2022 Toyota GR86 | Performance Review | Toyota

hey all welcome to eagles canyon raceway my name is faye hadley you may recognize me from a couple different shows on motor trend all girls garage on saturday and sunday mornings and motor mythbusters but believe it or not i don't just play a mechanic on tv actually it's my real job and this is actually my real work uniform that i earned when i got my first job working for toyota which was at a portland area dealership i started out my career on the express maintenance line so shout out to all of you that trained me at broadway toyota heck yeah y'all are the real mvps because of you now it's how i make my living enough about me though because the real mvp is this all new 2022 gr86 behind me this is awesome everything about this car really like captures me at the soul level because this car is a huge step forward for toyota and while i can geek out on all the technical aspects and show you underneath all that stuff which i will do what i really want to speak to at this very moment is the sports car element for that i'm going to need help from a special friend of mine so hold on hey uh yo ken ken gucci y'all [Music] hey ken hi my gosh welcome thank you so excited that you're here you are the absolute perfect person to help me introduce this car for so many reasons i mean you have an extensive history with the toyota brand but not only that like you have kind of like a personal relationship with this car like going way back so for the folks that don't know you are a driving legend and i mean and you've got such a cool history so do you want to give like a quick you know quick rundown on your history for those of you yeah you're right faye i actually have an emotional attachment to just the numbers eight and six and uh to get into that my name is ken gucci i am a professional driver for toyota gazoo racing usa driving the gr supra and the formula drift championships but i did get my start in drifting about 20 years ago coincidentally in a 1986 toyota corolla gts the last of the rear wheel drives or also known as ae86 now fast forward to 2007 i actually got my start in the toyota racing family under scion racing and that's when we debuted the uh frs in 2012. and if you know the frs the heritage actually comes from ae86 so um just with that car i mean i felt like i went full circle so now that i'm standing here debuting at 2022 gr86 is just mind-blowing to me so couldn't be more exciting to be here and i just really can't wait to show you guys what this car is all about absolutely and you are like the perfect person to do because you've had the history with the original the ae86 then the frs and now this so like with that perspective i'm just curious like what were your first impressions on this car like what stood out to you the most yeah without even driving the car initially simply looking at i was like oh my god you really can't ignore the fact that you can create an almost immediate emotional attachment to simply the way the car sits right the aggressive nature of you know body lines the wide stance balance proportions the low center of gravity all these features really embody the spirit of a sports car even as simple as the front vent yeah that actually serves a purpose they're actually functional i'm like yes it's really interesting because that first thing that you said your first impression was that overall feel of like heck yes as a sports car you know clearly it is looks like it's going 100 miles an hour just like sitting next to me but like when you start looking deeper you realize that like everything here serves a purpose and engineers like really thought about everything that went into this car like the functional matrix girl for example i don't know if you know like if you look closely it's not an actual honeycomb pattern but it actually has a g literally yeah yeah i love that it's so that is so cool so i don't know like i'm sort of finding these things all over the car so as a driver i'm of course talking about the outside i'm like it's so pretty but was there anything on the interior that stood out to you that was just like ah this is awesome uh it's almost natural to really want a cockpit that feels like you're sitting at home you know every function and every feature all the switches that need to be there at the tip of your fingertips and you just want something that's efficient serves a purpose and is is really simple to navigate and for that i think they did a great job in upgrading the interior for one they didn't miss out on the tech everything you need to know is right there in front of you so in that sense i really appreciate the fact that they really did upgrade the tech in the car one thing i loved was that it feels like a sports car inside what you're saying about the bolstering of the seats absolutely i really like the seats and then also like some of the like the temperature knob like for example looks kind of like an air fuel ratio gauge like it sort of looks like already like they designed it yeah like it's a race car like like it's like it's supposed to be so actually speaking of that sort of not even something that you mentioned earlier was the low center of gravity well what makes the gr86 so great on the track is that it drives as it was intended to and it moves really nimble and agile and you really got to give it up to the engineers because they really took everything into consideration you know all the changes are actually pretty small but they're huge when you add it all up they even went as far as to drop in the license plate on what was originally on the trunk on the previous generation now to the bottom part of the bumper so everything adds up in the long run and that translates to performance on track we're talking about millimeters in grams here like that's it doesn't seem like that much do you actually feel those changes especially from the frs you know faye i think it's easier if i just show you on track how about we go for a spin wait wait are you serious yeah like in this car right now on the track [Music] [Applause] [Music] it feels so stable it really i'm actually i mean i'm scared but i'm not scared you know what i mean i mean i'm scared [Music] oh we're getting close to the wall there ken and you're not hitting the brakes yet that was amazing i can't get over how fun this car is so that was insane i wish there was like some way for me to be able to like bottle up that experience and like share it with all of y'all but i mean i'm sorry it's all for me but at least what i can do is like help to sort of further explain the power plant we can sort of like explain what we experienced out on the track so first of all this brand new gr86 is powered by the 2.4 liter boxer engine flat 4 horizontally opposed pistons and a crankshaft in the middle that's not something that you normally see on