RE: The half-price Toyota GT86: Spotted

[gigglebug]

blade7 said:

Didn't the Fiesta ST beat these in most road tests?

Subjectively or performance figures?

[gigglebug]

Darryl247W said:

Used/abused mainly, but at 3 years old and circa 25k miles, the handful I viewed struck me that they mightn't stand up to wear and tear too well. Mostly it was scruffy bodywork and ripped driver's seats. To put it in perspective, my 10 year old, 65k mile MX-5 was in no worse condition.

I hope there are tidy ones out there as the format is up my street.

I thought that was what you meant. Maybe you were just unlucky. I've never heard of any reputation of brittleness? There must be a few owners on here that would know for sure you would have thought.

[mooseracer]

blade7 said:

Didn't the Fiesta ST beat these in most road tests?

I've got a Fiesta ST and would like one of these. Very different cars imho.

[shirt]

daemon said:

mikey P 500 said:

shirt said:

Cheapest manual gt86 local to me is 6 grand, a year younger than the ad shown and with a quarter of the mileage. Potential track car once they slide further still.

Have you got a link never seen a Manual hpi clear gt86 go for less than about £9500 (even then had 120k on it) normally Manual examples are closer to £12k as per car in add. (Auto although cost more new are about £1k less like for like).

Hes in Dubai.

Not sure why he pitched it like it was a local UK deal....

Because you don’t know what aed30k equates to.

They were all the rage at launch, saw loads on the road but in a country with dull roads they’re just a means of going from a2b with an uninspiring engine and interior. Add in the unloved manual and they depreciate like a stone.

Similarly i can get an early manual new shape mustang for under 20k stirling

[Bladedancer]

Gandahar said:

Feck all that "slightly bigger wheels" and grippier tyres.

Just bung it down Fensport for turbocharging or Abbey motorsport for supercharging.

The whole ethos behind Japanese tuning is big numbers

While this is all good and well, reading the GT86/BRZ forums suggests this engine wasn't built to handle 300+ hp and forcing it to handle this sort of power leads to problems.

[daemon]

shirt said:

daemon said:

mikey P 500 said:

shirt said:

Cheapest manual gt86 local to me is 6 grand, a year younger than the ad shown and with a quarter of the mileage. Potential track car once they slide further still.

Have you got a link never seen a Manual hpi clear gt86 go for less than about £9500 (even then had 120k on it) normally Manual examples are closer to £12k as per car in add. (Auto although cost more new are about £1k less like for like).

Hes in Dubai.

Not sure why he pitched it like it was a local UK deal....

Because you don’t know what aed30k equates to.

They were all the rage at launch, saw loads on the road but in a country with dull roads they’re just a means of going from a2b with an uninspiring engine and interior. Add in the unloved manual and they depreciate like a stone.

Similarly i can get an early manual new shape mustang for under 20k stirling

But it would have let us know you werent in the UK.

It was pitched like you were in the UK, hence the confusion for some people. If you'd put "Here in Dubai..."

[MustardCutter]

samoht said:

A newish, n/a Toyota should be pretty reliable & low-maintenance, especially compared to an M-car or a turbocharged rally-nutter.

For better or worse it's more Subaru than Toyota, though. The chassis and drive train are bits old Subarus. Apparently even the Toyota badges are made by Subaru.

[cerb4.5lee]

These still have quite a strong appeal for me, and have most of the right ingredients, as mentioned earlier I do think they suit the UK roads in terms of performance...when you consider volume of traffic/cameras etc.

I respect big power cars for sure, but using all of that power is a slim to none chance, I'd imagine the GT86 is great fun in the wet at moderate speeds. I need to try one.

[Tuvra]

Black S2K said:

golfer19 said:

I have been looking at these recently.
Haven't driven one yet though.

Do - you'll either adore it or detest it.

I don't think that's true.

I had one for 5 weeks, I didn't adore or detest it. For me it just left me disappointed, disappointed that Toyota came so close to making a cracking car and then let it down by fitting that engine.

I get that some people like the low weight, low power combination and that's fine. However, I think they should have made a hot version to run alongside the standard car. Wider tyres, some nice Recaro CS seats and 300/325bhp and a £5-7k premium over the standard car would have been brilliant.

[cerb4.5lee]

Tuvra said:

I get that some people like the low weight, low power combination and that's fine. However, I think they should have made a hot version to run alongside the standard car. Wider tyres, some nice Recaro CS seats and 300/325bhp and a £5-7k premium over the standard car would have been brilliant.

Spot on.

[WCZ]

Tuvra said:

I don't think that's true.

I had one for 5 weeks, I didn't adore or detest it. For me it just left me disappointed, disappointed that Toyota came so close to making a cracking car and then let it down by fitting that engine.

