GT SPORT: Hashire, Hachiroku

The Toyota 86 has been one of the most popular Japanese sportscars ever made when it first went on sale in the Spring of 2012 and although not as fast as the expensive European imports, its accessible handling, value for money, and wide street cred made the Toyota 86 an icon of the modern era where Japanese sportscars are diminishing at an alarming rate.



The pre-facelifted 86 is nice but most demanding for the facelifted 86 to come in video games are sure in a painful situation at the time when Toyota road cars are now Gran Turismo-exclusive and after years of deceit, the facelifted 86 arrived in Gran Turismo SPORT and this version tries to see how much it was improved compared to the pre-facelift model.



Launched in the second-half of 2016, the 86 minor change features a small power increase from its 2.0L boxer-4 engine and improved dynamics underneath, not to mention some design revisions inside and out. To make the 86 minor change handle better than the pre-facelifted model, it's been given improved springs and dampers as well as increased spot welding points on the rear pillars, allowing for better steering response and ride comfort and with the optional Sachs dampers, handling can be slightly improved. Under the hood, the FA20 D-4S two-litre 4-cylinder engine adds 7 more PS to its engine output, resulting to 207PS of power and 212Nm of torque output but only the manual transmission variants are welcomed by this power increase because models with 6-speed automatic gearbox still offers the same previous output as the pre-facelift model.

A certain TV motoring show made the 86 their reasonably fast car for their celebrity guests to take a lap round the show's test track.





This car really is reasonably fast because the Toyota 86 is made to be a reasonably fast car in the first place. With such improved handling dynamics and small power increase compared to the pre-facelift model, there are several reasons why they will like the facelifted 86 better than the old one. Not as fast and powerful as they hoped but it's even more enjoyable than before and you can really drive one as long as you really want until you are fully satisfied with it.

To see how much this 86's improved from the previous model, I went back to Tsukuba Circuit and find out.







Several moments ago, I drove the pre-facelifted 86 round the track as part of my little experiment over which modern Heisei-era Japanese sportscar is the best and I lapped it round the track in 1:11.302, which is second-to-last compared to the Mazda Roadster ND. With the facelifted 86 set, it's time to find out how much this model's improved. Roll the tape.

The facelifted 86 did it in 1:10.618, meaning this car is an improvement compared to the old one but still second-to-last with the Roadster should it managed to be part of my Heisei era JDM tribute several moments ago. Still, I'm glad I drove this current 86 with my own virtual hands.



The Toyota 86 proves that a good fun-to-drive sportscar doesn't need to be fast. In fact, it takes some dynamics to make speedo boys happy to come back for more and that is why the 86 is one of the best sportscars in the modern generation. Argue what you want but the 86 is always here to stay within the drivers' hearts and minds because driving for fun is the sole purpose of this car, no doubt.