2022 Toyota GR 86 Review and Track Test

today we're at the monticello motorsport park in new york to test this the all-new 2022 toyota gr 86. first we're going to take a look at all the features and then we're heading to the track so [Music] as the sports car market continues to push the envelope in terms of ultimate performance both the cost and complexity of these weekend racers is getting out of hand but thankfully you don't need to buy a porsche a mclaren or an acura nsx to join the party there is still one bonafide sports car that pretty much anyone can afford and for the 2022 model year it's getting a major update this is the all-new toyota gr86 this latest iteration was developed in conjunction with toyota's gazoo racing earning it the gr name you can expect to see a lot more in terms of gr-branded performance parts and models from toyota in the future the new gr86 will initially be available in only two trims base and premium pricing has yet to be announced but the base gr86 will start at just under 30 000 us dollars this new car is one inch longer 0.2 inches wider and has an even lower center of gravity than the outgoing model the vents and curves are all fully functional working to improve handling at speed premium trims even get a new duckbill spoiler for extra downforce in the back they also get larger 18 by 7.5 inch 10 spoke wheels and extra sticky michelin pilot sport 4 tires brakes are ventilated discs 11.6 inches in the front 11.4 in the back under the hood is a subaru 2.4 liter 4-cylinder boxer engine this produces a peak 228 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque it powers the rear wheels through your choice of either a six-speed automatic or what we have here a six-speed manual transmission for 2022 the manual has been updated for both better feel and strength moving to the back the trunk holds up to 6.26 cubic feet of cargo fold the seats down and you can stuff a full set of track day wheels and tires back there under the floor is room for a spare but it comes from the factory with only a tire repair kit now let's take a look inside note the key fob is the standard subaru design as a two plus two layout there is a second row here but it is too small for adults as for the front row everything has been improved over the outgoing model the materials aren't quite luxury levels of refinement but the new 2022 gr86 is certainly punching above its weight in both trims the analog cluster has been replaced with a full digital display and the center infotainment also received a much needed upgrade to an 8 inch touchscreen put the car into track mode and the gauge cluster switches to a more track-centric design with a very easy to see shift indicator so you can keep your eyes up on the track shifting back to normal mode the left side provides a variety of data points from a g meter to a torque curve you will notice that there is still a slight mid-range torque dip but it's not nearly as bad as the outgoing model dual zone climate control is standard across both models but only premium gets heated seats lined in leather and ultra suede in terms of high-tech safety models with the 6-speed manual get a rear-view camera which is low resolution and really not that great all the lights are high output leds and that's about all you get if you instead opt for the automatic transmission you get a full advanced safety suite that includes pre-collision braking adaptive cruise control lane departure and sway warnings infotainment does support both apple carplay and android auto via usb since this head unit is pretty thin on built-in features for example there's no navigation i do expect most buyers will run with their mobile device integrated but enough of that let's go for a drive so it's kind of funny just how much more solid this car feels just driving it at 25 miles per hour this feels like a much more refined vehicle than the old one the old one was a lot of fun but it was a little on the tinney side and of course with those ultra hard tires it was super easy to slip out the back end this one is now equipped with really sticky pilot sports which i really look forward to taking on the track yeah this whole interior really comes together nicely it's just what you want in a sub 30 000 car even the dual climate controls look really nice here oh man the engagement of this stick shift is just phenomenal it's it's like snake i don't know if you can hear that oh just so good the whole thing is a really nicely put together package and i think it'll do really well for them now the big question is which is better this or the subaru brz because they are literally built in the same factory and essentially they are very similar well we'll have to wait on that one because i'm not driving the brz for another couple weeks but i will let you know in that video which i prefer better or maybe i'll do a separate video we'll see now i have driven the heck out of the old 86 and brz i drove a brz across ireland um i've driven it on race tracks i've drifted it on the countryside and so i have a lot of sea time with that car and it's a really enjoyable ride um in fact it's probably one of the best deals you can get in automotive fun the fun quotient is off the charts does this one carry that or did they dull it down i mean toyota has a history of kind of dumbing down second generation vehicles i mean look at the scion xb the first xb was a revelation the second one so does this one fall in category a or does it fall into category b well i think the best place to find out is here at the monticello motor club where we are gonna hit the track toyota says the new gr86 when equipped with a manual transmission and pilot sport tires can do 0-60 in about 6.1 seconds we did film these runs at the end of the day the car had been running hard on the track and it was 100 degrees outside with tons of humidity in the air but i don't want to leave you hanging so here are the 0-60 runs with track mode on and loads of wheel spin off the line i only get a 7.52 on the first attempt [Music] next i turn track mode off to reduce wheel spin three two one go