Toyota with Subaru engine

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20091006/TOKYO/910069998

Tokyo auto show: Toyota goes sporty with FT-86 coupe


By HANS GREIMEL, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

A picture of the front view of the Toyota FT-86 coupe concept. Toyota and Fuji Heavy plan to start producing the sporty FT-86 in late 2011.




Toyota Motor Corp. goes sporty at this month's Tokyo auto show, unveiling its vision for a sport coupe being jointly developed with Subaru. The Toyota-badged car, dubbed the FT-86 Concept, is the spiritual successor to the AE86 sport coupe of the 1980s, which was based on the Corolla. Like its boxy predecessor, the FT-86 Concept is compact and lightweight and has a low center of gravity. But the styling is modernized with a rounded, sleek silhouette. The FT-86 is Toyota's concept for a sporty coupe being undertaken with Fuji Heavy Industries Inc., the company that manufactures Subaru vehicles. While it is fitted with a 2.0-liter boxer engine from Subaru, the overall design was created by Toyota's ED2 styling studio in France. Even the blue-red metallic paint was specially developed by Toyota. “Sports cars have to be red, but we wanted a new red,” chief engineer Tetsuya Tada said. “So we came up with shoujyouhi red, the traditional red color of a Japanese monkey's” backside. Toyota and Fuji Heavy plan to start producing a sporty car in late 2011.

Toyota will be responsible for most of the engineering. Fuji Heavy will supply the horizontally opposed engine and manufacture the car at a Subaru plant. A picture of rear view of Toyota FT-86 concept.

The FT-86 seats four and has a front-engine, rear-drive layout. The boxer engine allows for a lower hood and gives the car a lower center of gravity. Fuji Heavy won't comment on whether the FT-86 Concept is that car or not; Subaru won't be displaying a sports car at the Oct. 24-Nov. 4 Tokyo show. But the car clearly underscores new President Akio Toyoda's push for more muscular, fun-to-drive models. Tada said Toyota wants the FT-86's sticker price to be in the $20,000 range. “It won't sell if it's over 3 million yen ($30,000),” he said. “The price has to appeal to regular customers.” The car seats four and has a front-engine, rear-drive layout. The boxer engine allows for a lower hood and gives the FT-86 a lower center of gravity. Key to the design was maximizing fuel efficiency by reducing weight and creating a compact design, Tada said. Tada also said it gets a dedicated chassis, noting that “enthusiasts don't want a shared platform.”

 

IS250/G35/S2000 ish... Don't know how I feel about the rear yet but the front profile looks nice.

 

Pretty sure I read awhile ago that this won't be coming to the US (I really hope I read wrong.) However, there will be a Subaru badged version that will be sold here. I haven't been able to find out for sure if the Subaru will be RWD or AWD. I know all Subarus are currently AWD, but it wouldn't make sense for Subaru to take a RWD platform and convert it to AWD, at least to me.

 

I'd love to rock this thing.

Why don't they just bring back the twin turbo supra.

 

That color is awesome.

 

They tried and then scrapped the idea. Too much $$$$. IMO, this is a better idea anyways. Sell a cheap, basic, turbo RWD car and let the enthusiasts mess with it. Same thing Hyundai has going with the Genesis. It'd be REALLY awesome if Subaru used an existing engine for the car. It'd give the aftermarket a head start.

 

Looks pretty good to me...and you surely cannot go wrong with a Subaru boxer six engine