or is the auto version okay to get for someone who would just drive it around for fun, and is not really interested in racing or anything like that.

[u/juicemanwithpulp]

No IMT technology? Seems like a missed opportunity considering most sports cars now are coming with automatic rev matching technology as an easily toggleable feature. Even the base level corollas and hilux have the IMT button iirc.