i miss the one two shift and only get a score of 6.98 seconds better but we're not there yet three two finally with a slight chirp at the start but an otherwise okayish run i get a 6.91 which we'll have to do for now nobody will claim the gr86 is a car to pick for drag racing it's more intended for the track so toyota hooked us up with some laps at the monticello motorsport park here in new york they also provided a variety of both current and new 86s the first car on the track is a premium with a six-speed automatic transmission this has 18-inch wheels wrapped in michelin pilot sport 4 performance tires epa rates is set up at 20 miles to the gallon in the city and 30 on the highway for the first run we're going to use a gr86 that has an automatic transmission because i want to see how this transmission feels will it hold the gear through the corner and how quick are these paddle shifters let's give it a try buckled in check my distance put it into track mode by holding down this button now track mode up there where my tack is front and center and we're going to put it all the way down to drive [Music] the thing i'm curious about here is will the gr86 pick the right gear with the automatic on the racetrack so far it's doing pretty good oh man i love these tires so much better than the old ones i mean the old ones were fun but this one just grips in the corners the shifting is very quick but on the brakes oh it breaks it's such a light car this thing is like 2 800 pounds just a little over 3 000 wet and that is just amazing oh this is fun put in the brakes turn it in so smooth linear progressive i can feel it throttle in yeah this automatic is great i mean for this type of car it just has a really good feel uh now let's see over in manual how this does okay i'm in third i'm gonna downshift here into second prep for the corner go in tight kiss the cone in there down again can't see my gear because my arm's in the way second shift before the corner oh it's a little slow on the uptake but it is using a torque converter so that will happen [Music] oh man this is so much fun even an automatic trim toyota says a majority of these sold are automatics and that's understandable because that's most of the market these days but the fact that they still offer a manual transmission is just fantastic and yeah we're going to use the manual next on the track i just kind of wanted to feel this automatic first oh man this thing is so much fun throttle through the corner oh yeah downshift and second prep for the setup transition and the weight transfer it just it's so predictable this is such a driver's car and it's not so much horsepower that you'll ever really get in over your head oh and the sounds are nice too as we come over the rise here it's going to lighten up that back a little bit throttle in see if we get that back to kind of yeah i can feel the back steering in the back is a torsion limited slip differential sending power to the wheel that needs it actually oh i kind of overcooked that corner oh well it's okay we're just having fun today not making any lap records oh man and these seats they support so well the alcantara really keeps me in my place and it has a lot of side bowl stirring to keep me planted oh man this is so much fun okay i'm gonna go back into automatic mode and finish this lap up i've never been to monticello here but this is a really fun track we're just on the small track right now we're gonna go on the big track with the stick a little bit later oh i could do this all day this is so much fun cool it down a little bit and then in we go okay so if you couldn't tell i had so much fun on that lap even in automatic trim it's still just a great car to drive whoa that was fun but how does that compare against the outgoing model with a 200 horsepower four-cylinder boxer that only produces 200 horses and furthermore only has michelin primacy all season radials time to find out now i'm in a 20 21 86 and this thing is very different um everything from like the air con is old school the push button start is in a weird spot and then this gauge cluster is analog with just a small digital display tucked into the right it is a completely different feel it feels like it's out of i don't know a different era goes up and down but not back and forth okay this is an automatic and we're gonna give this a try now so this has a smaller engine it's a two liter boxer and yeah it's a it's a subaru boxer because these are manufactured at subaru's gunma plant let's go ahead and put the window up so this has a massive torque dip right around 3500 rpm so i have to kind of work around that oh my gosh this feels like such a different car now this is light and playful but the automatic transmission just feels lazier i can override with paddles which is nice and i kind of have to because the automatic is not picking the right gears but i have to say this chassis just feels so tossable oh i remember why i like this car oh yeah it's just so much fun but you needed this car in a manual i don't think that's true anymore the new one the automatic is really good oh but when you miss a shift and you're trying to make up speed it's so slow ah and we go the dynamics are very similar though i mean outside of the transmission and power it feels very much like a 1.0 version of the other car because of course it is it's very tossable such a fun little car to drive it's just it needed more power it definitely needed it now is the new car powerful enough i think it kind of is because if you want more power you can go up to a six in the supra and still stay in the toyota family if that's what you want to do override this into the corner boom so if you currently own one of these oh boy that's slow come on catch up if you currently own one of these the new car is a massive upgrade in terms of just feeling like a more put together car and you'll still retain this fun tossable feeling just with more power a better transmission oh i'm just not getting the right gears here and i'm having to override because it's not picking them for me correctly break into the corner picked