I recently had the pleasure of test driving the all-new 2012 Toyota 86 in Cape Town. At first glance,
this car is absolutely gorgeous. It’s like a woman on the outside and once you
open her up she makes your manly parts tingle even more. Most of the exterior looks quite sporty, with
fierce lines running down the hood and mouth, giving that vicious edge. There
were only two draw backs of the outside of the car, one of them being the
16" wheels with an optional upgrade to 17". Proportionally these seem
way too small for a sports car like this.
Toyota should’ve been looking at nothing less than an 18" for that
vehicle, if not to make it look better than at least for some extra traction.
The other problem I found was the actual "86" emblem on
the side of the car. To me this just looked like a cheap piece of plastic
that was stuck on the car at the last minute.
The interior was comfortable and neat but lacked the
toys and gadgets that a driver looks for in a sports car. With no
Sat Nav and no cool looking buttons I found myself disappointed, especially
considering Toyota’s marketing campaign telling me to “go play” in their “playground”. Honestly, even holding the steering wheel was
like holding a heavily stuffed bra; feels great but you know there’s not much
to play with.
Right now Toyota has only released a 2 liter, 16 valve, DOCH boxer-
engine with a six speed manual or automatic gearbox option. This means it will only push out 144kw @
7000r/min, letting it reach speeds of just over 220km/h (140mp/h). Where is the turbo version Toyota? In terms
of new Toyota turbo sports car, an 86 turbo could have easily replaced the
Supra.
With a nearly perfect front to rear weight distribution of 53:47
and its powerful boxer engine giving all its power to the rear
tires. It makes for handling experience
like no other and is a lot of fun, especially if you want to try some drifting.
With a 0-100km/h time of 7.6 seconds it falls just short of it turbo charged
competitors the Golf GTI and the Ford Focus.
With the Toyota starting at R298 500, the GTI's starting price is
R43 400 more expensive and you only get 11kw more power. In terms of what you are getting and what you
are paying for I would take the Toyota, I think this was the most highly
anticipated car of 2012 and Toyota have done a great job.