like typical production cars and every now and then it's still sort of like a rarity right so how does that help out like from a driving perspective does it oh yeah it definitely does like you mentioned it's a very unconventional engine design um most of the time you will see v's or inlines yeah but this is a horizontally opposed 2.4 liter boxer engine and what that means is that the pistons move on the side of the engine there's crankshaft in the middle like you said now some of the advantages include by design naturally they sit more compact because the pistons are on the other side which means you can make the engine narrow and with that you can actually drop the engine even lower which translates into lower center of gravity the second part or the second advantage is that the engine sits shorter by design which means lower center of gravity here the third advantage is actually because the pistons are counter punching each other that actually provides a smoother acceleration ramp up which means a smoother drive overall and a quieter ride as well so those are the main big three advantages to having a horizontally opposed engine oh i didn't even think about that it's really interesting and so some of you are probably thinking wait a second hold your horses the previous generation had that engine too yeah okay it had a box for sure but there have been some significant upgrades made to this engine it's bored out we got more horsepower 205 horsepower to 228 horsepower we also went from 156 pound-feet of torque to 184 pound-feet of torque but what's most interesting is torque curve and rpm stuff which i'd really like to see i mean he's sitting in the passenger seat i can't tell the difference in the previous generation and this one is it you that made the difference or is it the car so can you speak to that a little bit please yeah yeah you mentioned bore size or increase in bore you're right it actually went from 86 millimeters to 94 millimeters in bore size which translates to the increased torque numbers the horsepower and torque actually came from other places as well for example the engineers redesigned the intake tube and the exhaust chamber so air runs more efficiently providing more horsepower running through the engine there's also small differences too like for example the intake valve diameter is bigger now and they hollowed out the actual shaft so it runs lighter than the previous generation oh my gosh small differences everywhere throughout the engine bay even as far as a lighter valve cover going from aluminum to resin that reduced vibration and made the overall weight lighter so it's a lot of things that went into designing this new 2.4 liter engine package you mentioned rpm and torque ramp up yeah it's very important so first of all let's describe what the difference is between horsepower and torque horsepower comes into play for example let's say you're on the highway you come across a slower vehicle in front of you and you want to pass them up right yeah so horsepower you get on the accelerator room room rpm goes up pass them up you're already at speed mission accomplished torque is a whole different playing field torque comes into play when you're let's say from a dig right you're at a stop light someone's trying to race you next to you or you're just trying to rush home it's actually the torque you feel first before you get up to speed another place where it comes into play is a perfect example we're at the racetrack there are some corners where you want to stay in gear but then because you fall off the power band you have to downshift to get back into the power band but if your peak torque comes earlier you can actually stand that said gear and accelerate out of the corner smoothly without missing any time on a shift loss right oh my gosh so it actually makes you faster and multiple times yeah wow it all adds to performance on track so once again like all these little things put together and we get like the whole package another thing that i noticed you mentioned while we were out in the track was like how the car went exactly where you wanted it to go so not only did it have power in the right places to work in the right places but it also like drove perfectly like the way you described it i was like oh my gosh i really felt that sitting in the car like i felt that low center of gravity i felt very comfortable i felt like the car was very like structurally sound and there were some suspension upgrades there were some stiffness upgrades and there were some steering upgrades right and i have a feeling that you felt all three of those out on the track can you speak to any of this yeah earlier i mentioned that what makes this gr86 so great is because it was designed to drive as it was intended to and part of that comes with like you said the suspension upgrades the upgraded eps system or electronic power steering system and they even went as far as to increasing the stiffness of the bushings that tie in the steering rack to the crossmember so all that adds to a sharper steering feel i kept saying point and shoot yeah that's exactly what this car is capable of you basically point the steering wheel in any direction you want to go and just get on the accelerator shoot in that direction so i thought that was just your skill what you're saying is that the car actually has a play in the performance that i saw yeah but not only that what i really want to talk about is the structural increase stiffness or torsional rigidity of the vehicle and they actually added diagonal bars that tie in the front crossmember to the frame thus improving the structural rigidity of the vehicle and for the back they added a ring structure that ties in the upper deck to the main body which also increased the structural rigidity of the vehicle so everything really comes into play to really make the car feel a little bit more planted more balanced more predictable on track and yeah overall fun we've covered a lot a ton yeah today i i'm still like i'm still sort of swimming in information right now and i have a lot more questions to ask you but i have a feeling that uh seeing the sunset and i think that we are running out of time to maybe do another should we send them back oh yeah i think i'm gonna toss it back to y'all have fun be jealous go ahead it's fine and uh what do you think can we see y'all

Channel: Toyota USA

Views: 85,148

Keywords: Toyota, 2022 Toyota, Toyota GR 86, Toyota Performance, Toyota GR86, GR 86, 2022 Toyota GR86, Toyota Review, toyota gr86 review, gazoo racing, faye hadley toyota, faye hadley mechanic, ken gushi gr86, ken gushi drifting, horsepower vs torque, 2022 toyota gr86 interior, 2022 toyota gr86 full review, toyota gr86 interior, gazoo racing toyota, suspension

Id: zo49P4XYJTg

Length: 12min 47sec (767 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021