the wrong gear let's do that again oh man and throttle that power dip is tragic and it is gone or at least mostly gone in the new car come on change the gear i'm trying to yeah come on oh man okay i think i think i'm pretty much done with this car it's a fun little car to drive but man that new car is just so much better so let's jump into one of the 86s with a manual transmission and we'll see how that feels oh man this is like going back in time oh geez that was fun finally it's time to run the full track in the budget racer this is a stock 2022 gr86 base trim with the six-speed manual transmission that means it has the standard aero package and 17-inch wheels wrapped in the same michelin primacy all seasons that were on the 2021. epa rates this configuration at 19 miles to the gallon in the city and 26 on the highway these are the much harder non-track day tire so um it should be a little bit more tossable in the rear and this is actually going to be a more uh equal comparison to the 86 uh the 2021 model that i just drove in automatic trim also now we're on the full course in between these two cars i did drive the full course in hakone edition that was really fun uh that also has primacy tires so to set up the vehicle there's not a lot to do because it's a manual but i am going to hold this down for a couple seconds and go into track mode when i go into track mode it changes the display giving me primarily tachometer it's also going to give me a really bold display to tell me when i need to shift okay let's do this but i like this leather wheel is really nice everything just fits perfectly and away we go so i'm not going to set any lap records today first off i'm not that good of a driver also i don't know monticello very well this is my first day on this track and i've done a couple ups now so i have kind of a feel for it let's see if i can close the gap with the guy in front of me now this is a manual i'm in track mode uh which reduces traction control so i can skip that little that back end out a little better and then also it changes the display so i can see tac now i'm i'm just rolling really low rpms right now feeling that power kind of build up with the new 2.4 you get torque much sooner compared to the old motor let's go into the corner boom hit that and away we go so redline is about 7 500 rpm don't have the notes in front of me i'm just looking at the gauge cluster it's kind of what it looks like you got to throw the throttle in and that kind of moves the back a little bit oh that display is great it really tells you when to shift going through the bus stop here now i have to be careful with the premises because as they warm up they will become a little slicker and then we got a chicane here feel that back end oh pretty good now the steering input is very positive but this definitely feels like a different car it's not as quite as tossable as the old car but it does feel like more solid at speed and it just feels it just feels better pedals are in good positions to do heel toe to cut cut around here missed the gear there oh there we go yeah boy that was sloppy i do like this gauge cluster though that's great caught up with two cars ahead of me it's a very tight corner here [Music] the new transmission feels much better it has a much more positive click and it's a smoother transition especially in the diagonals they've done some good work there this track is really fun actually i love the the ups and downs and can really catch you out as it caught me back there of course now we're just kind of slowly going through the motion since i have two slower cars ahead of me which is always the issue on track days right uh but i like the the pedal placement for heel toe is super easy the steering wheel just feels good the input from the tires i really can feel what the tires are doing this is really just a great car it's it's a step up from the old one but not such a big step that it's going to be foreign or or like it's lost any of its magic it truly is still a magic little car really fun [Music] okay let's do this again second lap check my mirror and floor it disrupt a little bit but not too bad i'm not going to talk as much this time love that engine noise that that little bubble in the back oh so good would be nice if it was a little meaner now they are going to be coming out with a whole line of gr racing accessories and i expect the exhaust will sound better than this one i mean it sounds good but it's not very mean like a little more verbal a little bit more um back there ah you can kick the back out nice oh yeah these tires are starting to get a little slippery slow up here a little bit okay bus stop in the corner here boom yep those back tires are getting a little slippery [Music] second [Music] ah [Music] it's shifting's easy love it oh man this is so much fun so you can kick that back out just a little bit yes it's predictable gradual i love it premises are awful and they are the best at the same time oh that was so much fun so has it lost any of its magic no absolutely not it just took what was there before and made it better for driving sports tv i'm ryan douthit thanks for watching be sure to like subscribe share videos we make them for you and we hope you enjoy them see if i can get a couple more laps in before the end of the day today we're at monticello motorsport park in new york to test this the brand new the brand new the brand new the br the brand the brand new the brand the brand new gr86 it oh

Channel: Driving Sports TV

Views: 14,214

Rating: 4.9114141 out of 5

Keywords: car review, driving sports tv, gr 86, toyota gr 86, toyota 86 2022, subaru brz review, gr86 vs brz, 2022 gr86, gazoo racing, new brz, 2022 toyota gr86 interior, 2022 toyota gr86 test drive, 2022 toyota gr86 walkaround, car review channel, 2022 toyota gr86, toyota gr86, 2022 toyota gr 86, 2022 toyota gr86 manual, 2022 toyota gr 86 vs 2022 subaru brz, 2022 toyota gr86 sound, 2022 toyota gr 86 0-60, 2022 toyota gr 86 specs, toyota 86

Id: YB58eS1KfnI

Length: 24min 1sec (1441 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 17 2021