Friday 2nd March 2012

Toyota confirms open-top GT 86

...but its not saying when it'll happen

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We presume Toyota will do a better job than this...

Toyota looks set to add wind-ruffling sideways fun to the GT 86 by creating a roadster version of the rear-drive sports car.

...And with its roof...

Speaking to German car magazine Auto Bild, chief programme engineer for the GT 86 Tetsuya Tada, said that "the GT 86 was designed from the outset that we can build it as a convertible". But although we know it's hapopening, Toyota has not yet decided when we'll see it.

So the lid will be coming down, but it seems as if the price could well go up - Auto Bild reckons on around 35K euros (£29K), which would make it a fair bit more than the £24,995 ToMoCo is going to charge for the coupe.

In which case we hope it looks a little better than our ham-fisted Photoshop job...

[DaveST]

Maybe they should get the hard top version out first or we could be waiting another couple of years

[chris333]

Based on the history of the hardtop so far, it will go something like this:

First concept 2013
Second concept 2014
Third concept 2015
Production Version 2016

with various teaser stages in between of passenger rides for journalists, interviews with the designers etc..

[LouD86]

Our Demo's are due with us in June, We will have the launch day driving them before this!! Ill report back with my findings, hoping May/June!!

As for the drop top, dont worry, Im sure it wont be as long to wait for the car. But the Coupe will be here Summer this year!

[IAJO]

hapopening?

Should be a good laugh in convertible form especially as people have been comparing the coupe to the mx5.

[garypotter]

I really really want to love this car but its not flicking the right switches, I hope it will, when released in the near future.

The car at Goodwood FOS coupe was stunnignbut since then the pictures of the latest spec seem to have changed a lot from that demo/spoof car

I wait and see,

[SystemParanoia]

lol i love the PH dodgy photoshops

[BigTom85]

This has the potential to be my perfect car. Fingers and toes crossed.

[Gizmo!]

Sounds great to me. 200bhp, RWD, drop top, decent sized boot.

Undercutting the Z4, but a bit quicker than the MX5. Win. Like a new S2000...

[StormLoaded]

crikey, news takes a while to filter around .. from AutoExpress (Dec 7th!)

[tomoleeds]

29k sound a lot for the soft top even a metal folding roof should be priced more 25k if they want to sell many

[Dracoro]

I see AE hasn't changed, as when I worked for the publishers, I named it Photoshop-Weekly

In the above case, take one BMW Z4, graft on the Toyota front end and hey presto what it "could" look like pics

[bakerstreet]

Dracoro said:

I see AE hasn't changed, as when I worked for the publishers, I named it Photoshop-Weekly

In the above case, take one BMW Z4, graft on the Toyota front end and hey presto what it "could" look like pics

The windscreen does very similar in shape to a BMW Z3.

[jakesmith]

tomoleeds said:

29k sound a lot for the soft top even a metal folding roof should be priced more 25k if they want to sell many

Folding hard tops are popular for the refinement & security not to mention winter use, but severly impack rear boot space when stowed and also raise the centre of gravity of the car & affect it's handling which is this car's big selling point. This combination explains why many performance cars don't use a hard top, like 911, Boxster, S5, TTS / TTRS, Bentley, Ferarris up to 458, Lambos. In fact it's mainly the more comfort based cars that have a metal roof like SL, SLK, Z4, BMW 3.

[M@1975]

Decent rival to the MX5 then? Could be.

Would be good if Subaru decided to try and be performance focussed and Toyota could go for the style over substance market..

[Mark-C]

SystemParanoia said:

lol i love the PH dodgy photoshops

Me too - always a good chuckle

[Mr Gear]

Dodgy photoshops - check

Dodgy spelling - check

IT'S FRIDAY KIDS! LET'S GET DRUNK IN THE OFFICE!

[ARAF]

Mark-C said:

SystemParanoia said:

lol i love the PH dodgy photoshops

Me too - always a good chuckle

I only popped in here to comment about the p/s. Only one place removed from Snopak-ing the roof off.

Edited by ARAF on Friday 2nd March 18:28

[tbc]

lets hope it's a hard top

paying 30k for a car with a canvas roof is madness

[pistonpie]

I read about this days ago...keep up lol

[carinaman]

I'm not sure what this does for the driving car credentials of the coupe?

The MX-5 may have used bits of RWD 323 and the Alfa 8C convertible supposedly handles better than the original coupe but in my head it seems less of a driving tool and more like all the hatchback based metal roofed convertibles.

It's making me think even more that this car is a RWD successor to the Celica for all of the AE86 'branding' nonsense.