I get that some people like the low weight, low power combination and that's fine. However, I think they should have made a hot version to run alongside the standard car. Wider tyres, some nice Recaro CS seats and 300/325bhp and a £5-7k premium over the standard car would have been brilliant.

the 86 needs about £10k worth of tuning/modifying to make it a great car, I can see the appeal of a second hand one @ £5k but anything above, nop

[350Matt]

WCZ said:

the 86 needs about £10k worth of tuning/modifying to make it a great car, I can see the appeal of a second hand one @ £5k but anything above, nop

you don't have to spend quite that much, put some decent rubber on the standard rims -£500
a set of decent pads - £150
catback exhaust, , better air filter, low temp stat and a retune will get you about + 20bhp for about £2K

[dunc_sx]

Power is about right in my opinion.

Dunc.

[havoc]

dunc_sx said:

Power is about right in my opinion.

Dunc.

It's probably not far off - I think it's the delivery (very linear, which leads to a lack of discernable 'shove') that leads most commentators to say it's underpowered vs the high rate-of-change-of-torque (and hence more apparent shove-in-the-back) turbo motors in most hot hatches now.

RX8 is much the same - deceptively quick as there's little kick to give you that physical sensation of acceleration.

[Den_W8]

You guys in the U.K. are so bloody lucky with prices like this! This same little Toyota did cost €39.950,= (Aprox £36.500,=) when new here in Holland.
This very high price completely out-priced this rearwheeldrive funmachine. Not enough bang-for-your-buck. Due to polution-tax the Subaru Flat-4 got a "red energy label' and was classed in the highest tax group making it this expensive.

[Chapppers]

havoc said:

dunc_sx said:

Power is about right in my opinion.

Dunc.

It's probably not far off - I think it's the delivery (very linear, which leads to a lack of discernable 'shove') that leads most commentators to say it's underpowered vs the high rate-of-change-of-torque (and hence more apparent shove-in-the-back) turbo motors in most hot hatches now.

RX8 is much the same - deceptively quick as there's little kick to give you that physical sensation of acceleration.

I've done a bit of research on this. You're quite right, the problem isn't the power itself, it's the way the torque is delivered and where. From factory they have a massive dip in the midrange, about where you'd live with it day-to-day and this is what makes them feel slow. A lot of people in the US, and now the UK tend to change the manifold and have a remap and whilst the outright performance figures don't change much, the driveability is greatly improved.

I've just bought a 300bhp supercharged one and to be honest, I'm not sure how long I'll keep it. It feels like it's lost some character from its previous incarnation and turns a very thrashable 8-10/10ths car into a 5-6/10ths car. It gives me even more appreciation for the fun of driving slow cars fast rather than fast cars slowly.

[Tuvra]

dunc_sx said:

Power is about right in my opinion.

Dunc.

It has 197bhp in a world where diesel Golf's and Focus' come with 185bhp so I strongly disagree

[jas xjr]

b is for build

[havoc]

Tuvra said:

dunc_sx said:

Power is about right in my opinion.

Dunc.

It has 197bhp in a world where diesel Golf's and Focus' come with 185bhp so I strongly disagree

And why do the repmobile power wars matter to you, unless you're insecure enough you need to dominate the traffic lights?

The car I yearn for most (well, affordable one) is another DC2 - that's got 187bhp and f'all torque, so a Golf GTD would in the real world be as quick in a straight line, despite the 200kg weight disadvantage. Does that make me want a GTD instead? Does it f***!

[Conscript]

Chapppers said:

havoc said:

dunc_sx said:

Power is about right in my opinion.

Dunc.

It's probably not far off - I think it's the delivery (very linear, which leads to a lack of discernable 'shove') that leads most commentators to say it's underpowered vs the high rate-of-change-of-torque (and hence more apparent shove-in-the-back) turbo motors in most hot hatches now.

RX8 is much the same - deceptively quick as there's little kick to give you that physical sensation of acceleration.

I've done a bit of research on this. You're quite right, the problem isn't the power itself, it's the way the torque is delivered and where. From factory they have a massive dip in the midrange, about where you'd live with it day-to-day and this is what makes them feel slow. A lot of people in the US, and now the UK tend to change the manifold and have a remap and whilst the outright performance figures don't change much, the driveability is greatly improved.

I've just bought a 300bhp supercharged one and to be honest, I'm not sure how long I'll keep it. It feels like it's lost some character from its previous incarnation and turns a very thrashable 8-10/10ths car into a 5-6/10ths car. It gives me even more appreciation for the fun of driving slow cars fast rather than fast cars slowly.

Yup. I've owned mine for just over 4 years now. Couldn't think of anything I wanted to replace it with, but I did have two minor gripes with the car - that torque dip, and the fact that the engine could sound a bit nicer. Took the car to Abbey Motorsport and had a new manifold fitted and a remap; about a 10% increase in peak power (which I think is quite respectable for N/A tuning), but the main objective was sorting the torque dip which has now been flattened out. Obviously the car is still not massively powerful, and still encourages you to rev it out. But the more linear torque increase in the midrange makes it much nicer to drive, and the engine now has a sportier rasp to it at high revs


Don't have a digital copy but he's a photo of the dyno plot now. Green is a stock car without map.

Edited by Conscript on Saturday 2nd December 18:50