RE: Toyota GT-86 Convertible: Revealed (sort of)

RE: Toyota GT-86 Convertible: Revealed (sort of)

Friday 1st March 2013

Toyota GT-86 Convertible: Revealed (sort of)

First pictures of FT-86 Open concept - i.e. the rag-top GT-86 with added trinketry - come to light



This is the car that will make it to production, in near-unaltered form, as the GT-86 Convertible. For now, though, it’s still officially a concept car called the FT-86 Open.

Drop-top GT-86 will look like this. Almost.
Drop-top GT-86 will look like this. Almost.
Our first look at the droptop GT-86 came when Toyota released a sketch of the new car a few weeks ago. Since then, details have been thin on the ground, but we know the FT-86 Open concept will be brought along to Geneva next week so that we can poke around it in the flesh. The production car will, obviously, lose some of the glitz – that white interior with its yellow carpets, for example, probably won’t make the cut. We know it’ll be a 2+2, though, just like the coupe, which will make it somewhat unique in its price bracket. And it’s a pretty safe bet that it’ll get the same 200hp 2.0-litre boxer engine as the coupe too.

There is that thorny issue of price, though. Some pre-launch murmurings have suggested that by the time the GT-86 ’vert hits the shelves it'll cost a stonking £5,000 more than the hard top. Whether that’ll be the reality is subject to debate, but if it is, it might prove a tough pill to swallow.



Author
Discussion

Denyo

Original Poster:

190 posts

145 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I really hope that a)there isn't that price hike, b)handling traits of coupe remain and c)those carpets never make production.

I think that looks stunning.

antspants

2,401 posts

174 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
£5k extra sounds steep, however it looks lovely, much better than the coupe imo. Apparently designed to be a convertible from the start shouldn't suffer structurally from lopping the roof off.

chrisw666

22,655 posts

198 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Those carpets are ace but I'd want matching seats.

kambites

67,460 posts

220 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
The looks seem to translate pretty well to a drop-top.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
antspants said:
£5k extra sounds steep, however it looks lovely, much better than the coupe imo. Apparently designed to be a convertible from the start shouldn't suffer structurally from lopping the roof off.
How will it not suffer?

James1972

98 posts

144 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Those carpets remind me of my dads Maxi for some reason....
This or an MX5 / new alfa thing though ? The +2 bit in the coupe is a luggage bench for anyone over 5' 10" in the front.

Rahul uk

235 posts

149 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Looks very nice except for some aspects of the two tone interior...but that will never be standard trim in any case. I got the chance to look at the coupe in the flesh the other day, had a good look inside and out. Car looks nice. Only thing for me is that it could do with a bit more torque and power looking at the bare stats. Once it does I would consider it as a serious purchase option.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Roof up pics or gtfo.

Should also just be a two seater.

gforceg

3,524 posts

178 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
The back seats appear non-existent if you want to take your legs on the journey.

I'm glad it appears to be an actual soft top rather than a transformer type roof. I need to see it with the roof up but I'm not optimistic.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
doogz said:
If it's been designed with a certain suspension set up in mind, and they've considered this when calculating the properties of the chassis with regards to torsional rigidity and such like, then yes, the hard top may be slightly stiffer, but as long as the soft top is stiff enough, it won't 'suffer'

It may not be as stiff, depending on what the differences actually are, but stiffer doesn't automatically mean better.
Ta. Will be interesting to see. Hoping it's better than their last Celica convertible effort.

StottyZr

6,860 posts

162 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
That is a very good looking car yes

JuanGandini

1,466 posts

138 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I think that's actually a pretty car.

Apart from only being able to drop the roof a few days a year when the weather permits in the UK, there is one other major drawback...

They need to sort out the sound that it makes as the coupe doesn't sound good at all and that's surely meant to be one of the major benefits of a drop top.

Edited by JuanGandini on Friday 1st March 10:47

Twincam16

27,646 posts

257 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
I hope that £5k price hike isn't accurate otherwise no-one will buy one.

If it is sensibly priced, then the Mazda MX-5 may no longer be The Answer To Everything.

mat205125

17,790 posts

212 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Looks smart .... If only the Honda S2000 had evolved in the other direction, into a sleek coupe with a hatch back. Or the MX5 for that matter.

Hellbound

2,500 posts

175 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Yup, this works well.

But will we be talking 8.5s to 60 and 1400kg?

A WRC Blue convertible Subaru BRZ STI sounds like a very unique prospect.

slipstream 1985

12,123 posts

178 months

Friday 1st March 2013
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very nice looking car indeed. now its consigned to being a girls car. mark my words it's the new mx5 hairdressers car....

430T

942 posts

133 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
That looks amazing.

JayUK91

71 posts

161 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
At least we have some better pictures now, rather than what was spied a couple of weeks ago.

nonuts

15,855 posts

228 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Rear end looks a lot better on that than on the coupe thanks to that spoiler not being there, will be interesting to see the full production version and price.

Captain Muppet

8,540 posts

264 months

Friday 1st March 2013
quotequote all
Having defended the GT86 through all of the "slow" and "expensive" and "needs 300bhp" threads I find all they needed to do to make me not want it was cut the roof off.

Coupe please.